WW2 USN Mess Cook Apron

[SergeantMajorGray]

I recently got this in a Navy grouping that will be posted later. I have not seen one of these aprons for sale and I can't find one searching on the forum. I don't think many guys took this home and if they did it was probably used at home till thrown out.

[SergeantMajorGray]

The darkness on the apron is my shadow.

[SergeantMajorGray]

Has neck strap and waist ties intact. Since I don't see a Navy contract on it was this the standard apron for all branches?

[sigsaye]

Standard issue service wide. It would have had contract info on it somewhere, either ink stamped or on a little tag, birth of which would have quickly washed out.

[SergeantMajorGray]

It looks like this is one of those very hard to find items that no one cares about.

[sigsaye]

Agree, surprised you found one . Usually they are worn until they are trash them used as cleaning rags. Some one must have taken this home for grilling in the yard then got a cool one

[Terry K.]

Very nice and as stated hard to find, but almost no one cares. All you need is a cap and this.

[SergeantMajorGray]

Agree, surprised you found one . Usually they are worn until they are trash them used as cleaning rags. Some one must have taken this home for grilling in the yard then got a cool one

 

Thanks I will post the full grouping when the rest arrives in contains.

 

2 pairs of leggings

1 set of whites

1 apron

2 Dress blue tops

1 dress blue pants

1 flat hat

1 neckerchief

Named to a W.W Hartsock 9283335

also came with 2 khaki Coast Guard shore uniforms but they are not named to him so I think they were just added.

[RustyCanteen]

The apron was worn with whites, so it sounds like a display waiting to happen.

 

Great find.

[gunbunnyB/3/75FA]

even tho its one of those items that most guys say they dont want or need, i'll bet everyone who responded to this thread is now wishing they had one(including my self lol).

[sigsaye]

even tho its one of those items that most guys say they dont want or need, i'll bet everyone who responded to this thread is now wishing they had one(including my self lol).

. Uhmmmm....Mess Cooked 3 times ( it was used as a punishment at the divisional level. This may be hard to believe, but I sometimes expressed my opinion when I should have kept it to myself, as a young lad ). So, I wore these, usually with "S-2M" stenciled on them (Supply Department, 2nd Division (CrewsMess), Mess Cook). Along with whites with the same stencil across the back of the white jumper and the seat of the white trousers. Don't want one.

[1930artdeco]

I would want one just because so few survived and they would be a neat conversation piece.

 

Mike

[sigsaye]

I would want one just because so few survived and they would be a neat conversation piece.

 

Mike

yeaaaahhhhhhh, to me they are like helmets. Hated wearing them, especially talker helmets. Too many bad memories. Actually, I do have one good helmet memory. I was an SM2 on an FF. My SM1 was a true A$$! He bragged about it! Any way, he took the talker position for GQ so he could sit in the shack, drink coffee and smoke cigarettes out of sight and in the shade. He refused to wear the talker helmet (don't blame him, they were torture). Any way, we were shooting 5 inch forward, directly over the bow, dead ahead. We had a small wooden file box wedged between pipes, and the blast eventually caused it to come flying out and hit SM1 A.H. Right between the eyes. He bled like a pig! It was great! If he had the helmet on, it would have bounced off. It was a good day.

[1930artdeco]

Yeah Sigsaye I agree about the helmet part-I hate mine that they make us wear every time we play war in our Chem. suits. I did KP in basic once and enjoyed it, but then again I also worked in kitchens as a cook/bus boy so I knew what to do and was really fast at it. Nobody bothered me, I did my time and left.

 

Mike

[jeb137]

Gotta say, It was no treat for the cooks to have to babysit the guys TAD to the galley because they were being punished by their division. Since a division had to send someone, the usually didn't send their stellar sailors...

 

There's nothing nicer (insert sound of sarcasm her) than having to do a job with a group of sailors that resent having to be there, and feel their being punished.

 

Anyhow the apron's haven't really changed over time. There's a few different types out there, but for the most part, unchanged.

 

A cook may change his apron a dozen times in a day, depending on work. Aprons could be issued to the sailor as organizational gear or kept in a locker near the office. The bleach used would usually remove any markings in short time. I wouldn't expect to see any.

 

MSC retired.

 

Jon B.

Newaygo MI

 

 

 

 

PS

MSC Mess Management Specialist Chief Petty Officer

 

or

 

Must Serve Chicken......

A lot of Chicken if you ask any crew member.

[sigsaye]

Gotta say, It was no treat for the cooks to have to babysit the guys TAD to the galley because they were being punished by their division. Since a division had to send someone, the usually didn't send their stellar sailors...

 

There's nothing nicer (insert sound of sarcasm her) than having to do a job with a group of sailors that resent having to be there, and feel their being punished.

 

Anyhow the apron's haven't really changed over time. There's a few different types out there, but for the most part, unchanged.

 

A cook may change his apron a dozen times in a day, depending on work. Aprons could be issued to the sailor as organizational gear or kept in a locker near the office. The bleach used would usually remove any markings in short time. I wouldn't expect to see any.

 

MSC retired.

 

Jon B.

Newaygo MI. Jon, first time I Mess Cooked was on a carrier before the MS rate was adopted.

 

 

 

 

PS

MSC Mess Management Specialist Chief Petty Officer

 

or

 

Must Serve Chicken......

A lot of Chicken if you ask any crew member.

[sigsaye]

Gotta say, It was no treat for the cooks to have to babysit the guys TAD to the galley because they were being punished by their division. Since a division had to send someone, the usually didn't send their stellar sailors...

 

There's nothing nicer (insert sound of sarcasm her) than having to do a job with a group of sailors that resent having to be there, and feel their being punished.

 

Anyhow the apron's haven't really changed over time. There's a few different types out there, but for the most part, unchanged.

 

A cook may change his apron a dozen times in a day, depending on work. Aprons could be issued to the sailor as organizational gear or kept in a locker near the office. The bleach used would usually remove any markings in short time. I wouldn't expect to see any.

 

MSC retired.

 

Jon B.

Newaygo MI

 

 

 

 

PS

MSC Mess Management Specialist Chief Petty Officer

 

or

 

Must Serve Chicken......

A lot of Chicken if you ask any crew member.

. I would agree. My first time was on a carrier when cooks were still CSS, before MS was established. My last tour was as an SM1, MDMAA, hated that the most. Never understood why some one had to run the Mess Deck. Why couldn't an MS1 do that job? Oh well, days gone by and all that, we all survived. My uncle was a cook. Was SC3/c at Pearl Harbor and retired CSC in 1960. He became a cop, I needed up owning a restaurant, go figuer

[Keith]

Gotta say, It was no treat for the cooks to have to babysit the guys TAD to the galley because they were being punished by their division. Since a division had to send someone, the usually didn't send their stellar sailors...

 

Or a new guy. I was an Airedale assigned to a A3D squadron. When we deployed aboard the USS Ranger for a West Pac cruise they had to send so many men to mess cooking, laundry and compartment cleaning etc. I had been in the squadron less than a month and had not been assigned to any 'shop' so I was sent mess cooking. It was supposed to be a 3 month job but it turned out I was never cycled out. I had to make E4 to get out of it....they wouldn't keep a PO in mess cooking.

[sigsaye]

Always felt bad for the new guys who just reported aboard and got sent "Cranking" right off. They spent their first three months (or more) aboard the ship doing stuff that they did not sign up for, and are behind when they go back to their divisions. More than a few develop a pretty negative attitude along the way. Some MSs treated the Mess Cooks like slaves, others as part of a team. Always a crap shoot.

 

Any way, like Jon said, any markings on Mess Whites are quickly washed away. On the carrier I was on, Mess Cooks were issued whites to wear. Everyday, you drew a clean set, and at the end of the day they went into the laundry. On the other ships I was on, Mess Cooks just wore their own dungarees. As MDMAA, it was my job to insure MCs had clean clothes on daily. I remember a couple of times on several ships, the Food Service Department buying regular "Chefs" clothing for the rated MSs, usually checkered trousers and white or colored Chefs jackets and hats. Those never seemed to go over all that well, most old time Cooks preferring trite uniform trousers, white t-shirt or short sleeve shirt and the short cooks cap.

 

All in all, it's a hot, hard dirty job. In the galley at 0400 or earlier, steam from the heating pipes, hot ovens and grills, and 250-6,000 hungry, annoyed Sailors (toss in several hundred mor Marines on Gators) moaning and groaning about how crappy the food is.

[Keith]

All in all, it's a hot, hard dirty job. In the galley at 0400 or earlier, steam from the heating pipes, hot ovens and grills, and 250-6,000 hungry, annoyed Sailors (toss in several hundred mor Marines on Gators) moaning and groaning about how crappy the food is.

 

I will say that my mess cooking months were not bad. I was assigned to the "reefers" on the second plat, which was two decks below the main deck galley. We hung out down there and when the phone rang for more food we would take a tub of jello or whatever up to the galley and then go back down. We could play cards when not delivering food or cleaning up or just sit around and bs. We did have to load the freezers with the frozen food when we would stock up in ports. (We also kept a dead pilot in the freezer once). The perks were getting a hot fresh loaf of bread from the bakers, getting a pound of butter from our coolers and splitting the loaf open and stuffing the pound of butter in it! Also got flight decker shoes by trading groceries for them. And later on, on a second cruise, working as a plane captain on the flight deck I traded a pair of flight deckers for a 5 pound tube of salami! We were treated well by the PO's that were over us and when I made PO I went back to visit these 'black shoe bosses' and was treated like a fellow PO and a friend. I have no complaints other then the ego-deflation of the job, for as sigsaye said, it wasn't what an aviation sailor signed up to do. Anyway, we all have stories and that is one of mine. Regards.