1963 US Navy and Marine Corps recipe set for sale on eBay

I occasionally receive an email like this one:

Hello, my name is Robert. I served in the Navy from 1985-1989. During that time I was a cook. I served at GTMO and the USS SAIPAN. Recently I purchased a disc with military recipes. While this has been helpful, it doesn't seem to be the same as the cards from the old days. My memory from that time tells me that some recipes are not on the disc. My question is this, is it possible to obtain a set of recipe cards from that time frame? And if possible how would I go about purchasing them?

You're right, Robert. The Armed Forces Recipe Service on CD-ROM is an electronic copy of the current version of the famed military recipe cards. All the manufacturer does is download the Adobe PDF files from a U.S. Government website and package it into a format the most computers can read.

I often use my copy of the CD recipes to plan for event. I print each recipe so I can write purchasing, production and serving notes right on the recipe.

Since I rarely cook for exactly 100 persons (and the fact that US military serving sizes can be hefty), I also make adjustments to ingredients and note that right on my printed sheet. After the event, I save all the printed recipes in a file as a record of the event.

In addition to giving you standard ingredient amounts and instructions, the big advantage with AFRS is purchasing. Anytime you need to know how many pounds of an item serves 100 persons, just look it up on AFRS. (Remember that servings per hundred is always tied to serving size.)

Once you have a basic understanding of ingredients, amounts and method, you can easily add that special ingredient or two that sends the recipe "over the top."

In case you're interested in a piece of Navy and Marine Corps history, I found a set of 1963 Navy-Marine Corps Recipe Service recipe cards for sale on eBay. The seller is asking just under $60 for the set, which appears to be complete (although individual recipes could be missing).