20070307 Military Payment Certificates and P38s

Military Payment Certificates and P38s

March 6^th, 2007

I was actually researching, of all things, C-rations (the predecessor to MREs – Meals Ready to Eat) and the H-21 Shawnee (a tandem rotor flying banana helicopter 1949 - 1967,) when I came across this entry on military payment certificates. I had not seen one of these in ages.

Do they use Military Payments Certificates in Iraq?

I also, on the same web site as I found the pictures of the MPCs, came across a picture of (what I remember being called in the Marines, 1971-1973, NOT deployed to Vietnam) a “church key.” Is that correct or is my memory failing me in my old age? It is a “P38” can opener.

For the young folks out there who are not familiar with MPCs or the P38 can opener – see the attached below. It is from a web site titled, “Tall Comanche,” which appears to be a site for “Company C, 2^nd Battalion, 5^th Cavalry, 1^st Calvary Division, Vietnam 1965 – 1972: http://www.tallcomanche.org/index.html

It is a pretty neat site – check it out…

The pictures of the MPCs and the can opener were found here:

http://www.tallcomanche.org/Stories_Things_Bits_and_Pieces.htm

MPC (Military Payment Certificate)

http://www.tallcomanche.org/Stories_Things_Bits_and_Pieces.htm#MPC

It was illegal to carry American currency in Vietnam. As soon as you arrived "in-country", you had to turn in your "greenbacks" for MPC. Officially, the Vietnamese currency was the piaster, but there was little the MPC couldn't buy. In order to keep the MPC from being the real currency, every few months everyone had to turn in their old MPC for new ones - and each series would be different from the others. Of course, this caused a panic in the Vietnamese who had accepted MPC from GIs. These samples are from 1969, and were contributed by Mike Hayes.

P38 Can Opener

http://www.tallcomanche.org/Stories_Things_Bits_and_Pieces.htm#P38

Okay - did you carry yours with your dog tags, or did you carry yours on a key chain? For the uninitiated, this is a can opener - and its shown approximately actual size. From Mike Hayes, April 1969 to May 1970.

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