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Military chocolate has been a part of standard United States military ration since the original Ration D or D ration bar of 1937. Today, military chocolate is issued to troops as part of basic field rations and sundry packs. Chocolate rations served two purposes: as a morale boost, and as a high-energy, pocket-sized emergency ration. Military chocolate rations are often made in special lots to military specifications for weight, size, and endurance. The majority of chocolate issued to military personnel is produced by the Hershey Company. When provided as a morale boost or care package, military chocolate is often no different from normal store-bought bars in taste and composition. However, they are frequently packaged or molded differently. The World War II K ration issued in temperate climates sometimes included a bar of Hershey's commercial-formula sweet chocolate. But instead of being the typical flat thin bar, the K ration chocolate was a thick rectangular bar that was square at each end (in tropical regions, the K ration used Hershey's Tropical Bar formula). When provided as an emergency field ration, military chocolate was very different from normal bars. Since its intended use was as an emergency food source, it was formulated so that it would not be a tempting treat that troops might consume before they needed it. Even as attempts to improve the flavor were made, the heat-resistant chocolate bars never received rave reviews. Emergency ration chocolate bars were made to be high in energy value, easy to carry, and able to withstand high temperatures. Withstanding high temperatures was critical since infantrymen would often be outdoors, sometimes in tropical or desert conditions, with the bars located close to their bodies. These conditions would cause typical chocolate bars to melt within minutes. ==Logan Bar or D ration== The first emergency chocolate ration bar commissioned by the United States Army was the Ration D, commonly known as the D ration. Army Quartermaster Colonel Paul Logan approached Hershey's Chocolate in April 1937, and met with William Murrie, the company president, and Sam Hinkle, the chief chemist. Milton Hershey was extremely interested in the project when he was informed of the proposal, and the meeting began the first experimental production of the D ration bar. Colonel Logan had four requirements for the D ration Bar. The bar must: # Weigh 4 ounces (112 g) # Be high in food energy value # Be able to withstand high temperatures # Taste "a little better than a boiled potato" Its ingredients were chocolate, sugar, oat flour, cacao fat, skim milk powder, and artificial flavoring. Chocolate manufacturing equipment was built to move the flowing mixture of liquid chocolate and oat flour into preset molds. However, the temperature-resistant formula of chocolate became a gooey paste that would not flow at any temperature. Chief chemist Hinkle was forced to develop entirely new production methods to produce the bars. Each four-ounce portion had to be kneaded, weighed, and pressed into a mold by hand. The end result was an extremely hard block of dark brown chocolate that would crumble with some effort and was heat-resistant to . The resultant bar was wrapped in aluminum foil. Three bars sealed in a parchment packet made up a daily ration and was intended to furnish the individual combat soldier with the minimum sustenance recommended each day. Colonel Logan was pleased with the first small batch of samples. In June 1937, the United States Army ordered 90,000 D ration or "Logan Bars" and field tested them at bases in the Philippines, Panama, on the Texas border, and at other bases throughout the United States. Some of the bars even found their way into the supplies for Admiral Byrd's third Antarctic expedition. These field tests were successful, and the Army began making irregular orders for the bars. With the onset of America's involvement in World War II after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the bars were ordered to be packaged to make them poison gas proof. The 4-ounce (112 g) bars' boxes were covered with an anti-gas coating and were packed 12 to a cardboard carton, which was also coated. These cartons were packed 12 to a wooden crate for a total of 144 bars to a crate. Colonel Logan had specified that the D ration taste only a bit better than "a boiled potato." This last requirement was imposed to keep soldiers from eating their emergency rations in non-emergency situations. As a result, the D ration was almost universally detested for its bitter taste by U.S. troops, and was often discarded instead of consumed when issued.〔Henry, Mark R. and Chappell, Mike, ''The Us Army in World War II (1): The Pacific'', Osprey Publishing (2000), ISBN 1-85532-995-6, ISBN 978-1-85532-995-9, pp. 20-21〕 Troops called the D ration "Hitler's Secret Weapon" for its effect on soldiers' intestinal tracts.〔 It could not be eaten at all by soldiers with poor dentition, and even those with good dental work often found it necessary to first shave slices off the bar with a knife before consuming.〔 During the war years, the "bulk of the Hershey Food Corporation's chocolate production was for the military. Between 1940 and 1945, an estimated 3 billion units of the specially formulated candy bars were distributed to soldiers around the world."〔Jackie Kruper, "A Sweet Prison Camp," World War II 20, no. 2: 58-60: 58〕 This chocolate ration was part of a larger scale of rationed foodstuffs. The ideology of food, as seen by U.S. propaganda director Elmer Davis is suggested to be " a profoundly political matter during the Second World War. As global famine conditions and national rationing programs came to define the daily lives of most people, agriculture and eating became fraught emblems of military power, war trade, and political allegiances."〔Allison Carruth, "War Rations and the Food Politics of Late Modernism," Modernism/Modernity 16, no. 4: 767-795: 767〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「United States military chocolate」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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