The most vital use of the P-38, however, is the very mission it was designed for explained (ret) Army Colonel Paul Baerman, former Fort Monmouth Garrison Commander. “When we had C-rations it was your access to food, making it the hierarchy of needs. Then soldiers discovered it was an extremely simple, lightweight, multi-purpose tool. I think in warfare, the simpler something is and the easier access it has, the more you’re going to use it. The P-38 had all of those things going for it.”

     The P-38 acquired its infamous nomenclature from the 38 punctures around the C-ration can required for opening, and the boast it performed with the speed of the World War II P-38 fighter plane.

     “Soldiers just took to the P-38 naturally,” says World War II veteran John Bandola. A master sergeant serving in the 30th Signal Construction Battalion in North Africa , Bandola began his acquaintance with the P-38 in 1943. “The P-38 was our means for eating 90 percent of the time, but the next thing I knew we were using it for cleaning boots, fingernails, screwdrivers, you name it. And we all carried it on our dog tags or key rings.”

     When Pfc. Martin Kuehl stormed Omaha Beach on D-Day over half a century ago with Third Army’s 457^th Anti-Aircraft Battalion, he not only carried several pounds of equipment, but a P-38 as well.  

     “I used it to open cans for dinner after that longest day,” said Kuehl quietly.

     Seven years later millions of these miniature can openers were distributed by the Army during the Korean War.

     “You weren’t going to eat any other way,” recalled Korean veteran Jay Welsh of Freehold, New Jersey .

     And while fighting in Korea on what soldiers referred to as Papasan Mountain with the 24^th Infantry Division, Welsh discovered another vital use of the P-38.

     “A clean weapon is your immediate priority because a dirty one is not going to work,” said Welsh. “The P-38 was the ideal tool to field strip and clean the finger components of the M-1 rifle. So in a way, I believe that two-piece hinged device saved my life. It assured me I had a rifle that would fire.”

     Department of Defense Police Supervisor, Ted Paquet, of Franklin Township, NJ, was a 17-year-old seaman serving aboard the USS New Orleans amphibious assault ship during the Vietnam War. Its mission was to retrieve and transport Marines off the cost of Da Nang. On occasional evenings, soldiers gathered near Paquets duty position in the fantail for simple pleasures like “cokes, cigarettes, conversation and C-rations.” It was during one of these nightly sessions, Paquet became acquainted with the P-38 or "John Wayne” as it’s affectionately referred to in the Navy.

     “I think the reasons I remember this incident so well I is because one of the marines and I got to talking about where we were from and it turned out we’d gone to high school together and I’d even dated his sister,” said Paquet.

     Paquet came home to Pennsylvania surviving 12 months of war, but not more encounters with the P-38. While driving down Route 60, also known as the Old Studenville Pike with older brother Paul, another Vietnam veterans who served with the 7^th Air Cavalry, car problems suddenly developed.

     “There were no tools in the car and almost simultaneously both of us reached for P-38s attached to our key rings,” chuckled Paquet. “We used it to adjust the flow valve, the car worked perfectly, and we went on our merry way.”

     Christmas of 1969 brought a truce in Vietnam. Paul Baerman was then a wounded first lieutenant, whose only desire was to be reunited with his platoon in time for this highly coveted holiday. His wish was granted, and it remains one of the most memorable times in his military career.

     “One of my soldiers received one of those tacky, evergreen foil trees. It didn’t come with anything so we mounted it on top of a 50-caiber machine gun on an armored vehicle, and decorated with brass shells from ammunition, C-ration cans, and of course, P-38s. They were a little dull, but that hole made it a perfect hanging ornaments. So whenever I see that little can opener, I think of being there with them in 70 to 80 degree weather, and singing carols around a P-38 decorated Christmas tree.”

     It’s nostalgic memories like Baerman’s that best depict he sentimental attachment many soldiers came to feel for the P-38.

     When John Bandola attached his first and only P-38 to his key ring that particular day half a century ago, it accompanied him to Anzio, Salerno, and northern Italy. It was with him when World War II ended, and it’s with him now.

     “This P-38is a symbol of my life back then,” reminisced Bandola. “The Army, the training, my fellow soldiers, all the those incredible times we shared during a world war.”

     Because the P-38 represents such a significant part of Bandola’s life, he plans to leave it to his son and grandson. It’s a desire his wife, Dorothy, understands perfectly. “Every time they look at that P-38, they’ll see and remember him,” she said quietly.

     Vietnam veteran John Koehler grins broadly when he proclaims the P-38 “ranks with your first girl and your first car.” Koehler, a resident of Howell Township, NJ proudly admits he put his first P-38 on his dog tags 25 years ago, and it’s still there. “The P-38 was part of my youth when I was learning all about discipline, accomplishment, and self worth as a soldier with the 101^st Air borne Division. And it someone wanted it, well, they’d have a better chance of seeing God!”

     Ted Paquet’s P-38 is in a special box with his dog tags, a 50-caliber shell from the ship he served on, his Vietnam Service Medal, South Vietnamese money, and a surrender leaflet from Desert Storm dutifully supplied by a veteran nephew. No one's allowed to touch the box, and his wife has been given clear instructions to dust around it.

     “It’ll be on my dresser until the day II die,” swears Paquet.

     These attitudes of former veterans aren’t hard to understand says Steve Wilson. “When you see a P-38 you’ve carried since the day you enlisted, it means a whole lot. It became a part of you. You remember field problems, German Reforgers, jumping at 3 a.m. in the morning and moving out in a convoy. A P-38 has you reliving all the adventures that came with soldiering in the Armed Forces. Yes, the P-38 opened cans, but it did so much more. Any soldier will tell you that.”

     Information about the actual inventor of the P-38 has faded with the passing of years. So perhaps it’s best to fantasize about a “patron saint of Army inventions” who has been responsible for creating devices that enabled a soldier to survive in war and peacetime. There was the steel helmet designed for head protection, but proved ideal for washing, shaving, and cooking; the faithful, trustworthy jeep, guaranteed to go anywhere in any kind of weather, and the TA-50 ammunition pouch for storing those personal items soldiers just couldn’t leave behind.

     The P-38 however, remains the saint’s finest work. As one of the most perfectly designed tools in history, the saint counted on soldier imagination to spiral the P-38 into even greater heights than just opening cans. The P-38 was an item the saint knew a majority of service members would come to possess and share, and thus promote the kind of camaraderie and bonding all soldiers need and depend on. Perhaps this is what the patron saint of Army inventions had in mind all along.

               38 ways to use the P-38 

                ^{by Steve Wilson,}

              MSG, Proponent NCO,  Dept. of the Army

              Office of the Chief of Chaplains, The Pentagon                                                                                         

              1.  can opener                     

             2.   seam ripper                     

              3.   screwdriver                     

              4.   clean fingernails             

              5.   cut fishing line   

                 ^{6.  open paint cans}