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How is it that a Navy supply ship was out of Coca Cola... for months?

posted 11 years ago by ZolotoyRetriever
4 replies | jump to latest

Mr. Roberts commented early in the movie that he hadn't seen a Coke in four or five months. I would have thought that a Navy supply ship would have had ample supplies of Coke - maybe even provided to the Navy free (or at least low cost) by the Coca Cola company in an effort to contribute to the war effort. I know the movie was embellished for both humor as well as drama, but that line about not having seen a Coke for 4 or 5 months really didn't ring true.

But then again, maybe their supply chain was "situation normal, all fouled up", so something like this actually happened, even on supply ships which would be the logical place to find stocks of Coca Cola?

[–] geo1284060 11 years ago

It must have been a case of SNAFU in the supply chain. During the war, Coca Cola decreed that every serviceman would get a bottle of Coke for 5 cents--no matter where he was and how much it cost them. Even if they lost $1000 for that bottle, hey, that young man is putting his life on the line.

[–] Prismark10 11 years ago

Shame Pepsi could not plug the gap!

Its that man again!!

[–] 11 years ago

[deleted]

[–] ta2me92704 10 years ago

Another thing to consider is the ship itself. The one in the film in reality is of a type that is an Army ship maned by Coast Guard, but no matter. Those ships were VERY small, only 573 tons, 177 feet long, with a crew of about 37 (the crew in the film is given as 62). These were nowhere being major players in the supply line as Doug Roberts wrote: "All the guys everywhere who sail from Tedium to Apathy and back again, with an occasional side trip to Monotony."

No, they very easily could not have had Coke for months...

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