I have carried a P-38 since I first encountered one about 40 years ago in my introduction to US Army combat rations during Basic Training at Fort Jackson in South Carolina. \u00a0Each case of combat rations had a dozen or so P-38s or more officially \u201cOPENER, CAN, HAND, FOLDING, TYPE I\u201d. \u00a0The older P-38s were made of steel and the later ones of aluminum. \u00a0In either case the P-38 folds flat and attaches easily to a key ring. \u00a0In addition to opening a can, I personally have used it many times over the years as a screwdriver, lever, and knife.<\/p>\n
— Steven Cochran<\/p>\n
I have always carried a pocket knife. The current one is a slim Schrade two-blade model, small enough not to wear holes in my pocket. And I have a Leatherman tool in a belt case for days when I have multiple chores.<\/p>\n
But my other every-day carry item is an Army surplus P-38 can opener. It opens cans, of course, since the old C-rations and K-rations used cans, while the more recent Meals-Ready-to-Eat rations do not.<\/p>\n
It scribes lines. It opens envelopes, after a fashion. It cleans fingernails and serves as a small scraper. And it has tightened hundreds of loose screws.<\/p>\n
The P-38 can opener: a mark of competency since 1940 or thereabouts.<\/p>\n
— Chas Clifton<\/p>\n
I was issued my P-38 in the summer of 1960, and it has always been on whatever keychain I had in pocket since then. \u00a0It seems as if I have had the occasion to use this simple device at least twice a week. Breaking through the sometimes impenetrable packaging that seems to cover everything we buy these days, to an ideal fingernail cleaner, and, occasionally a great can opener. \u00a0There is nothing out there that is as light, inexpensive, durable, and useful as my trusty p-38.<\/p>\n
— Casey Goeller<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The greatest Army invention<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[86],"tags":[2328],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5894"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5894"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8488,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5894\/revisions\/8488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}