Yet the truth is, there's no additional levels of saltpeter hidden in Army chow. The myth is every bit as empowering as it is reassuring it says "We are such rampantly virile men that those in command fear us and what we might do if left unchecked." It thus works to build pride in the unit by helping to establish an internalized reputation for being such wild men that the group as a whole has to be drugged into docility if its commanders are to have any hope of keeping it under control. Such a construct works to reassure the woodless recruit that there's nothing wrong with him - it's all the sneaky doings of those in charge. This need to believe that an outside force is deliberately working to keep things down fuels the saltpeter myth. It, the saltpeter, gave the eggs a greenish tint. Potassium Nitrate! Saltpeter! The military used to put it in the eggs at breakfast so a certain "joint" wouldn't get stiff when it wasn't supposed to. In Germany, iodine was put into the coffee, and soda into the meat. In South Africa, it was the food itself which contained a mysterious anaphrodisiac called 'blue-stone' - as it had allegedly been in the First World War. Such stories seem to have been prevalent everywhere and through the ages - 'the myth of the doctored wine.' It is reported that the sexual prowess of recruits always diminished, and who can be surprised at that? In France, the wine was doctored in Poland it was the coffee. It was certainly well-known that 'they put bromide in the tea/coffee' to reduce randiness, though such measures were hardly necessary in view of the strenuous regime we had to follow at the time. "I'm worried that I might not make it through the training," "I'm dead tired," "I don't yet feel like this is my home," and "There are all these other guys around" are weak-sounding admissions to give voice to, so it is comforting to instead be able to cling to the belief that the Army, in its all-knowing wisdom, must be slipping something into the food to cause what's seen as a striking physiological betrayal in young men who haven't previously experienced such a dry spell: Barracks life also contributes to this suppression, with the knowledge of the close proximity of many others subconsciously working to inhibit that aspect of an individual's expression. This surprising downturn of events is frequently attributed to the presence of saltpeter in the chow rather than to the powerful combination of anxiety to succeed, physical exhaustion, and a radical change of lifestyle. Erections that came so easily before boot camp become few and far between. A common report by male recruits undergoing basic training is their inability to troop the morning colors, so to speak.
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