"It's Good, It's Still Kind of Moist" - UGGGHH

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Serving a 36-year-old government-issue cake at an Army retirement ceremony sounds like a classic bureaucratic mistake, but there was no mistake about it.

Retiring Army Col. Henry Moak served it up himself -- at his own ceremony.

Moak had saved the cake since 1973, when he got it while serving in Vietnam, and had long-standing plans to open it upon his retirement.

Pound cake served in a can was standard fare in military C rations back then. Moak said it was his favorite, and he could not get enough of it.

"I would eat it any chance I could get, but not all of the meals came with pound cake," he said before opening it.

In front of friends and family who attended his retirement ceremony Friday at the Pentagon, Moak eagerly opened the can.

Answering the question of whether the anticipation was the same now as back then, Moak said, "Yes, even more!"

"I won't eat it if it's black and moldy," he told onlookers.

"You can hear the pop of the air coming out," he said referring to the vacuum seal on the can.

To most people's surprise, the opened can revealed a still-edible yellow cake. The ceremonial sword used to cut Moak's real retirement cake was also used to dig into the can and cut out the cake.

Moak took a bite and put up his thumb, "It's good, it's still kind of moist," he declared.

This Day In History

Jun 11 1955
An Austin-Healy and Mercedes-Benz collide at the Le Mans Grand Prix. The Mercedes drove into a dirt retaining wall, disintegrated, and the hood, chassis, and various auto parts sliced through the spectator crowd. Eighty-three were killed, and 100 others were missing various "parts".

Jun 11 1963
Protesting the lack of religious freedom in South Vietnam, Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc burns himself with gasoline in a busy Saigon intersection.

Jun 11 1963
Governor Wallace stands in the schoolhouse door, blocking admission of blacks to the University of Alabama.

Jun 11 1964
Just after 9am, deranged World War II veteran Walter Seifert barges into a busy Cologne, Germany elementary school with a homemade flamethrower. He then proceeds to burn 8 children to death and seriously injure 21 others. In the process, he also stabs 2 teachers to death with a lance. Before police are finally able to apprehend him with a gunshot to the leg, Seifert swallows insecticide and proceeds to die in the hospital the next day.

Jun 11 1979
John Wayne dead of lung cancer.

Jun 11 1999
DeForest Kelley, "Bones" from the original Star Trek television series, died of stomach cancer.