United States Marine Corps & McIlhenny Tabasco Sauce Company
Brigadier General McIlhenny was perhaps best known as the president of the McIlhenny Tabasco Sauce Company, located in New Iberia, Louisiana.
His company’s creation of two recipe books under his direction, The Charlie Ration Cookbook and The Unofficial MRE Recipe Booklet, and donation of thousands of bottles of the hot pepper sauce to Marines serving in Vietnam have helped make Tabasco a standard fair for those serving in the field even today.
Brigadier General McIlhenny passed away 22 June 1985 after a brief illness. He had made his home on Avery Island, Louisiana, and was laid to rest there in Grove Cemetery after a simple military service.