The brown butcher paper accessory pack contained sugar tablets, halazone water purification tablets (for a brief period in 1945), a flat wooden spoon, a piece of candy-coated chewing gum, 3 "short" sample 3-packs or one "long" sample 9-pack of commercial-grade cigarettes and a book of 20 cardboard moisture-resistant matches, a paper-wrapped P-38 can opener printed with instructions for its proper use, and several sheets of toilet paper.
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One sundries can containing the accessory packet: (Gum, toilet paper, a P-38 can opener, granulated salt, and a flat wooden spoon) and the cigarette packet: (one 9-pack of cigarettes and a book of matches).
This was done by making a series of diagonal cuts around the top and bottom edges of the can with a P-38 can opener or a standard can opener to allow the trioxane fuel tablet to burn evenly and warm the entrée.
However, the P-51 can opener, while larger and easier to use than the P-38 can opener, also has a fighter plane namesake in the North American P-51 Mustang.
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As with some other military terms, e.g., "jeep", the origin of the term is not known with certainty; the P-38 opener coincidentally shares a designation with the Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter plane, which could allude to its fast performance.