RE: [HoE] Milrats/MREs(was: Longevity)

["Heivilin, Jim" <banzai@missouri.edu>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Allan Seyberth [mailto:darious@darious.com]
> Subject: RE: [HoE] Milrats/MREs(was: Longevity)
> 
<snip>
> Yup.  Let me emphasize something - one a day in Ranger school!!!  One.
> 
My peers that went to Ranger school told stories about less food than that!
They wore the MILES gear and if you got yourself shot, well, then they took
away your food!  And the helicopter crews were always smuggling them pogey
bait. 

<snip>
> MRE's are also lovingly called Meals Rejected by Ethiopians.  During the
> big food-aid era in the '80s, the Army sent over MREs.  They were so
> calorie rich that they were causing severe internal problems.  (The
> probable urban myth I had heard said they caused stomach ruptures).  
> We called 'em that for the taste.
> 
I had heard the same thing.  And during Desert Storm we provided rations
from some of our Arab allies but they couldn't eat some of them (religious
dietary restrictions).  So they opened the cases and extracted what the
Arabs could eat and, you guessed it, gave the rest to the American soldiers!


<snip>
> It usually consists of  a "main" dish.  Dehydrated beef and pork patties
> (maybe 5in x 3in x 1/2in - called Beef/Pork cookies) were in great demand
> and usually ones of the first to go out of a box. Another 
>
They took those first! You had some strange people in your unit! I liked
them but then, I'm weird (after all, I'm a gamer!).  And I always got the
dregs (the troops have to eat first).  

<snip>
> Chicken-Ala-Puke).  There was a side dish or a desert of some sort.
Either
> a slab o' dough called officially called a "cookie" that was suspiciously
>
My favorite was the Rabbit Nuts, er, Meatballs in BBQ sauce. 

<snip>
> 1/3in - flavorless, of course and either a package of "peanut butter",
> "jelly" or "cheese spread".  A condiment bag with gum of 
>
The peanut butter burned pretty well so you could heat up the other stuff.
<G>

Eventually they started putting tobasco sauce (the tiny bottles of it) in
the MREs.  It was an incredible step forward. 

<snip>
> MRE's were so concentrated, or there were chemicals in them, that one
> usually didn't have to undergo a bowel movement but once 
> every four days.
> 
That was okay, after four days living in the MOPP suit you didn't want to
take it off then have to put it on again anyway. ;-)

<snip>
> that was being phased in as I got out of the Army.  The (probably
> apocryphal) story I heard about these later MREs was that the 
> design team
>
The latest word I had heard (okay, my rumor lines are not what they once
were) was that they were still trying to figure out how to get the beer into
the MRE.  They had the pizza slice done but the beer ...

> (nutricionists <sp>, engineers and other such types involved in creating
> and stuffing three meals of food in one small bag capable of sitting in
> storage for years)  gave the General in charge of the MRE contract their
> latest devolpments and ideas. 
> 	This General (may Zeus raise him into a constellation) was wise
enough to
> require the design team to live off of them for a week before he accepted
> the contract.
> 
> 	The design team came back with a much better series of 
> MREs after that week.
> 
They only had to live on them for a *week*!  I remember one month in
Hohenfels ...

<snip>
> C rations were the precursor to MREs.  They were basically 
> tins of food (afaik).
> 
Same as MREs basically, they had good ones and bad ones.  I once knew a
former Sgt. who had been in Vietnam.  He would only eat the Ham & Eggs
(really nasty, but he'd pick out the ham).  Something about finding a
soldier who had been tortured by the NVA ...

> K rations were, in the words of a friend and Vietnam Vet, were "human dog
> biscits."  High energy .... well, dog biscits.  Made for stuffing several
> into a small bag before you go on extended patrol.  Not meant to be a real
> meal, but far better then nothing.
> 
Now that you mention it I recall reading something in my research about
Vietnam.  The precursor to freeze dried food IIRC. 

> T rations are still used in the Army (as of four years ago).  They are
> large tins of food, about 18in x 9in x 3in and they are used by the field
> kitchens.   Basically, you boil the tin (if it requires it) until it is
> hot, use a can opener and serve to the grunts.  Yummy.
>
That's what I was looking for.  Thanks.

Jim H.

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