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The Future of MREs
jonerik writes: "MSNBC features this article today about scientists at Washington State University who are attempting to perfect a way to add two staples of American cuisine - eggs and macaroni & cheese - to the US military's MRE ration packs. The problem has been that MREs need to have a shelf life of three years. The scientists have focused on microwaving the rations during the packaging process instead of the traditional method of boiling the contents (which alters the smell and color of eggs and cheese and makes pasta soggy)."
MREs
They look nice. I'll have a #3 please.
Nothing like sitting down to a hot bowl of eggs and macaroni & cheese.
That's a meal that will keep our soldiers sane. The three great tastes that go great together!
Well, at least they're doing it halfway through my military career instead of right at the end...
Karma: Good. I'm hoping in the same way as pizza is 'good'...
That's always been the problem with the battle field, no good comfort food like macaroni and cheese.
Leave the gun, take the cannoli -- Clemenza, The Godfather
Is there a particular reason theyre spending money (a great deal, I assume) on paying scientist to figure out how to add eggs and mac'n'cheese to rations, other than "A lot of people eat it". Seems like a waste of money to me.
Used to be a disclaimer on each box that they have been stored in temperature and humidity controlled conditions and date of pack should not be considered when determining usage. FWIW, I doubt it matters toooo much, since I've had several that were well over 5 years old, and I got no sicker off those than brand spanking new ones. :)
Some of them you can work with, and some are just plain nasty, much like anything else I suppose.
Our company works with the military quite a bit, and I've had an occasion to try an MRE. They're actually kind of cool. They come with their own (chemical) heat source and re-heat the foods pretty rapidly-- It uses technology similiar to those little handwarmers I use to have when I was a paperboy. As I recall, you'd boil em to "reset" em.. (I think the MRE heatsources are one-use)
In any case-- it's okay-- better than freeze dried anything-- but I still wouldn't like one of them falling on my head from the skies above-- it's not *that* delicious.
Didn't these scientists ever go to college?
You open the eggs, macaroni and cheese. A capsule inside explodes, instantly cooking the meal to perfection.
Mmmmm... incinerated gruel.
-Jeepthang
-------------------------------
High-Res Beer Bottle Collection
Look at menus 10, 11 14 and especially 13.
How come Cheese Tortellini doesn't suffer from the same problems as Mac&Cheese as described in the article (pasta goes mushy, cheese tastes burnt) ?
You'd think sitting on a shelf for 3 years would take care of any such worries.
Donate background CPU time to fight cancer.
Macaroni and cheese?
What next?
Peanut butter and jelly?
I can see it now.
"Hey, soldier. Get up at the crack of dawn, lug around a hundred pound pack through all kinds of terrain, in all kinds of weather.
Maybe get shot at. Maybe have to shoot back.
Maybe get your sorry butt killed.
But if you manage to make it back to camp, you can have three year old mac and cheese."
Bet the recruiting lines are a mile long.
Last time I checked, Microwaved eggs tasted nasty thankyouverymuch. Blech.
7 November 2006: The day Americans realized corruption and incompetence weren't addressing 11 September 2001
...is that there's actually a vegetarian MRE.
:-)
You don't win wars with sal-ad! You don't win wars with sal-ad! You don't win wars with sal-ad!
~Philly
Actually, if anything, the military is becoming less and less part of American popular culture. A smaller percentage of 'middle America' serves these days.. and we haven't exactly had a draft in quite a while.
MRE's: Meals ready to eat.
When I was in JROTC we usted to call them MRE's: Meals rejected by Ethiopians...
MRE's a great for camping in bear country. The bears are smart. They learn to knock down bear bags. They'll suck your maple syrup dry, eat your oreos, tear the tent apart, even break the latrine down if you try to put food in it. But they can't smell the MREs and don't touch them. Good thing too, we had a diabetic with us.
The masses are the crack whores of religion.
Anyone ever wonder why the military, with its tomes of regulations and procedures succumed to the "Rock or something" on an MRE?
... so on the instructions there is a picture of a rock with an MRE leaning on it, and the caption for the rock is "Rock or something"
The little heater thingies (mmm, smell like acid), need to lean at an angle to work good
I may sound like a complete moron, but man, in the middle of the desert with no sleep, some dude brings up "Rock or something" and I keel over in laughter.
Most of the MRE's I've had when out backbacking and such have been fine (gotta use the tobasco every time). While adding Macaroni & Cheese sounds good, does anyone really want to eat nuked scrambled eggs that are a couple years old?
Ever eat eggs that have been in the fridge too long?
Just give me the chicken loaded with enough preservatives and chemicals to kill my colon & petrify my inestines, thanks.
Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety
We may critisize the yanks for the americanisation of our world especially for spreading their crap tv, fast food and pop music to all 'corners of the globe', but i'm just SO glad they haven't contaminated Australia with that.... yet.
1) When they ate Rations on the last Enterprise I thought "Gee that seems impraticle." But after reading about the MRE's, it seems like its entirely possible.
2) These menus seem far more varied than that of the meals I remember eating in my college dorm. So maybe that's why people liked being in ROTC... (j/k)
my brother used to bring a sampling home with him after a few weeks of training or what not while in the army. A little sampling of what he had to sustain himself on when in the field for weeks @ a time. Good stuff.
There's still one that sticks out in my memory, Chicken and Rice. Man, that chicken and rice was tasty. Basically came in a nice vacuum sealed heavy-duty plastic baggie. You cut off a corner and squeezed it like toothpaste to eat. (Or, if you had a mini-set of folding pans, you could heat it up in a little aluminum cup and chow down)
But the dehydrated fruit, a little 2.5x2.5x.25 inch square of styrofoam looking fruit was n-a-s-t-y. So was the grape drink mix that came with some of the MRE's..The orange powder however, mmm, now that was nice, almost like Tang.
LBCs - Lazy Boy in a Can, for the soldier out on the battlefield that needs to relax for a while. Can be used with the ...
SBCCs - Superbowl Commericals in a Can, for the soldier caught out in battle and unable to tune into the superbowl. After all, who cares who wins or loses, the commercials are what count!
BJCs - Blowjob in a can. This was created by the sex toy industry, and was licensed by Uncle Sam for the "protection" of our boys overseas. (Has been tested under battlefield conditions.)
OBLCs - Osama Bin Laden in a Can, developed by army engineers with help from the "Dolly" project, this secret device will be used if we are unable to locate the real Osama Bin Laden. Everyday soldiers can have fun with their Osama in a Can by making him do silly stunts, and recording the insane hijinks on....
CCC - CamCorder in a Can. Send in your funny battlefield tapes to America's funniest Battlefield videos, and win an MRE!
I just had waaay too much fun with this ;)
-- Dan
In my other, non geek, life, I am a National Guard officer, with a fair amount of time on Active Duty. The first MREs were absolutely awful. Anybody else remember the dehydrated pork or beef patties? YUCKKKK! They were uniformly horrible ( BBQ beef, ham slice, wieners), until a few years ago they started adding ones with actual taste, like jamaican jerk pork, and so forth. Now they want to go back to the inedible bland menus, because the percieve it to be "comforting"? Are they high? If you are cold, lonely, and a long way from home, a plastic envelope of several year old eggs will not make you feel any better. I want more spicy foods in the field, not less. ( At least they do include a tiny bottle of hot sauce.)
just do like I always did and drownd it all in those little tabasco sauces. ;)
MMM... There nothing quite like Fresh MRE's! :)
Ok I didn't read the article... while camping I have used MRE before and their great, no animals get in to them and all you need is water but I don't bring a microwave with me when I go, nor a power supply and aren't microwaves tuned to excite water molecules? So wouldn't they contain a lot of water anyways also making it heaver?
This must be Thursday, I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
In my previous life as a defense contractor, some reservists brought some MREs in to the lab... This was right when they came out, replacing the K-Rations (C-Rations?). They were totally nasty. Including the Spaghetti&Meatballs...
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
I was in Uncle Sam's Marine Corps for five years ending in 1998. We had egg MRE's (omelet... my least favorite), and every MRE had either peanut butter or _cheese_ to spread on the brick-like crackers. Given my experience with MRE's, I'd have to say it doesn't matter which process they use to prepare the food. It will still taste like crap. The trick to being able to stomach the MRE's is to make sure you get one w/ a Tabasco in the accessories pack. Better to taste the Tabasco then an artist's rendition of whatever it says on the label.
-- Stu
/. ID under 2,000. I feel old now.
Amen to that, I eat better when doing field exercises than I do when I cook at home!
I grew up in Pullman, went to WSU for 3 years (droped out as a freshman :) and am proud to still call myself a Cougar. I know this is completely offtopic, but I'll take the bitch slap. WSU has a great Agriculture department, as well as a really good Vet. school, lots of Betties, and some wicked parties. This is the first time I have ever seen an article on /. about the school, and it fills my heart with pride to see the crimson and grey up there. Props to all of my buddies roaming the hallowed halls of Sloan hall. GO COUGS!!!!
(B) + (D) + (B) + (D) = (K) + (&)
Back in the day, before flavor was engineered to survive a 3 year shelf life, MREs were fondly referred to as "Meals Rejected by Ethiopians."
Anyone know other trivia?
if this is what passes for a /. story.
I mean, really. Who cares?
If you have nothing interesting to post, it's best to post nothing.
Can I look upon your works and despair?
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
Why don't they just use Kraft EasyMac? It only needs water and heat, and is readily available at every Wal-Mart in the country. Sounds much easier than some $400,000 grant to figure out how to preserve cooked Mac&Cheese. And it's lighter (actually the same if you count the extra water needed).... MRE's already need water to be cooked and for the drink powder to be of any use. And EasyMac is tasty. I'd have told the military for only $1,000
Love,
Jay and Silent Bob
I hate the fact that most Army units get screwed and are only given MREs for long periods of time.
I served as an OPFOR Support Platoon Leader at the National Training Center at Ft. Irwin, CA. Unfortuantely for guys like you, the chains-of-command of visiting units (especially Guard units) were too lazy to bother to get hot food, and would just go for an entire 3-4 weeks on MRE-only for their soldiers because its an easy out. Don't take this as an accusation or anything against you and your unit, I just think its a shame that the Army has spent millions of dollars working on ways to get fresh food for Joe, and most leaders choose to just use MREs.
The US Army has mobile kitchens, and tons of creative ways of getting hot chow to soldiers, unfortunately most of the officers are too lazy to coordinate that kind of support.
Now there is a difference when training for war and just being stupid, but after an extended period of time, the nutrition of troops becomes highly important. MREs are meant as a supplement to regular meals - we usually went Hot-MRE-Hot for Break/Lunch/Dinner, for normal missions, and used that as a baseline.
Naturally that changes according to the mission, but you'd be suprised at how many REMFS (Rear-echelon motherfuckes) would rather say "We'll go all-MRE" because they are too lazy to plan hot food for their soldiers.
Not everyone eats meat, and not everyone eats every kind of meat. The MREs that were being dropped to Afghans were vegetarian MREs. There are also vegetarian soldiers in the US Army, and Muslim/Jews who cannot eat Pork and Hindus who cannot eat Beef.
Mine, Canadian Army, hers, American Navy. Cousin who is a marine, another a helicopter pilot, and a third a technician.
The cousin who is a marine is also a vegan. Yah - hilarious - the vegan marine. She is in Afghanistan right now - wonder what the hell she eats. No dairy, no eggs, no seafood, no poultry, and no meat.
I was a vegan for a few years - pretty tough to find food in a supermarket that has no dairy. Imagine what it's like when your food comes in a grey plastic bag.
They also contain a certain amount of dihydrogen monoxide! I'm not exaggerating, this has been proven! Be careful!
Give a man a fish and he eats for one day. Teach him how to fish, and though he'll eat for a lifetime, he'll call you a miser for not giving him your fish.
Terrorists can't threaten a country's freedom and democracy. Only lawmakers and voters can do that.
I pitty the day when I'm deployed and they give me *eggs* to eat in the MRE. I hate eggs. And they've got to be even more nasty as an MRE. I sure hope they supply plenty of those cute little miniature tabasco bottles with it... don't get me wrong, MREs as they stand now are really nice... for some reason I've always loved the pork chop MRE which is really nothing more than pressed meat. Those mint(iirc) brownies/bars are the _bomb_.
Mmmm.
-Drache Kubisuro
It must be a really slow news night if this is what passes for a /. story.
You said it. This story is from MSNBC, for goodness sakes. I've learned quickly that Microsoft is not a safe topic around here. So I have 3 theories.
1. CmdrTaco is taking a 3 day weekend to spend more time with Kathleen, and is not posting stuff.
2. There really is a change of opinion toward Microsoft around here. Stranger things have happened.
3. Everyone (even nerds!) is out partying and not making anything newsworthy.
I'm working on a Perl assignment. Sigh.
Does anybody else remember C-Rations? They were the predecessor of MREs. They came in a cardboard box, full of little OD green cans. You haven't lived until you have eaten Ham and Eggs, cold, out of a can. See Army Chow and Other War Atrocities by David Thayer, for a look at Army chow in the pre-MRE era.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
The great KD nourished an entire generation. Mac and cheese is the ultimate geek food. Good with beer, good cold in the middle of the night, good fried in the morning with coffee. (except maybe for poutaine which maybe the second greatest geek food)
heuristic algorithm seeks stochastic relationship
In canada we typically call them REM's (Ready to eat meals) or Individual Meal Packs (IMPs) however it is a similar idea.
The difference however, is that the Canadian ones taste GOOD. You usually get:
1. Your main meal. (things like mac and cheese, stew, salsbary steak, chicken, chili etc)
2. Tea.
3. Coffee
4. Hot Choclate
5. Choclate Bar
6. Some kinda fruit based destert
7. A little bread loaf
8. Peanut butter, jam, salt/pepper and sometimes spices
9. Some bonus items like instant mashed potatoes, instant dressing..
I remember really enjoying these things. I believe they had a shelf life of about 4-5 years.
*mmms just thinking about them*
Smilee
BTW. I think I enjoyed them more then the hot food we sometimes got shipped while were in the bush.
The breakfast versions of the Canadian Forces IMP (Individual Meal Pack) has contained Macaroni and cheese since at least the 1980s, and although it is no longer available now they also served a mean "ham & egg omlette". For anyone who has seen this notorious "omlette" it was like a compressed rubber sponge in a foil packet with ham floating at the bottom. Some people despised it, I thought it was rather good. I also know that the shelf life of these meals was 3 years. Maybe the cold up here helps them keep longer.
If you want to get a good idea of what the Canadian meals are like, check out the bottom of this page. MREs and the number each soldier gets a day vary greatly from country to country. No shitting but the French get pate de fois gras and a little wine in their rations, although they only get one box of rations for the whole day.
Canucks get 3 packs a day, each worth between 2500 and 3000 calories (soldiering takes a lot of energy), similar to the Americans they are rather formulaic in there content but much more substantial: the first foil pouch contains a main course (chili con carne, chicken breast, even cabbage rolls to please the Albertans), the dessert pouch (sliced peaches, pinapple spears, or the nasty cherry cake) follows, but the best part shall always remain the "goodie pack". Not only will it include the strangest brick of bread you've ever seen, it is also guaranteed to contain various condiments, juice crystals, soup, coffee, tea sugar and whitener, lifesavers (oh the irony), an after dinner mint (yes, really), a toothpick and either a candy bar or cookies. You can also expect to find matches, an industrial strength napkin, a long neck spoon (so your fingers don't get dirty) and best of all, a moist towlet (field shower is the other term that comes to mind). Much more substantial than the Americans but still lacking both the infamous bottle of tobasco sauce and the self heating pouch.
IMPs also include a survey as to how you liked your meal, a great bit of fun to fill out when your bored in the field. I can proudly say that because of my input they added mini-Ritz crackers and mini-Oreo cookies to the array of snacks that come with any ration pack. Whenever a Canadian soldier stuck in the mud or snow of the ubiquitous "field" looks into his/her ration pack and smiles to see they got mini-ritz cheese sandwiches rather than the instant (and useless) chocolate pudding that I helped contribute to that smile.
I'm a writer, a poet, a genius, I know it. I don't buy software, I grow it.
I've been on 80+ day field rotations, where sometimes it was MRE's, sometimes it was T-Rations, which is where basically a platoon shares a giant aluminum-packed MRE, and you really start to miss the MKT (mobile kitchen trailer), as little as you might have thought of it at the time when your unit had access to, and the use of one.
If you're really lucky, someone comes from the rear with a dozen or so mermites of REAL FOOD. If you are blessed with your own personal angel, you get picked to drive the Bn CSM back to the rear, and maybe get some of that good Anthony's Pizza! MMMMmmmmmmm.... my Sergeant Major, a surprisingly young guy for an E-9, by the name of MacDonald, said it best, during one of these rare outings...
"There's nothing like a good, hot piece of cheap, greasy pizza."
I couldn't have agreed more. The new bastards coming in to the army now, (and probably the other branches as well) have it soooo good. I'll point out a few differences: (Pvt=private)
Force XXI_______________________ In my army
Stress cards__________________DS' Puttin a boot in my ass
"Good morning Pvt's" _________ "Get the FUCK UP PVT'S!!!!"
DA Form 4856________________Wall to wall counseling
"Don't run on stairs"_____________"You better RUN up those goddamned stairs!!!"
Thousands of dollars just to sign up, millions for college...
_____________________GI Bill. That's it.
31 Flavors of MRE's ___________8 Flavors, only 5 of which are edible, plus a bonus- WWII era M&M's which tasted like soap. Yum!
If you put an MRE heater in a snapple bottle full of water and screw the lid back on the snapple bottle will explode.
If this packaging process could be done cheaply enough, it might make it easier and cheaper per kg of food for relief efforts to get underway compared to traditional methods without having to worry about the food going bad in the process.
Funny you bring this up. When I was very young, my family lived in Jacksonville, North Carolina. My father was a technician at with the Tactical Warfare Simulation group...my older sister and mother used to go dumpster-diving for MREs that the troops threw away...when in the field, they'd have people deliver McDonalds, and ditch the rations.
I love the Marines - I think it was wasteful, but a hell of an example of creative foraging.
And it kept us from starving.
Writers imply. Readers infer.
Are you comparing the Aussies to kids?
You have got to be kidding me. Anybody who eats vegemite doesn't rate to comment on taste in food.
Several years back, my school decided to get rid of this Civil Defense Postapocalyptic Nuclear Shelter/Hospital that they had in the basement.
Apparently, if the Commies ever dropped the Big One on NYC, the survivors were supposed to live on water, crackers, and hard candies. The water was all gone by the time we went in there, along with the Geiger Counters (which I really wanted - apparently at some point some public agency came and took them back), but there were still maybe an 8' high 6' wide 18' long stack of all these boxes of candy and crackers, packed with various dates around 1963. There were big cardboard boxes with a Civil Defense logo on the side, the words SURVIVAL CRACKERS or CARBOHYDRATE SUPPLEMENT on the side, and inside were either 6 tins of crackers (~40 pounds total) or 2 45 pound tins of red and yellow hard candies.
Both were still good in '99 when we cut open the tins and tried. Crackers tasted pretty nasty and dry, but the candy was delicious. I still have stored in an airtight container some candy that was dated October 1963, I'm waiting for October next year so I can eat 40 year old sour balls.
Tim
Omnia vestra castrorum habetur nobis.
I'm not a military man, so I may just be talking out of my ass here, but what's wrong, exactly, with rice? I mean, it packs light, lots of carbohydrates and vitamins, easy and quick to cook, and can be flavored (and taste good to boot) with anything from plain old salt to spicy cajun jambalaya and chinese mixes (and of course meats and veggies when they are available). How long does an MRE take to heat up? A tin can full of water, and handfull of rice, dump in a few spices, shred a few sticks of beek jerky and in under seven minutes I've made myself a high energy, hot meal that tastes great.
Maybe I just don't understand the logistics of it, but I would think if I was given a choice of carrying around a 5 lbs package of MRE's that will last me a couple of days vs. a 5 lbs bag of rice that will last me weeks, I would have to go with the rice...
"Your superior intellect is no match for our puny weapons!"
Slashdot:
I've posted pretty much this same comment before, but:
From the demographics I once saw on the OSDN Website, it looks like the readers of slashdot are the type of people who are well-off, white, and fairly unlikely to ever experience war except through Quake, CNN, or Neal Stevenson Novels. Why are there always military articles posted on Slashdot?
Nerds and geeks will forever be the whimpering lapdogs that build the technology for killing! Racial military minority representation has risen from 14 percent in 1975 to 26 percent. This is faster than the rate that African Americans and Latinos have attained Internet access! Slashdot readers are smart, when will the poseur editors get over their military wanna-be aspirations?
when I'm coding and don't want to break for food, I usually end up eating junk (and regretting it) and getting a real meal later.
It would be great to have a decent food source I could just heat, but I haven't come across anything suitable that has a very long shelf life and doesn't need refrigeration. I've considered some canned goods, but they generally require a bit of cleanup.
any suggestions?
Dehydrated pork and beef patties were my favorite! Any pack of MRE's we opened in Desert Storm, I would raid for those two. Seriously. MMmm. Beat the heck out of "pork with rice in barbque sauce." I am still pissed that they dont make them anymore. They stopped arround 89 I think. A shame.
When I was at NTSC we did the hot/mre/hot.
When I was in Desert Shield/Storm/Calm Hot/MRE/Hot.
Perhaps my regular army unit is different, but that was three different brigades so maybe it's just the NG or Reserves.
P.S. OPFOR Cheats like hell with the god guns! (pluss all the dead tanks on the field, and no flashers, or hoffman devices, sheesh a company can unload on a visible target with no feedback while OPFOR kindly shoots you from thier HMMWV)
So this is probably a recruiting pitch. Can you see it now?
Definatly inspires me to want to join and get shot at in some foreign country...
I voted Browne, Libertarian. I just think that I value the food and happiness of my soldiers out in the field.
GPL Deconstructed
WHAT?! You dare denigrate the dehydrated pork patty, mister? There was a "#1" on that package for a reason!
Admittedly, you couldn't eat it dry and like it (tasted like cardboard and chalk-dust). (But it was still better than the slime-encrusted weiners).
Like most of the first generation MREs, the blessed pork patty required preparation...fill the little plastic baggy about a third full with water and let it rehydrate...throw in some of your cheese-spread, a crumbled up cracker, and some tobasco. UMMM, good! The best MRE of all time (at least until I got out in '97).
Of course, in those days, we weren't lucky enough to get individual bottle of tobasco...it was just one big bottle to the case of MREs. Then they started putting individual bottles in *some* MREs. It wasn't until generation three or four that all MREs came with hot sauce.
(And does anyone remember the short-lived dehydrated strawberries? They were even better than the dehydrated pears. Sadly, they were only packed in chicken a la king and chicken stew for a short time in generation two).
If you have to talk about BAD MREs, let's talk about omelette with ham...or maybe tuna with noodles (the only saving grace was that it came with the chocolate nut cake -- the absolute finest piece of MRE cuisine ever).
I'd better stop now before I get all worked up.
I was wounded for life during my 1st NTC rotation. I was with a mechanized infantry battalion. We brought bunches of T-rats (think really big family-size metal boxes of food).
After our first week, the only T-rats that we had left were (1) barbecue pork and (2) rice. For the next two weeks it was BBQ and rice for lunch and dinner. It was literally years before I would eat barbecued anything.
Why not WSU? They have a fantastic Agro department, and make one damn fine cheese in award winning Cougar Gold.
This is the same WSU that invented a cheese canning process during WWII for military purposes. You can still order it from their creamery in assorted flavors. The Cougar Gold in particular is good; it's the only cheddar-type cheese I know of that is aged for a full year.
-- Jeff Paulsen
"Happy soldiers are better soldiers. The idea that enforced misery makes better soldiers has historically been a popular one in a lot of armies, but every time the US military has come up against one of those armies, we've beaten the hell out of them (e.g., the Iraqis. The Iraqi POW's I took care of lived better under our care than they ever had in their own army in peacetime. Probably one reason they were so eager to surrender.)"
This is one way to look at it, and historically it's been true. Incidentally, it's the only example I know of where my own theory is at a loss.
When I was in PME, I observed to my instructor that in every war in recorded history, the victorious side was the one whose uniforms were the simplest. The American revolution, WWI, WWII, the Falklands, the Boer War, etc stand out in particular as examples, but your comment about the war in 1991 makes me wonder if better rations aren't the real key to success in battle.
The state is the great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everybody else. ~F. Bastiat
hat's what we used to call it. Back in 1991. Kind of like the military training eye glasses-- BCG's (Birth Control Glasses)...thick black rims that can handle being run over by a tank
If you're not a Liberal in your 20's, then you have no heart.If you're still a Liberal in your 30's you have no brain.
Uh, are you trying to be funny?
Are you fifteen?
Can you lift your arms higher than your shoulders without panting?
Not to be rude, but sheesh! If it was a joke, it wasn't funny. If you're serious, I really feel badly for you. I'm no hawk, but I have respect for the people who putt their butts on the line for me (and you).
There should be a moratorium on the use of the apostrophe.
Max V.
NeXTMail/MIME Mail welcome
FREE food? We worked more before 9 AM than most Civvies did all day!
If you're not a Liberal in your 20's, then you have no heart.If you're still a Liberal in your 30's you have no brain.
According to a friend of mine, who is currently in MP training for the Marines, the hot sauce is included, and required eating for every meal for a specific reason. Hot sauce works to keep you regular and since the MREs are notorious for arriving as bricks and leaving as bricks, to put it lightly, the Sgts require their men to eat the entire bottle of hot sauce included with every MRE.
adam
I bought some MREs off a survivalist website just to see what they were like. Most of the stuff was tasteless/bland/pure sugar, but edible. The main course in each case, however, was utterly rancid and inedible. I tried one bite of the "teriyaki beef" and nearly lost everything else I'd already eaten. That was the worst. I feel truly sorry for the armed forces having to eat this crap. No wonder the Afghanis wouldn't eat the MREs the US dropped on them.
It seems like a joke for them to try to figure out how to include eggs and such when it seems clear they have quite a bit of work to do to even make the current MREs better than dog food.
2 Hots a day sounds great unless you factor in the amount of time your counterparts in the BLUFOR support platoon have to spend driving. I know our S&T guys spent at least 6 hours a day on our one logpac of the day, what with company XOs being late, vehicles breaking down, convoys getting held up or lost, BSA jumping, etc. Another battalion tried the two a day concept and wore their support guys into the ground, and BTW, nobody wants the hot meals anyway a lot of time - it takes way too long to set up the chow line and eat when you're trying to do important stuff like sleep or dig in. But that was a light/heavy rotation, so maybe things are different for the heavy guys.
MREs aren't much better than Pop Tarts or Cliff Bars. MREs are also designed to plug up the works, if you know what I mean (source: a friend is USMC). I'd take Top-Ramen over MREs anyday, but you still need amino acids and micronutrients that your body cannot manufacture. Too bad MntDew and Ramen isnt a complete meal. =(
"Is there anything worse than astronaut ice-cream?"
The biggest trick the devil pulled was letting lawyers become politicians so they can write the laws.
MRE - Meal Ready to Eat
MRE - Meal Refusing Exit
MRE - Meal Rejected by Ethiopians (no offense intended)
Easy mac doesnt need anything but water and heat; of course you'll have to add vitamins and protein to the mix or noodles.
The biggest trick the devil pulled was letting lawyers become politicians so they can write the laws.
A friend of mine, who used to be in the Marines was once out on patrol. They called for a 5 minute break so everyone broke out their MRE packets and began to wolf them down. They had so little time they didn't bother to heat them. He just poured the instant coffee in his mouth took a hit off his canteen and swallowed it. He came across the accessory packet, ripped it open and ate the candy. He saw a little bottle of something(Tabasco sauce) didn't know what it was but figured it was edible. He opened it up and poured it in his mouth. He thought they had put some nasty poisonous shit in his MRE it hurt so bad! Quite the shock.
The really funny part about MRES is they contain a little pack of toilet paper(like 12 squares). I swear if you eat MRES for a couple of days thats all the toilet paper you need.
its inedible.
What, me worry?
OK, I gotta ask: If macaroni (or any pasta product) gets so nasty as a prepared MRE, how is it that I can go to a store and buy perfectly fine tasting Spaghetti-Os (loved em as a kid and can still eat them right from the can). I'm sure that they don't have a shelf life of 5 years, but I have had cans that had quite a few months "buildup of dust" on their lids.
And why is it that irradiation is not an option. I freely admit to limmited knowlege of the subject, but I was under the impression that it was possible to irratiate a hermetically sealed package and destroy virtually any living pathogen. Then these packages should keep indefinitely. Anyone know more about this (or why it can't be used)?
"Remember, no matter where you go, there you are."
why anyone bothers with this stuff. The airlines do it too. Why bother making some half baked (no pun intended) version of a staple when there are other much better options. Some foods travel well and some don't. If I'm longing for some home cookin' a military industrial engineered egg isn't going to make me feel any better. This is why I hope for a turkey sandwich and a cookie when I step onto a plane and not some failed attempt at microwave meatloaf (no I haven't traveled first class).
MREs=ready to eat meals They are talking about microwaving/boiling before vacuum sealing the packages. Apparently, old boiled eggs taste funkier than usual, while old microwaved eggs don't
People in Soviet Russia, however, appear to be afflicted with amusing juxtapositions of the aforementioned situation
The "Humanitarian Daily Ration" is vegan. "The components are designed to provide a full day's sustenance to a moderately malnourished individual. In order to provide the widest possible acceptance from the variety of potential consumers with diverse religious and dietary restrictions from around the world, the HDR contains no animal products or animal by-products, except that minimal amounts of dairy products are permitted."
In the field, preparing food takes to inventive procedures. Yuo can usully whip up something for nothing:
USMCpaznzer's recipe for MRE macroni and cheese:
1) take one white noodles package(yeah, I know, it doesn't look like mac.)
2) One package of cheese spread.
3) Heat accordinly, mix.
4) Enjoy!
Of course the Military should carry my favorite hostess treats. Everyone knows twinkies will surivive anything :)
What are you talking about? Marine recruiters never lie!
You most likely ate it wrong. :o)
The fruit is much, much better when you eat it dry. Prepare it as intended, and it is indeed nasty as hell.
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Me spell chucker work grate. Need grandma chicken.
But nothing like watching Dave Letterman and Leno back-to-back when I got in each morning :o)
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Me spell chucker work grate. Need grandma chicken.
. . . which, seeing as how I failed to be creative, I ended up not doing, and thought the pork was only 2nd to the chicken a la king in the "disgusting" department. No way I'd waste my cheese or that tiny bottle of tabasco in order to eat that!
Tho I have to admit your idea of preparing it sounds great.
Now I'm hungry. Dang.
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Me spell chucker work grate. Need grandma chicken.
Accomodating troops' nutritional needs and providing a semblance of gastronomic comfort has been a problem even further back than the C rations in Vietnam. For example, here is a site describing the K rations used in the field.
For what it's worth, some Army cooks were able to work wonders with not much more than this kind of stuff. Dad, an Ordnance Corps guy, one day came across an infantry outfit in a not-all-that-rear area that was getting fed from a field kitchen that definitely had its act together -- Dad was awed that the cooks had even made soup and baked some fresh bread. It had to have been the first real meal these dogfaces had eaten since they'd gone into the line in France.
"How many light bulbs does it take to change a person?" --BMcC-->
WoW! Now THAT'S the way friendly school rivalry is SUPPOSED to sound!
BTW, you may want to schedule your psycho-therapy sessions a little closer together...
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello