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thedrifter
04-09-07, 08:26 AM
Field rations are falling short in fueling troops
By Aamer Madhani
Chicago Tribune

NATICK, Mass. - When Lt. Dave Moore visited infantry units in the remote, rugged mountains of Afghanistan late last year, the Navy medical officer was surprised to hear from many soldiers and Marines that they had lost significant weight.

After interviewing more than 150 medics, officers and troops on the ground, Moore concluded that the portable rations called "meals ready to eat" (MREs) - long derided by troops, but valued by the Pentagon for their indestructibility - were not doing the job, causing the soldiers to shed pounds that they very much needed.

"The standard meal ready to eat does not provide adequate nutrition for dismounted operations in this type of terrain," Moore wrote in his report. "Many Marines and soldiers lost 20 to 40 pounds of body weight during their deployment. At least one soldier was evacuated due to malnutrition and a 60-pound weight loss."

Moore's conclusions have raised concern among military leaders and among designers of the field rations at the Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center outside Boston.

Moore stressed in an interview that the service members he surveyed represented only a small portion of those fighting in Afghanistan - infantry troops deployed to desolate locations where MREs and local cuisine were the only options - but nonetheless he concluded that MREs, which contain up to 1,300 calories, were falling short.

A nutrition deficit, he added, could result in fatigue, impaired brain function, and lackluster performance.

Recognizing that the reports of weight loss are serious, the Combat Feeding Directorate, which designs the MREs, is planning to ship about 4,000 prototypes of a new meal called the "first strike ration" to Iraq and Afghanistan. Designed for limited use, the ration contains about twice the calories of an MRE.

While mess halls in Afghanistan and Iraq provide troops at bases three square meals a day, soldiers in the field often subsist for long stretches on MREs. These include entrees processed at high temperatures and kept in sealed pouches to maintain a shelf life of three years. Other typical components include dehydrated beverage mixes and snacks like peanut butter, crackers and nuts. Dietitians recommend soldiers eat three MREs a day.

Andrew Young, a researcher at the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine at Natick, said his agency had begun collecting data on the weight of troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. It has already found anecdotal evidence that service members, particularly those in Afghanistan, are losing 20 to 35 pounds on their deployments.

Much of the problem is caused by heavy packaging, Young said. Troops on dismounted patrols often "field-strip" their bulky MRE packs, bringing along only part of the meals, to lighten their rucksacks and save room for cargo such as ammunition. In the process, they throw away calories, Young said.

"The MRE is designed to provide the caloric needs of the largest percentage of war fighters," he said. "The issue is operational constraints that are imposed on the warriors that prevent them from consuming the optimal calories."

Moore agreed that field-stripping was a problem, but he also blamed bland food and menus that do not meet the needs for high-intensity fighting.

"The MRE doesn't provide enough calories," Moore said in a telephone interview from the Mountain Warfare Training Center in Bridgeport, Calif. "If you're in the mountains, you need 4,500 calories a day. Even if a soldier eats everything in the MRE, which they rarely do, they're going to be running deficient of calories, and over a period of time they're going to lose weight."

High-altitude environments can cause anorexia, but Moore said the troops he had spoken with had acclimated. The military has higher-calorie rations available for long-range and cold-weather patrols, but they are significantly more expensive and are not widely distributed.

The MRE, which costs the Defense Department about $7.25 per meal, was introduced in 1980 with a dozen menus, including a few that soldiers deemed inedible, such as Smoky Franks, which soldiers called the Four Fingers of Death, and Chicken a la King, which was known as Chicken a la Death.

When the MRE went to war in the early 1990s, it fared little better with troops in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Iraq, who derisively referred to the rations as "meals refused by everyone."

The MRE developed such a poor reputation that former Joint Chiefs chairman Colin L. Powell ordered it overhauled. In 1995, the National Academy of Sciences found that troops were under-consuming their rations by 1,000 calories per day.

Seeking to address the weight-loss problem, the directorate is planning on widespread distribution of the first strike ration by this fall. Unlike the MRE, it requires no heating.

The ration, about a half-pound heavier than the MRE, contains about 2,500 calories. But it is meant to be consumed for only three consecutive days, according to rules set by the Army surgeon general.

Ellie