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thedrifter
07-06-08, 08:22 AM
MREs — not the same old rations

by: MANNY GAMALLO World Staff Writer
7/6/2008 12:00 AM

Food rations served to today’s troops in the field have come a long way from what their fathers or even their grandfathers knew.

No longer does the modern warrior have to fumble with can openers to open assorted tins of food on the battlefield, and then find a way of heating their chow.

What troops now have is a totally selfcontained package of food — known as a meal ready to eat — which provides them with an entree, including vegetables, crackers or bread, condiments, a dessert, candy bars and nutritional bars, and powdered beverages, along with a plastic spoon and napkin.

Except for the powdered beverages, the meals are ready to eat.

Known to soldiers and Marines as MREs, the self-contained meals were born in the early 1980s after years of research intoways of giving troops a hearty meal with all the nutritional elements to sustain their stamina in combat.

Each meal offers 1,250 calories, along with the necessary vitamins and minerals as determined by the U.S. Surgeon General.

The MREs were also designed to be easily transported into a battlefield, including air drops by parachute.

Along with that, they are designed for a long shelf life — up to three years if stored at a constant 80 degrees.

Each meal costs the government $7.25.

The first MREs offered slim pickings on entrees, but those have grown to today’s 24 menu items, which change from year to year.

Also, those early MREs didn’t provide a way of heating the sealed entree pouch. For years, the standard battlefield approach was boiling water in a can and then placing the food pouch in the water for a few minutes.

All that changed in 1992 when the “heater pack” was introduced, and it is now included in every MRE.

The heater pack is a cellophane-like envelope into which the entree pouch is inserted for heating.

The pack contains chemicals that react with a few ounces of water to produce heat, warming the food to 100 degrees in 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, it’s never been a perfect world for the common foot soldier.

Throughout the ages, it’s been the inherent right of soldiers to complain about the quality of their food, and today’s troops are no different.

Troops in the field have other names for the MRE: “Meals Rejected by Ethiopians” or “Meals Refusing to Exit.”

Still, the research and development into improved rations for the troops continue.



Today’s Entrees


There are 24 menu items offered for meals ready to eat. Menus change yearly.

Here’s a look at the current entree offerings:

Beefsteak with mushrooms
Pork ribs
Beef ravioli
Cheese and vegetable omelet
Chicken breast
Chicken fajitas
Chicken with salsa
Beef patty
Beef stew
Chili with macaroni
Pasta with vegetables in tomato sauce
Veggie burger with barbecue sauce
Cheese tortellini
Manicotti with vegetables
Beef enchiladas
Chicken with noodles
Sloppy Joe filling
Cajun rice and sausage
Roast beef with vegetables
Spaghetti with meat sauce
Chicken tetrazzini
Jambalaya
Chicken with cavatelli
Meat loaf with gravy



Oklahoma Guard consumes 30,000 MREs a year


Since 2002, the Oklahoma Army National Guard has consumed 30,000 meals ready to eat each year.

The yearly tab for the MREs comes to $216,600, which the Oklahoma National Guard pays through its funding from the federal National Guard Bureau.

The Oklahoma Guard uses the MREs as a lunch meal during premobilization training, annual training and initial duty field training.

In 2005, the Oklahoma Guard also took their MREs with them for the Hurricane Katrina relief effort in New Orleans, where food and sanitary conditions were lacking.

More recently, the MREs were put to use as some 2,600 Oklahoma Army National Guard troops trained at Camp Gruber last summer for Iraq duty.

The troops arrived in Iraq in January and are scheduled to return to Oklahoma by the end of September or early October.

While in Iraq, most of the Oklahoma Guard troops are on base and are being provided regular commissary food or are dining at on-base, fast-food eateries normally found in the United States.

For those in the field, however, MREs are provided by the military in Iraq.

The Oklahoma Guard buys its MREs from the Defense Supply Center in Philadelphia.



Manny Gamallo 581-8386
manny.gamallo@tulsaworld.com

The prepared contents of an MRE (meal ready to eat) package. This MRE contains an entree of chicken tetrazzini, crackers, grape jelly, chocolate mint cookies and a powdered strawberry shake, to which water is added.

ZSKI
07-10-08, 06:36 PM
So thats how that garbage looks outside a pouch. There is one advantage that the C-rats had over the MRE they may have tasted worse but atleast they had cigs.

Idena
07-10-08, 06:41 PM
I've tasted a few of them, I'll admit that they're not that bad.

After TBS, Isrowei had a ton of leftover MRE's in the trunk of his car (some whole meals, some meal components), & we "gifted" them to my brother, who thinks they might be the greatest invention ever for eating on ski slopes - especially since they come with the heater pack. And our son LOVES them - you've never seen a toddler get excited like he did about that wheat bread with the cheese spread. Crazy kid.

Big Jim
07-10-08, 06:46 PM
I had the luxury of being in when the Corps changed over from C-rats to MRE's and I still think the C-rats were much better. Our Unit went to Desert Shield and didn't eat a hot meal for 3 months...back then there were only 10 original different meals on the menu...they got old and nasty really quick...not to mention stopping us all up for that once a week battle at the crapper...!!! I don't know about today's menu of MRE's...they sound pretty dam good...!!!

Pete0331
07-10-08, 07:00 PM
Each meal costs the government $7.25.


Wow! There is a local surplus store that sells only the main meal for that price. :scared:

I always thought MRE's should come with 5 cigarettes or a little can of dip and water purification tablets.

I miss Country Captain Chicken.

ZSKI
07-10-08, 07:03 PM
Honestly some are kinda tasty, personally sometimes i enjoy them over the slop they call chow in the chow hall. They got the tuna one. its starkist tuna pack with a pack of mayo. Then its also loaded with good extra **** like a shake skittles.

SlingerDun
07-10-08, 08:03 PM
Tobacco was extracted from c-rats somewhere in the 70's, water purification chemicals came separate. I still use heat tabs and the can opener, both available at the local surplus store. One tab will boil or purify water and scald a can of meat alot quicker than a 10 minute heater pack, and start poor firewood with the left over fuel. As i recall, 1 c-rat unit weighed a couple pounds, and bulky. If your humpin more than a days chow your pack feels like a bag of crooked rocks.

When certain unopened cans are discarded in a fire pit, (peanut butter, jam) they will explode with a report like that of a heavy caliber weapon. countless tin cans buried in the top soil at Pendleton and Lejeune will surface decades from now (some still full) cause that what metal does, and turn up at flea marts and antiques road showhttp://www.leatherneck.com/forums/images/icons/icon10.gif

sparkie
07-10-08, 08:43 PM
So, Where is the toilet paper? I'm gonna keep my ' John Wayne'. Semper Fi C-Rats.

darkgreen0311
07-10-08, 10:07 PM
Yeah i was in maybe less than a year before they switched over to mre's. I agree with Big Jim the c-rats were better. I almost forgot that s**t paper did come with the old c-rats. You had to get quite a few c-rats to get enough s**t paper to wipe your tail. I also remember the old c-rats use to come with a few pieces of chiclets gum. The boxes were a little bulky i miss the pound cake though.









:marine:Semper Fi 4 Life
Yours is not to question why but to do or die!!!

ZSKI
07-10-08, 11:15 PM
All MRE's have all you speak of darkgreen

Whitey
07-11-08, 02:41 PM
those strawberry shakes got me out of a lot of firewatch

sscjoe
07-11-08, 03:10 PM
Coffee and hot chocolate out of a steel pot a true wakee up call

darkgreen0311
07-11-08, 03:26 PM
Yeah that was a good combo together.

sparkie
07-11-08, 05:41 PM
Remember the coffee packets? I put 2 in my canteen cup and heated with a tab,,,,, Only thing I can figure, I sturred with a jungle stick. I got damm sick.
Good times with C-Rats. Bring your tabasco. I miss the 4 pack Lucky Strikes w moist proof matches.


Anyone here had trouble with K-Rats?

Alpha1Devildog
09-02-08, 03:43 PM
Question: How long do these last, i.e., are they to last as long as C-Rations?

Have any of you laid any of these away in case of a disaster or attack on our country?

Hey, I'm old school. Think we were eating what was left over from WWII when we were in Nam. :bunny: At least it tasted like it. . .:sick:

Mikewebe
09-02-08, 03:59 PM
MRE 3 lies in one meal ready to eat, I heard that the other day. I like some of them and will eat one if I got nothin in the house I want. But I boil the main meal and dress it but a bit.

Alpha1Devildog
09-02-08, 06:21 PM
Anyone else?

drwilkinson
09-02-08, 06:54 PM
I love MREs personally. Couldn't get enough of the sloppy joe or the ranger bars!!!

Sgt Jim
09-02-08, 07:09 PM
C-RATS,YUM YUM.got two cases before i got out,wife and i sit and opened and mixed all the good stuff and had a meal, loved the chocolate,all white,ham and eggs,beans and mothers.good eating.you tell me!

Alpha1Devildog
09-02-08, 07:50 PM
Question: How long do these last, i.e., are they to last as long as C-Rations?

Have any of you laid any of these away in case of a disaster or attack on our country?

Hey, I'm old school. Think we were eating what was left over from WWII when we were in Nam. :bunny: At least it tasted like it. . .:sick:

You may be missing the questions I asked, but then again, maybe you don't know, and I'll have to wait for someone that does. . .:bunny:, but they are as listed above. . . And I'm asking about MRE's

FistFu68
09-02-08, 08:14 PM
:evilgrin: WHAT ABOUT COOKING THAT JAVA,@HAM A MUTHA F***ERS UP WITH C-4.FRIGGING HEAT TAB'S,YOU COULD SMELL BURNING A MILE AWAY!!!:idea::iwo:

Mikewebe
09-02-08, 08:19 PM
Alph1, I think it states somewhere above that they last 3 years if kept at a constant 80 degrees, which means they will probably last 5. I don't have any we have gone another route to keeping emergency rations. Major surplus sells 5 gallon buckets with several different items in them, kidney beans, rice and so forth.

Hope that helps

FistFu68
09-02-08, 08:25 PM
:evilgrin: WHAT ABOUT THEM,KINDA LIKE MRE'S THAT CAME OUT WHILE WE WERE IN THE 'NAM.(LURPS)SP???JUST MIXED HOT H20/W/THEM???:evilgrin::iwo:

Alpha1Devildog
09-02-08, 08:46 PM
Alph1, I think it states somewhere above that they last 3 years if kept at a constant 80 degrees, which means they will probably last 5. I don't have any we have gone another route to keeping emergency rations. Major surplus sells 5 gallon buckets with several different items in them, kidney beans, rice and so forth.

Hope that helps

There ya go, thank you. Didn't see the 3 year remark.

In the C-RATS I liked the turkey loaf. Mixed it up with the grape jelly. . . Kinda tasted like thanksgiving turkey w/cranberrys. . . Not! But hey, the imagination can do wonderous things. I hated those Limas and Ham, and it always seemed like I got stuck with them. . .:mad: But when you were hungry. . . . And I always used C-4 to heat mine.