Our VP of Legislative Affairs is a very careful man. In 2000, he purchased a variety box of MREs and kept it in his garage. Early this week, he brought the box into the office and challenged us to pick our favorite meal. Since the burrito and cheese omelet and veggie burger were taken, I settled for the Beef, Restructured, With Grilled Mushroom Gravy.

The thing, along with Western Beans, a chocolate chip cookie, sugar, pepper, apple cider, coffee, plastic spoon and a napkin even, was packed inside a bag made of heavy plastic. Since I didn't have a bayonet, I used a pair of office scissors to cut it open.

All I can say is that I am still thirsty from eating that meal. Has anyone eaten these things? What did you think? Other than the high salt content, I thought it was pretty good for being 9 years old. The piece of bread was the only thing I couldn't stomach (no pun intended). It looked and tasted like drywall.

Mmmmm. Chili-mac was my favorite...really tasty mixed with processed cheese. But it didn't come with a cheese-pack, so you had to trade around for that.

They contain a huge number of calories, so you need some water to metabolize it all.

The one thing MREs lack is enough fiber.

vagabond:

About 2000 calories, per meal. That is about 50% more calories in one meal than a typical adult woman needs all day.

The reason? You're an infantryman, marching miles from your base, behind enemy lines. You're already carrying 45 lbs of bullets, gun, sleeping gear, chemical warfare antidote. And, when you eat, you need to get energy quickly...in case you start getting shot at again. So, high-calorie-density food reduces the total weight and volume of stuff you have to carry.

If you don't drink a lot of water afterwards, you might as well call it "Quickrete...Ready to Eat."

I liked the cookies, but the Army calls them "Road Wheels." A road wheel is what the track of a tank runs on.

During GW 1 (Gulf War 1), the most popular meals at my base had "Accessory Packet A." It had a tiny little 1-inch tall bottle of tobasco sauce in it.

I love those tobasco sauces. I carried a bunch of MRE's back from the desert with me. Suckers are expensive here, but basically there for the taking in the AOR. Jalapeno Cheese Rocks!

Maybe I've got bad taste, but I miss the Country Captain Chicken MRE, ever since they pulled it out of the rotation. The veggie burger barbecue thing is pretty good though.

I'm still partial to C-Rations because they come with a souvenir can opener.

It was called a P-38, as I recall.

I was in the service back in the C-Rat days.

Boy!!! Did I ever.

Being in the field, (on FTX), as often as I was as an 11B and 88H, I got use to them. I liked the tuna cassorole and especially the crackers with the pb&j.


atp

Yep, P-38 or a John Wayne, hmmmm, good times.

As bad as C-rats were, they were still better than Lurp-Rats. I only had the misfortune of eating those a time or two.

Do they still have those matchbox sized 'granola' bars.
I never could bite into those things.

I think they were really designed to be thrown. You could knock out a rabbit at 20 meters with those things.

Meals Rejected by Ethiopians

CE