MRE: Meal's Ready to Eat. Anyone else had them?

For six months I was house sitting for some friends. Looking after their cats while they trained in the army. With little cash flow, I was occasionally forced to dine on some of their MREs. Able to be eaten hot and cold (cold is shudderworthy at the best of times), they were a lifesaver but dear lord were some of the combinations disturbing!

I'm wondering if anyone else has experience with these things. Military peoples probably have dealt with them :P but please share any horror stories/sick-of-this stories/combined-two-and-they-tasted-great stories you have!

Cheers.

I lived on some for a while during a bad hurricane season in central and south Florida. I didn't have a choice. I had to keep working on the project I was on for community safety reasons. I liked em at first but after a while. Uughhh!

They served a purpose though. And, for that I am thankful.

I've got one word for you, just one word!

Spices

Yeah, without spices (tobasco sauce) they're 3 lies in each package. They aren't Meals. They aren't Ready. They aren't edible....
Just kidding....some of them aren't bad. I wouldn't want to have to live on them, but given the need, I could.

I've had MRE's since I was a kid starting back in '84. The first ones I had would be crap by today's standards because one of the main meals was "dry beef patty." You had to add water to it to rehydrate the thing, otherwise you were eating beef flavored cardboard.

I've had MRE's regularly, though, since '92 and consistently since '03. Each iteration actually is better than the previous round of MREs that were put out. Some of the newer guys will have to take my word on that because I wouldn't want to feed anyone an MRE that is almost 20 years old at this point.

Yep it wasn't to awful though I couldn't finish it. Just to much food.

And then there are the Rat packs! (Ration pack) I had a chuckle when the gum was mentioned as a laxative in the podcast. In the Aussie rat pack it's the chocolate that's the laxative! It's in there to balance out the cheese, which blocks you up. You have to essentially eat the whole of the pack, you can't pick and choose. Fun times.

along time ago, had one that was a form of ham. put it on a piece of bread and some mustard, it had interesting effects on my body.

I loved them when they were in that darker brown packaging... the new ones with all the newer menues suck. I'll take the "4 Fingers of death" any day (beef Frankfurters).

I keep waiting for KC to bring up the Charms = Bad Luck thing in the Podcast. I'm not sure how it is in the Combat Support units but Saul for sure would know about the Curse of the Charms. Charms bring rain, officers and broken equipment.

http://forums.military.com/eve/forum.../3130091732001

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Originally Posted by Leedo2502

I loved them when they were in that darker brown packaging... the new ones with all the newer menues suck. I'll take the "4 Fingers of death" any day (beef Frankfurters).

I keep waiting for KC to bring up the Charms = Bad Luck thing in the Podcast. I'm not sure how it is in the Combat Support units but Saul for sure would know about the Curse of the Charms. Charms bring rain, officers and broken equipment.

http://forums.military.com/eve/forum.../3130091732001

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Maybe I never witnessed it because I never ate them ;) Those things were gross.

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Originally Posted by Leedo2502

Charms bring rain, officers and broken equipment.

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Good thing the officers are there to make it all better then ;)

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Originally Posted by Luna Guardian

Good thing the officers are there to make it all better then ;)

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HAHA!! I had this one guy who was a cadet at West Point doing his summer camp thing with us when I was active duty, he used these exact words "Based on my experience..." and we all just died laughing LOL

I would have as well :D

My gripes are with utterly incapable and unmotivated NCOs. Pathetic human sausages can make life incredibly difficult to any officer. Good thing the grunts were a great lot, a lot better than the corporals and sergeants

mre's are great compared to the c (or k) rats. those things tasted like the packaging they were in.

While in Texas training for my last trip to Iraq we were coming onto post and there was a homeless guy standing on the side of the road begging, I told one of the guys in the back of the van to grab an MRE from the boxes that we kept back there. Well Cheese and Veggie omelet is probably the worst one made, I mean it's bad! The potatoes are the only eatable thing in the entire meal, I wouldn't even eat one in a bet for money they are that bad. Well because they are that bad they are normally the last ones in the box to get picked so of course there are a lot of them and it happened that this was one of the ones that was picked. When I handed it over to the homeless guy he looked down and saw what kind it was and I kid you not when I say this "ghee thanks” with a look of disgust. Even the homeless don’t like the cheese and veggie omelet. The beef stew isn't bad though normally the first one to get picked.

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Originally Posted by Drew227598

While in Texas training for my last trip to Iraq we were coming onto post and there was a homeless guy standing on the side of the road begging, I told one of the guys in the back of the van to grab an MRE from the boxes that we kept back there. Well Cheese and Veggie omelet is probably the worst one made, I mean it's bad! The potatoes are the only eatable thing in the entire meal, I wouldn't even eat one in a bet for money they are that bad. Well because they are that bad they are normally the last ones in the box to get picked so of course there are a lot of them and it happened that this was one of the ones that was picked. When I handed it over to the homeless guy he looked down and saw what kind it was and I kid you not when I say this "ghee thanks” with a look of disgust. Even the homeless don’t like the cheese and veggie omelet. The beef stew isn't bad though normally the first one to get picked.

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I could eat the Omelet MRE over the Omelet T-Ration. That's not to say that I would scour for the MRE, but if it was there in the box by itself...

Lot of military activity and training near me so it was inevitable it would happen one day. I was forced to eat some old ones during a school field trip. Got stuck in bothy once with PrivateParts because of the winds and rain prevented a ferry from getting us back to main land. We were running out of food and military left some MRE's in a cupboard after an exercise. I choose no food over that stuff. Thats the most effective review I can give.

They are Not Meals...Ready...to Eat....They ARE Meals Rejected....By Ethiopians.....

I could get some from my rotc but I've never gotten to try one but I dont like alot of types of food Q_Q

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Originally Posted by Drew227598

Well Cheese and Veggie omelet is probably the worst one made, I mean it's bad!

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In the Aussie 24hr Rat pack we had tins of Egg & Bacon (Breakfast ration), hell if I know what it was loaded with, I presume preservatives but it used to burn your palate (the roof lining in your mouth) I ended up swapping it or tossing it every time.

We also had Light weight Dehydrated Long Range Patrol Rations, which when reconstituted tasted like mushy cardboard, the entire concept of this type of ration eluded me, because you had to carry extra water to reconstitute it, so where was the extra weight saving?, the only possible place I could think of was in the skull of the knucklehead that thought it up in the first place.

The "10 Man 24hr Ration Carton" were great.......if your intention was to starve your 10 Man Section to death, you basically got 12 oz per man per meal.

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Originally Posted by Leedo2502

HAHA!! I had this one guy who was a cadet at West Point doing his summer camp thing with us when I was active duty, he used these exact words "Based on my experience..." and we all just died laughing LOL

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ROFL!!!

MRE.. They have several types now. USAID has ones that are different than what the military uses and we have 2 different packages now. Some of them are very very good. My 15 year old daughter ate the pack I brought back from Haiti! S'getti and meat balls were her favorite.
They've come a long, long way from when I first came in.. Than God! The heating element in them is f'n a brilliant idea!

Cut the tops off one and grab a few that you like then mix em together in the brown sleeve, add some spices or Hot sauce.. hmmmm, um good!

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Originally Posted by Kc

Maybe I never witnessed it because I never ate them ;) Those things were gross.

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WHAT!!??? Blasphemy! Turn in your BDU's right now! Oh, wait. You did! LOL.

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Originally Posted by Luna Guardian

I would have as well :D

My gripes are with utterly incapable and unmotivated NCOs. Pathetic human sausages can make life incredibly difficult to any officer. Good thing the grunts were a great lot, a lot better than the corporals and sergeants

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Luna,

That's because the officers deserve it. LOL.

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Originally Posted by HaveCrowBarWillTravel

Luna,

That's because the officers deserve it. LOL.

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totally, officers call the shots but ncos run the show. now that's not to say that there aren't really good officers and really worthless ncos but by the by most ncos over e5 have their heads on straight. of course LTs have it rough because they have no experience (exibhit a: angel) and have to learn from their seargents all while taking command.for most second lieutenants the ncos really do it all and the LTs take notes

I've eaten I don't know how many cases of MREs, but enough to know which ones are more palatable than others - I avoid the omlette one at all cost, and most of the chicken ones you can't go wrong with. If you want a good laugh, just read the container labels, and then rip it open and see how they just went overboard for describing rice or something simple. And just an FYI, the whole gum laxitive thing is a myth. Anyone who's eaten multiple MREs for a while can attest to that.

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Originally Posted by reaper239

totally, officers call the shots but ncos run the show. now that's not to say that there aren't really good officers and really worthless ncos but by the by most ncos over e5 have their heads on straight. of course LTs have it rough because they have no experience (exibhit a: angel) and have to learn from their seargents all while taking command.for most second lieutenants the ncos really do it all and the LTs take notes

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Luna,

Did you just stick in an Angel dig? LOL!

HaveCrowBarWillTravel, every time I look at you Avatar Name, I can't help but think of what I call my Crowbar..........an All Access Credit Card :)
It's going to be indispensable, post SHTF, when all the shops have been looted for food, Vending Machines are found in a lot of places people never think of, just off the top of my head, Office Blocks, Bars, Night Clubs, Factories, Variety Stores, Service Stations (Gas Stations)......

My father often brought some rations with him back home after being sent out for training and such (he's a Dutch, medical Reservist, and has trained MOGOS / medical teams that've been sent out). Those rations were barely used (i.e. someone took out the tea but left the rest) and would be thrown away, so he took some with him.
I had some MREs that were included. It wasn't that bad, actually.
The tea that was included was really good though, and there was a bunch of other stuff that was pretty decent.

However, this was when I was really young, so the memory isn't very detailed.