One of my roughest experiences is the Army...

Prosecutor

Prosecutor

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...was getting stuck with the "Omelette with Ham" MRE. It was like fake puke (or maybe real) in a bag. Funny thing is, there was always some sick bastard that loves it. I hear that MREs have come a long way. This pic is almost 25 years old. Happy Veterans Day!

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Chdamn said:
Had a guy with us that would trade the spaghetti I'm meat sauce FOR an omelette with ham.

Loved that guy.
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...those are the same guys who would like "Corned Beef Hash" MRE. There should be a medal or tab for that.

That said, I could eat "Meatballs, beef, and rice" or "Chicken a la King" any day.
 
You guys would have loved C rations. Some of the food was actually good, especially if you got a chance to put the can on the exhaust manifold of a deuce and a half a few minutes before you opened it. The eggs and ham was awful, the others were not so bad. The milk chocolate was some of the best I've ever had. We even got a little 4 pack box of cigarettes in each meal.
 
It hasn’t been made in about 10-12 years but I liked Country Captains chicken and Chicken Tetrazzini. That one came with a “just add water” shake that had about 20g protein and a few hundred calories. Those who didn’t eat them could sell them
 
I loved the omelette w/ ham! On a cold day, I'd slip it and a packet of MRE squeeze cheese under my body armor as we set out on a long hump and by the time we got to where we were going, it'd be nice and heated, throw in some crackers and McIlhenny's and that's as good as it gets!!!!

Makes me wish I had one right now....
 
SLM said:
I loved the omelette w/ ham! On a cold day, I'd slip it and a packet of MRE squeeze cheese under my body armor as we set out on a long hump and by the time we got to where we were going, it'd be nice and heated, throw in some crackers and McIlhenny's and that's as good as it gets!!!!

Makes me wish I had one right now....
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Everything about what you just wrote was F'in disgusting. Thanks for not helping.


:)
 
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Interesting hearing what is good or bad in MREs, Ive only tried a few. Have a case, but not eaten any, sold off some of the ones that sounded bad
 
MRE's and me: what's on the menu.

@ 1:25 or so, a SFC begins to talk about the eggs and ham version. Funny thing is, he starts to make the solecism of "Green Eggs and Ham."
 
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The Chicken and Rice ones were alright. I haven't had one in a while....probably almost 10 years.

For those pining away for C Rations and K Rations, there's a company that makes them (mostly for reenactment, I think). Even run by a disabled vet:


https://reprorations.com/index.htm
 
In '02 or '03, I opened an MRE that had a bag of M&Ms in it. "Proud Sponsor of the 1992 Olympics!"

The early ones were the worst. The dehydrated pork patty was atrocious, but had nothing on the "Turkey, diced with gravy" aka. turkey fat swimming in a transparent, greasy, gelatinous goo.
 
Geezer said:
You guys would have loved C rations. Some of the food was actually good, especially if you got a chance to put the can on the exhaust manifold of a deuce and a half a few minutes before you opened it. The eggs and ham was awful, the others were not so bad. The milk chocolate was some of the best I've ever had. We even got a little 4 pack box of cigarettes in each meal.
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I loved the peanut butter and the freeze dried fruit when I was a kid. My Dad was Nat.Grd. after Vietnam.
 
Geezer said:
You guys would have loved C rations. Some of the food was actually good, especially if you got a chance to put the can on the exhaust manifold of a deuce and a half a few minutes before you opened it. The eggs and ham was awful, the others were not so bad. The milk chocolate was some of the best I've ever had. We even got a little 4 pack box of cigarettes in each meal.
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And one of these.1112170753.jpg
 
I have one since the 70's on my key chain. Never a problem.
 
Most of the first-gen MREs were just nasty. Ugh. Several since have been decent (i.e., bean burrito), but the ones that aren't, aren't. I kinda liked the omelette one, and I liked the spaghetti. My most disliked was the chicken a la king.

I had C-rats quite a bit growing up and for the most part I really liked them, especially spaghetti (tasted just like Chef Boyardi). Even the eggs and ham wasn't bad. But then, unlike MREs, I didn't have to eat them every day.

I also had the LRRP rations; those were very, very good.
 
Inglis said:
Nothing like eating cold ham and Lima beans in the dark out of c rats can.
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There were several makers of the Ham &Limas (also known as Ham&MFrs). One of them (can't remember now which one it was) actually made a good ham and limas and they were edible. Never had MREs so I can't compare them.

Crazy Carl said:
In '02 or '03, I opened an MRE that had a bag of M&Ms in it. "Proud Sponsor of the 1992 Olympics!"
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Those were only 9 or 10 years old. In '65 I got a box of c-rats that had a 4-pack of Lucky Strike GREEN in them. The green packages were discontinued about 1942 so those C's were at least 23 years old. And yes! I ate them!
 
Prosecutor said:
...those are the same guys who would like "Corned Beef Hash" MRE. There should be a medal or tab for that.

That said, I could eat "Meatballs, beef, and rice" or "Chicken a la King" any day.
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The last time I had the chicken al a king it was way too salty.
 
Chuckman said:
I also had the LRRP rations; those were very, very good.
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Curious what was different about the LRRP rations?
I was in a LRS detachment for a good while, never knew there was special chow. Maybe uncle sugar was holding out on us!!

We just stripped down normal MRE's for what we thought was worth the weight vs calories.
 
Slacker said:
Curious what was different about the LRRP rations?
I was in a LRS detachment for a good while, never knew there was special chow. Maybe uncle sugar was holding out on us!!

We just stripped down normal MRE's for what we thought was worth the weight vs calories.
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The old Vietnam era LRRP rations we're dehydrated; you had to add water. They were also calorically dense.

The father of a neighbor growing up, my mentor, was retired Special Forces. He had crates of C rations and LRRP rations, and he would give me some every so often, or when his son and I would go camping.
 
Crazy Carl said:
Don't know many vets who are picky eaters. I've always said that a picky eater is the mark of someone who's never been hungry.
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Some MREs, I would never eat the entree, but everything else. Some of those I just couldn't stomach any longer. Of course, I also had family send me mountain house and other civilian camping food I would supplement it with.
 
MREs are like steak n taters compared to Cs. Most of the Cs I had ta eat were leftovers from the big war. The Chesterfields, Lucky's and Camels would flame up sometimes or you'd open a pack and race to light one before the tobacco fell out. The stuff they called "food" in it was very good if you skipped eating a couple days. I traded class 6 chits for peanut butter and all the crackers I could get. @gunbelt, I guess these guys never ate much blood puddin ;)
 
SSgt75 said:
There were several makers of the Ham &Limas (also known as Ham&MFrs). One of them (can't remember now which one it was) actually made a good ham and limas and they were edible. Never had MREs so I can't compare them.


Those were only 9 or 10 years old. In '65 I got a box of c-rats that had a 4-pack of Lucky Strike GREEN in them. The green packages were discontinued about 1942 so those C's were at least 23 years old. And yes! I ate them!
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The C rations that we had were all from the 1940's. Take a big pull of one of those Pall Malls and you could feel it all the way down to your blousing rubbers.
 
I lived on MRE's one winter when I was poor and my roommates had given up on their quest to be the first to sail across the Atlantic on a Dominoes Pizza Catamaran . Can someone tell me what was with the nasty stuff they used to heat those things? What was that stuff and why did they think that was cool at all? I think I went through that stack of MRE's looking for the peanut butter and crackers cause that's all I could stomach after a while.
 
Haters gonna hate ;)

I fondly (as oppose to fondling!) remember the dehydrated beef and pork patties...saving them till there was time to pull out the esbit and canteen cup, drop in a pack of raman, crumble the patty in it, add the beans from the frankfurters meal, crumble up some crackers in it...some hot sauce and the dehydrated ketchup...ah...food of the Gods!

For desert...save the dehydrated strawberries...crumble up some more crackers with them, add the sugar and coffee creamer packets (2 of each if you had them saved)...wa-la, strawberry shortcake!

Omelet w/ham and the always reliable ham slice were what got shoved into a cargo pocket to eat on the move or when laid up in ambush for 8 hours or left out on LP/OP overnight...you know, all those places you are not suppose to eat anything while in.

Beef Stew and Chicken-a-la-King were always saved for nap-of-the-earth flying on the 130's...when no one is looking, put a bunch in your mouth...grab a vomit bag and put on a show, then scoop it back out of the bag into your mouth and eat it...everyone sitting near you that is barley holding it back then vomits for real...absolutely hilarious :D, unless your were one of the safeties or the loadie.

That vile-ass corned beef...if you were a cherry the SP/4 mafia might have you eating that shit for days on end, in between pink bellies...



Traded a canteen cup stove and a pack of heat tabs for the esbit and tabs in 85 while on a German RUE...esbit stoves rock and never used another canteen cup stove...I think I have went through 3 or 4 of them since then and used them all over the world.
 
I always liked how deadly serious the bartering and trading got out in the field....

I'd wait until everybody was very into it bartering and negotiating....wanting each other's cheese, peanut butter, nut cakes etc.....

I'd shout out,

"Who wants some Crackers and Jam??"
everyone would come clambering over each other, piping up in reply,

" Yeah, yeah I do!", "No! Me! I called it first!", " F-U it's mine!!" and so on.....

Then would come my golden reply....

" Well good. Then crack your knuckles and jam your fingers up your asses!! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! ".....Man they'd get pissed!!!

Pure Gold! It never gets old!!!

HAHAHAHA!
 
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