Can anyone tell me when MRE's began being supplied, as oppposed to C-rations? Thanks.

IIRC, MREs were introduced in about 1982. Of course, we were eating lots and lots of C-Rats until stocks ran out.

When I went to the NCO Academy at Fort Bliss, Texas, in 1984, we were issued C-Rats and the guys from the 3rd Cav were really complaining because they had been eating MREs for months before that. It's amazing that these days you hear old troopers reminicing over what their favorite C-Rats were ...

Do a Google search for "Meals, Ready to Eat" and there is all kinds of info out there. Here's the Army's "official" MRE link: http://www.sbccom.army.mil/products/food/mre.htm Be sure to check out the "recent improvements" link in the middle of the page. Seems they phased out all of my old favorites -- tuna noodles, scalloped potatoes and ham, fruit-flavored styrofoam ...

Thanks, Bob, with that info, there will be no MRE boxes on my Viet era M48A3. :-) As the song goes, "Donkey Shine" #:-)

Well I got a full meal bag or whatever you call that in my possesion. A friend of my dad's gave it to me. It contains Pasta, mixed fruit, charms, peanuts, peanut butter, crackers, the heater of course, a little bag of goodies containing ice tea & apple juice mix, two chiklets or something, matches, tissue, tabasco, & of course a spoon.

Don't eat the brownies unless your are feeling constipated!

Rob

Are the meatballs still in the MREs? I was lucky enough to spend some time with the US military in the 1980s and I remember the meatballs. So much do I remember the meatballs that I remember asking the liason officer in charge of our orientation, if foreign troops were allowed to accept the purple heart (or other purple part of the anatomy) after having an "interesting" digestive reaction. Happy days people, and I thought we were allies!!!! Jim

MMM C rats.
We would trade to get the egg and ham one for breakfast.And the beef slices and potatoes in gravy "beef and shrapnel".
We would heat up the cans in the heater pipe next to the loaders position.Or out on the ground,we would put the main meal back in the cardboard box by itself,and set the box on fire.When the fire went out,DIN DIN's ready!!
(++) (++) (++)

We called them "monkey balls". For those of you who have never had the opportunity to taste these things, they are little tiny meat balls in tomato sauce. They wouldn't have been too bad if there were spaghetti or some other type of pasta mixed in.

I remember eating C rats as late as spring 1983, by winter time MREs were the only meals I remember getting.

Thanks Sabot, I knew there was someyhing missing. monkey balls. or was it something shorter? I think we had c-rats once or twice. (for the younger people reading, rats is not the shortened form). God, if we were eating that god knows what the sovs had.... By the way the Brit rat-packs were even worse...... I always wondered what the french were eating. I'll bet it never came in self- heating cans..... Jim

Kind of off topic:

Anyone have any ideas how long MRE's stay edible? I've got a case + in my garage that have to be at least 10 years old by now.... Don't know if I should keep or heave 'em.

They still 'look' fresh.

A steady diet of either C-Rats or MRE's guaranteed me to be 'plugged' up for awhile... , but I'm sure that they've improved in the past 10 years or so. Actually they wern't bad in my day, but when you're hungry and out in the field....

Also have a can of C-Rat "Fruit Cake" that never got had. Vintage 1967 that I wouldn't even dare to touch.

I bet you could go to Natick's site and use a link to ask someone there in the know on what the shelf life is. I bet after 10 years, not much is still really good. Probably keep you alive though.

Thanks Rob... I never thought of going out to Natick Labs' site to ask....

MRE's have a longer half-life than friggin' Strontium-90. The only upside to C's was that the peanut butter could be burned to heat a cup of coffee. Otherwise, it's tear Claymores apart and burn the C-4. Rob

Ahh the aroma of C's and MRE's cooking.....yum. When I first came in C's was the order of the day. Spaghetti and meatballs, Beef Stew and everybodys favorite...Ham and Lima Beans or as we called them, Ham and M***** F******. The MRE's that replaced them werent all that great (Dark Brown bag) and took some gettin used to. As they have developed through the years, they have actually gotten somewhat better. I wont lie and say they are great, but they are better than starvation. As to the stopping-up of ones colon...that they still do with vigor. As of today it has been 4 days since I took care of business. That is about the only good thing with MRE's. Nobody likes to do business in the field. The longer between engagements, the better. I just hope my systme will be able to recover fully once OIF is over. As it stands now, it seems the favorite meal is the #8 which is basically a hamburger. Comes complete with 2 slices of bread, cheese spread and even BBQ sauce. This paricular meal is hard to find, but is well worth it when you do. This replaces the old #8 meal of Chicken and Rice and Prior to that the Ham slice. We even have shakes now. Very simular to the carnation breakfast drink. I will be sure and bring some home out of theater, so if anybody wants to attempt to try one, drop me a line and I'll see what I can do... heh heh. Hope this finds everybody doing well and building models. "Q"

I have to honestly say that the only thing I miss about C-rats is the P-38 (the can opener, not the airplane). The P-38 was the most useful piece of military equipment ever devised. I still carry my original Basic Training P-38 on my key ring -- right along side that other essential survival tool, a German bier bottle opener.

Besides opening cans, the P-38 had thousands of uses: screwdriver (slot and phillips heads), prybar, M-16 sight adjustment tool, box cutter, wire stripper, toothpick, fingernail cleaner, etc. Oh, and they were pretty good at tearing open those tough plastic MRE pouches, too. And to think that now an entire generation of soldiers has served and not used a P-38 ...

Ah yes... the P-38. Still have my original as well and It has come in handy many many times in the past 31 years. It's there still on my first grenade ring keychain.

I remember testing several products for the Army. We were issued "LRRP Rations" in the mid 70's. They were the first attempt at freeze dried rations. They were not bad, but weren't great. The water you added had to be very hot to disolve the meal. We would always combine the LRRPs with a diet of C's; that way one would plug you up and the other would clean you out. Then in the mid 80's I got in on the testing of the "Assault Rations." They were great! Mostly high energy, light weight food. Lots of things like jerky, candy, beef stick, tang mix, etc. I miss those days when every now and then I would be used as a human guinea pig.

Hey, for everyone that is jonesing for a c-ration, check e-bay. I bet this would be really tasty after 40 years....

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2176147317&category=36065

Dinners ready kids...

Meals Ready to Eat... there's 3 lies in a single phrase!

When I was based at Lakenheath England-1988,we were doing a four day exersise I was doing bomb dump augmentee at the time Basically helping the ammo pukes helping build up bombs I was eating a ham and chicken loaf and this one ammo puke looks at me and says "That looks like cat food" I could never eat another ham and chicken loaf after that

Yup, forgot to mention the grenade ring. Still got mine, too. Totally indistructable.




Ooooo, LRRP rations. I knew guys who absolutely loved these things and would trade almost anything to get them. They were OK, but I always thought they were over-rated -- like you mention, if you didn't have HOT water, and lots of it, you may as well chew grass.




Hey Zod Meister! And what's so wrong with cat food? Back in the day when I was single, sometimes for the last couple days before payday, the dog and I used to live on leftover C-rats I brought home from the field. I recently found out Mom used to feed us leftover C-rats when I was a little kid. For years I must have thought Chef Boyardie came in a green can.

Hey Moderators, you might want to move this thread to the "Soldiers Stories" forum. It seems to have taken on a life of its own.