Fondness of MREs (maybe 🤔 not 😳)

severn

severn

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... so I am watching a film documentary on the making of 'Platoon.' When the actors started talking of MREs, I was just grinning the entire time. 💭 Thoughts of MREs?

(Disclaimer: I caught the tail end of the
Post-Vietnam era C-Rations when it was about to be phased out. The P-38 can opener was worn together with your dog tags. I love those old C-Rats.)
 

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severn said:
... so I am watching a film documentary on the making of 'Platoon.' When the actors started talking of MREs, I was just grinning the entire time. 💭 Thoughts of MREs?

(Disclaimer: I caught the tail end of the
Post-Vietnam era C-Rations when it was about to be phased out. The P-38 can opener was worn together with your dog tags. I love those old C-Rats.)
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Well, perhaps not the ham and eggs...
 
On the way back from yearly vacation we used to stop at military store in the strip mall across from Main Gate Cherry Point and let the kids pick out some MRE. During Memorial Day Parade they would sit on the Main Street hill and make (with supervision and a water bottle) a meal. People who had never seen one asked about it and were amazed. Lots of calories though. New ones not so bad, originals nicknamed Meals Rejected by Ethiopians. MRE replaced MCI in 1981 so he got that one wrong. If you held the old 60's ROTC Lucky Strike cigarettes provided in the c-rats left over from WW-II vertical all the tobacco would run out.:)
 
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I ate C rats for all except my last year on duty. A pain to carry the cans but they served a lot of ulterior uses. Favorite meals were beans and franks and beans and meatballs. Of course they had corresponding Marine names. Add tobacco - yum! Pound cake was the best - a real treat.

I remember the initial MRE meals as bland and tasteless. Much easier to carry. I can’t remember but seems they had a weird heating mechanism? I understand that they have gotten better and many more flavors. Heard they are good.
 
Small Tabasco bottle fixes every meal.:thumb: Lopburi was a big city compared to some others. I still have some Thai Baht and Lao Kip somewhere. That (I think) $80 a month extra for remote always came in handy with yes dinner at $1.25 or $2.00 with tip.
 
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A happy memory as a kid when Dad (USMC, Vietnam) would let me and the brother eat them. I think I remember that can opener....taste was probably secondary to the novelty of it all :)
 
... reading your posts and I'm grinning again.
... so I did not really adapt to the modern MRE. In one case with 12 meals, I might find one acceptable meal.

Having spent half of my adult life in the field, I watched the evolution of the MRE. After the old C-Rats were phased out, the replacement was LRP, "lurp" or food packet, long range patrol; a cow-dung looking extremely dehydrated concoction. Some MIT grade government contractor figured out that all you need is water to create a delicious meal. I liked it actually, delicious... similar to a slow cooked beef stew. Problem is that after 10 days in the field, water is scarce. And grunts being grunts, decided to eat it without H2O. And it exploded in their stomachs. Casualties were piling in local emergency rooms. Commanders hated it.

Perhaps the U.S. Government was 86 years ahead of Amazon. Those tin cans containing ham, turkey, chicken loaf, pound cake, tuna, spaghetti, ham & eggs were all packaged in a small cardboard box. Other items in the box were crackers, "John Wayne" chocolate bars, chewing gum, Tabasco sauce, coffee, and toilet tissue.

To heat the main meals, place it on top of the cardboard box and light the barbecue. So simple like a real outdoor camping.

... still remember my first ever field problem, and the grunts had colorful names of the various main meals... mostly it rhyme with washer 😅
 
I Bow Down to all Ice Hockey Moms. Two daughters Connecticut Polar Bears Travel then Prep and son travel through Prep. Late nights and early morning practices and tournaments from New England to Canada. Great picture of son in penalty box at Herb Brooks Miricale rink at Lake Placid. How many can say that. Daughter who had skated at team USA camp went to skate when they were trying to establish a club team at NAVY. Told her to stay with it but her response was Dad they can't skate. She should have stayed and become a founder they have come a long way.
 

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Daughter playing a boys team and her goalie had covered a shot. Kid comes in and slaps her goalie while covered and skates behind the net. Daughter follows and straight arm punches him in the mask and drops him. At ejection she comes off the ice and says to me Dad he cried. I told her I would cry too if a girl just beat the crap out of me on the ice. Who knew she would go USMC.:cool: I strongly recommend youth Ice Hockey for both boys and girls.
 
AF6872, do they still play in the ACHA? DS#2 was a defense-man for an ACHA D1 mens team in college. They made it to the ACHA Nationals his sophomore in college. God I miss him playing hockey.
 
No Hockey in college but both Daughters played Club Field Hockey in college. One at USNA and one at State University. Son's school had no Hockey program. I do miss those Hockey days and road trips and tournaments from New York to Canada and every State in-between. They are now in their late twenty's and early thirty's, so it was a long time ago.🏒🏑⚽
 
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I miss it as well. Traveled the New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana , Illinois tournament circuit with DS#2.
Last time he played, was a year after he left the Army. He was playing after a Caps game in DC for the Army in an Army vs Navy game. Was wearing a 1/2 shield and took the butt of a stick to the Chiclets during a face-off. Had to have 2 front teeth repaired. He is in his mid 30's now.
 
USMCGrunt said:
I ate C rats for all except my last year on duty. A pain to carry the cans but they served a lot of ulterior uses. Favorite meals were beans and franks and beans and meatballs. Of course they had corresponding Marine names. Add tobacco - yum! Pound cake was the best - a real treat.

I remember the initial MRE meals as bland and tasteless. Much easier to carry. I can’t remember but seems they had a weird heating mechanism? I understand that they have gotten better and many more flavors. Heard they are good.
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Peaches, NEVER forget the peaches; gold in a can!!

Still have an OLD P-38 on my tags...
 
AF6872 said:
No Hockey in college but both Daughters played Club Field Hockey in college. One at USNA and one at State University. Son's school had no Hockey program. I do miss those Hockey days and road trips and tournaments from New York to Canada and every State in-between. They are now in their late twenty's and early thirty's, so it was a long time ago.🏒🏑⚽
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Was just thinking about this. How many states are there between New York and Canada?
 
None. I-87 all the way or I-90 west to Toronto. Albany, Lake George and Champlain straight through to Montreal with some side trips to Lake Placid for tournaments and camps. Toronto and I-90 for tournaments and kid's pictures with the Stanley Cup at the Hockey Hall of Fame. Meant every New England State plus New York on the border of Canada and the US. Sorry for the confusion.
 
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AF6872 said:
None. I-87 all the way or I-90 west to Toronto. Albany, Lake George and Champlain straight through to Montreal with some side trips to Lake Placid for tournaments and camps. Toronto and I-90 for tournaments and kid's pictures with the Stanley Cup at the Hockey Hall of Fame. Meant every New England State plus New York on the border of Canada and the US. Sorry for the confusion.
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Yes, Confusion is a state.
So are Despair, Disarray and Dissatisfaction

All four of those are not strangers to folks living in NY State

:zip:
 
Just like the Commonwealth of Virginia and Eastern Oregon and Portland there are two distinct areas of New York State. You may be overwhelmed by one side but can still keep up the good fight. 🇲🇾 Sometimes the hill you choose prevails. It is the high ground.
 
flieger83 said:
Well, perhaps not the ham and eggs...
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The worst! BUT, if you did heat them, (which rarely happened in the field, on the go), not bad. IF you had the time to "prepare" the stuff, it none of it was bad, but grunts never had either, the stuff, or the time. Things got real when they put M&M's (Mike Mike's), good trade fodder. Someone on FB posted a real with Beef Stew, they actually made the moca mix. We would just toss the coffee in our mouths and drink some water. LOL Save the hot cocoa for later.
 
What about the dried beef & pork patties? LOL I did rehydrate a beef patty and microwave it. It actually tasted like a grilled fastfood burger. CHicken on a swing? Chicken loaf, ham loaf, ham and chicken loaf? The cheese and PB you had to squeeze. When I was a kid (mid 70's), Dad was AF, a friend down the street had cases of C-Rats in his families closet. We broke into a bunch of them and got all the smokes out and sold them to neighborhood kids, a Lakenheath black market. LOL
 
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