Tabasco bottles make a comeback in MRE's

USMCGrunt

USMCGrunt

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"Tabasco’s inclusion in military rations unofficially dates back to 1966, when Walter McIlhenny, a Marine and grandson of the hot sauce mogul Edmund McIlhenny, tapped into the military market with a C-ration cookbook called ‘No Food Is Too Good for the Man Up Front.’"

"In 1990, the military made the decision to add the fan favorite 1/8-ounce Tabasco bottles to MREs until they were retired in favor of the packets in 2011."

www.marinecorpstimes.com

Tabasco bottles make a glorious return to the MRE

Tabasco bottles are back, baby!
www.marinecorpstimes.com www.marinecorpstimes.com
They were not included back in my day but most Marines I knew carried a bottle with them. The added weight was worth it!
 
USMCGrunt said:
They were not included back in my day but most Marines I knew carried a bottle with them. The added weight was worth it!
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Come on, @USMCGrunt, you're as old as me.
MREs weren't even available until 1984 (as far as I can recall) and I never even saw an MRE until I was promoted to civilian. :)

The real question is...do you have a P-38?
 
Correct @THParent . Basic School class 5-81. I was "lucky" to carry around C-rations during my fleet days and saw first generation MRE's just as I was getting out. So, my field experience was with C-rats and many of us carried small tabasco bottles (not these miniature ones). Favorite C-rat was probably "beans and balls."

Regarding the "John Wayne" - oh yes, I have a bunch of them. Last year, I posted a picture of one on our veteran Employee Resource Group (ERG) at work and none of the members had ever even seen one! That was one of the points where I realized it was time to retire. ;)
 
Ah. Fond memories. When I was the Cubmaster of my son's Cub Scout Pack and later as the Scoutmaster in the Troop, we had P-38 races to see who could open a can the fastest. I still have a small bucket of them. I give them out now at NRA instructor training classes. Keeping the knowledge of one of the best tools ever made, alive.
 
I keep
THParent said:
Ah. Fond memories. When I was the Cubmaster of my son's Cub Scout Pack and later as the Scoutmaster in the Troop, we had P-38 races to see who could open a can the fastest. I still have a small bucket of them. I give them out now at NRA instructor training classes. Keeping the knowledge of one of the best tools ever made, alive.
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That sounds like something my Scoutmaster would do. He was a B-17 pilot who flew 30 missions with the 381st bomb group. I learned a lot of good stuff from him.
 
THParent said:
Come on, @USMCGrunt, you're as old as me.
MREs weren't even available until 1984 (as far as I can recall) and I never even saw an MRE until I was promoted to civilian. :)

The real question is...do you have a P-38?
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I went through basic in 1983 and we still had C rats. Some were good, others, meh.
But the initial MREs were mostly a miss. The dehydrated pork and beef patties..:: what in the ^%#* were you supposed to do with them? Throw them at the enemy?
I also feel the Army started using MREs as the lazy way out. While the Air Force would have sandwich and salad bars for Airmen after hours, the Army solution was the MRE. Not very healthy.
Or even worse… T-RATS, AKA Soylent Green.
MREs have improved over the years, but still a bunch of calories. If you’re eating 3 a day, that’s a bunch of calories.
And to answer the question… please. Cholula sauce. Tabasco is just vinegar and peppers.
 
THParent said:
Come on, @USMCGrunt, you're as old as me.
MREs weren't even available until 1984 (as far as I can recall) and I never even saw an MRE until I was promoted to civilian. :)

The real question is...do you have a P-38?
Click to expand...
I loved my crats. And the small pack of cigs we got within them.

But I did see mre s in 1966. Likely spring of 1966. They were called LURP meals by us for some reason not MREs.

I am guessing it was because of our job that we got them. The rest of the Corps may not have seen them that early.

The c rats were heavier so that was a negative. The MRE s need water and in the dry hot season that was a problem, Never remember Tabasco being carried and that was our loss.
 
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UHBlackhawk said:
Cholula sauce. Tabasco is just vinegar and peppers.
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No kidding. Anything is better than Tabasco, but Tabasco is better than no hot sauce. If Cholula is the stuff with the wood cap, I am in complete agreement. Otherwise, I'm in the Frank's Red Hot corner.
 
Small Team Bacsi said:
I loved my crats. And the small pack of cigs we got within them.

But I did see mre s in 1966. Likely spring of 1966. They were called LURP meals by us for some reason not MREs.

I am guessing it was because of our job that we got them. The rest of the Corps may not have seen them that early.

The c rats were heavier so that was a negative. The MRE s need water and in the dry hot season that was a problem, Never remember Tabasco being carried and that was our loss.
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During my time in the early to mid 80's, it was still C Rats. I went ashore for a short time with 2nd Tank Battalion in '82
and we had C's. That's also what they had in the Root (Beirut) in 83.
 
OldRetSWO said:
During my time in the early to mid 80's, it was still C Rats. I went ashore for a short time with 2nd Tank Battalion in '82
and we had C's. That's also what they had in the Root (Beirut) in 83.
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Here is one of those great times where we are both correct :)

.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LRP_ration

No wonder why in 1966 ICorps we called them LURP meals and not MREs.
 
vietnamwar.fandom.com

LRP ration

The Food Packet, Long Range Patrol or "LRP ration" (pronounced "Lurp") was a U.S. Army special field ration. It was developed in 1964 during the Vietnam War (1959-75) for use by Special Operations troops on long patrols deep in enemy territory, where the bulky canned MCI ration (formerly known...
vietnamwar.fandom.com vietnamwar.fandom.com

And was introduced in the field in 1966. And the big draw back to further use——the amount of water needed to cook them.
 
Small Team Bacsi said:
Here is one of those great times where we are both correct :)

.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LRP_ration

No wonder why in 1966 ICorps we called them LURP meals and not MREs.
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I don't know what the special people had but saw and experienced what the regular old ground pounders had.
 
OldRetSWO said:
I don't know what the special people had but saw and experienced what the regular old ground pounders had.
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You missed nothing.

I may have taken them to the field once. And it was always c rats we reached for late at night when the munchies hit. These were a bad idea or a good idea poorly executed.

But I now have a new definition for Old Corps——we who never had MREs
 
Small Team Bacsi said:
You missed nothing.

I may have taken them to the field once. And it was always c rats we reached for late at night when the munchies hit. These were a bad idea or a good idea poorly executed.

But I now have a new definition for Old Corps——we who never had MREs
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On an amphib that pretty constantly had Marines moving on and off, it was not uncommon for partial or even whole C Rats to be found here and there after the Marines debarked. We also had "LFORM" (cargo) stores of C Rats and other things for emergencies, disaster relief and other unplanned for operations but of course, THOSE Rations would NEVER end up in Sailor's hands. . . {sarcasm off/}
The result of all of the rations moving around was that many divisional tool lockers, drawers and other storage seemed to always have C ration cans of peanut butter, crackers pound cake or the like.
It was kind of a constant "junk drawer" filler on that ship.
 
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