How did you discover MREs?

paul heath · Post by **paul heath** » Sun Jan 16, 2005 3:46 pm

KMAN,

Thanks for the greeting. On ebay.de members can also try the following:

notration (this will get you survival rations), mre, epa, bwbrot (for that tasty BW canned bread),verpflegung, hartkeks to name a few. Of course, plurals too.

A check this morning revealed rations from USA, Britian, FINLAND, and France. Recently a seller going by jackdaniels has been selling NATO rations from all of these nations plus Italy, Holland and Sweden. But, with the shipping price and the dollar getting hammered I am going to sit those out. However, it may be useful to try and scan those items on to this website, with their permission, for reference until the actual item can be purchased.

It appears that most of NATO stilll uses the one day pack with tinned meals.

Thanks again, yep I really enjoy this topic!

Paul Heath

Post by **kman** » Sun Jan 16, 2005 4:33 pm

Thanks for those extra suggestions, Paul. And now you've accidently revealed my secret source for a lot of the ration pictures on the web site - ebay. Between Ebay and those Japanese rations sites, you can find pictures of a lot of different types of rations. I'm especially appreciative of auctions like this one that post super-sized pictures:

Finnish ration on ebay.de

Another forum member, ThomasFromGermany (also know as the man brave enough to eat that Russian ration), pointed out these auctions to me last week. He also gave me the suggestion to check their other current auctions and their feedback. By checking their feedback, you can often find older auctions that might still have the pictues attached. Here are some links:

Other auctions
Feedback

paul heath · Post by **paul heath** » Sun Jan 16, 2005 5:49 pm

KMAN,

Wow, I just spent the past hour checking out that Japanese web site! That guy has it all. I only wished he had an english translation(sans babel fish). And not that this web site isnt great too

.

BTW, in your evals could you possibly list box/bag sizes. I think it would be helpful to comp the differences b/t say the German EPA box size to that of the English et al. And the weight of the portions too?

I am all about the minutae of this topic.

Paul Heath

Post by **kman** » Mon Jan 17, 2005 5:24 pm

Paul, yes, that Japanese site is a very cool site. I can only hope that someday mreinfo will have as many pics and rations samples as that guy's site!

As for box/bag dimensions, I'll see what I can do to get that stuff added. I've had a couple of requests for that kind of info in the past so it's definitely some info that people are looking for.

DangerousDave · Post by **DangerousDave** » Mon Jan 17, 2005 5:38 pm

My Dad bought a lot of C-Rats at gunshows in the mid to late '70's. The first MRE brown bags I saw, I bought 5, I think, at a gunshow in Virginia Beach about 1983. About a year later, I joined the Army as an 11B, and for the next 6+ years, I actually got sick and tired of eating them. I think the US Gov't. has done a super job over the years improving them. Looking back, a lot of the ones I ate in the '80s were rough, but like kman says, I'f your on an ARTEP in Germany or where ever, and hungry as a bear, anything you can put in your belly is a Godsend. My old time favorites were the dehydrated pork and beef patties, (with the powdered ketchup packet prepared), but thats just me. I hated the beef chunks in gravy. The Ham and chicken loaf was OK most of the time. The Omelet with ham was excellent, and I'll never figure out why they discontinued it. (I understand that Uncle Sam is working on a new egg meal). My favorites from recent MRE's are the spaghetti with meat sauce, the grilled beef and chicken patties, and I think my alltime favorite is the grilled beefsteak with mushroom sauce. The beef and mushrooms is very good also. I have yet to find the pork rib/clam chowder meal, but looking forward to it. Later

Post by **kman** » Mon Jan 17, 2005 6:15 pm

DangerousDave, so you really liked that Omlette w/ Ham? I have a few of those (form 1992) sitting around and for some reason, I just can't bring myself to try one. Maybe it's the imagery I get from people who've tried the Canadian IMP version of an omlette - they call it "lung in a bag".

But I actually read in another forum that someone else thought the Omlette was the best MRE ever. I guess one of these days, I'm going to have to grit my teeth and give it a try.

Post by **DIRTYDAVE** » Mon Jan 17, 2005 8:40 pm

I have that pork rib and clam chowder meal but I cannot think of a more disgusting combination as I hate both of those items in real life but that is just me. I was also not very fond of the Beef and schrooms one. I have not eaten one spaghetti one as of yet because my 6yr old daughter loves that one and I cannot not give her that one, she loves it so! Hey Kman, get that pic up of my girl eating her MRE! Need a pic page in here so we can see each other eating our MREs, etc. And you can see me flushing the clam chowder down the toilet...HAHA. I wish you were closer Dangerous Dave as I would pay you to take that chowder and pork away from me...LOL!

Post by **kman** » Mon Jan 17, 2005 8:58 pm

Here you go DirtyDave! Nothing says MRE-eating like eating orange beverage base powder without the water!

(Click on the second picture for a larger version)

Post by **DIRTYDAVE** » Mon Jan 17, 2005 9:01 pm

That is my little girl everyone with her very first MRE meal! It is Spaghetti and she loved that Orange Bev Base Powder sans water. Tasted like yummy orange sugar candy to her....

Zeiti · Post by **Zeiti** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 8:01 am

Well, first of all, hello from Germany !
This is a great site !

I came across my first MRE ( in the dark brown bag) as we have traded them with GI´s from Fulda while on a joint training exercise in the field.
This was my very first peanut butter experience

After I have left the military, I forgott about them, but my interest got renewed after two incidents: One time we got stuck in a traffic jam for 11 hours and the second time we were caught by a snowstorm and stayed overnight in the car. Got a bunch of US rats and French rats from Ebay.
( Well, I am tired of the german rats, since the heavy trail foil food is same you can get in every store ! )

How did you discover MREs?

My first MRE