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[Richard w.]

Hello to the forum-

I've been an MRE fan for many years now. I did my first hitch in the Army '83-'86, so I experienced the last years of the old C-Rations and the first of the MRE's.

I liked a lot about the C's (especially the spaghetti and the canned peaches), but the MRE's were so much better that it's not even fair to compare them. I suppose GI's today would get a good laugh if they saw how ecstatic we were with our dehydrated pork patties and "bean components" back then.

When I joined, the MRE's were already in production but the policy was to exhaust the existing stocks of C's before digging into the MRE's. Most of the C's were horrible when eaten very cold (picture big globs of
yellow fat congealed on top) and warming them wasn't always possible.

The crackers in the C's were round and came stacked in one of the cans, and many had become moldy. And the cans were a royal PITA, too: if you stuck them in a pocket, they'd either be slapping you in the legs or you'd roll on top of them.

I finished my last hitch in 2003, so I also got to taste the more elaborate menus. I'm a big fan of Natick Labs, and am grateful that our country puts so much effort and money into providing the best rations in the world to our soldiers.

Regards, Rich

[kman]

Hi Rich - welcome to the forums! Maybe you should pick up this guy's MREs from 1986:

viewtopic.php?t=472

to relive some old memories. I'm a big fan of MREs but I tried one of those from the 80s recently and it wasn't a pretty sight. I sure hope those dehydrated pork patties tasted a lot better 20 years ago when they first released them.

[Richard w.]

Hi kman- I've been enjoying your site very much. I saw where you reviewed the pork patty meal. Brings back good memories!

The small, clear bag was used to re-hydrate the meat, so that you could do it without wasting any water. Both the pork and the beef patty menus came with the "catsup" powder, which was actually excellent. You ripped the top off the packet and dribbled a few drops of water into it, then stirred with the end of your short white spoon. Then squeeze it onto the patty with lots of salt. Yum!

I'm not certain why they stopped putting ketchup in any of the meals. It seems it would be a natural for stuff like the more recent beef patty and the meatloaf.

I see the guy in the Classifieds has beef slices and barbecue sauce. Another lost treasure.

[Hell Devil]

Richard w. is right about the catsup. I had several MREs in the late '80s that came with it and it was really tasty. It was kind of a white powder that turned catsup color when water was added.

[kman]

Well I hope that catsup tasted a lot better when it was fresh because the 20 year old version I tried was pretty nasty - it was all vinegary.