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Opening the known 3rd case of the Long-Life aka LRP II

Posted: Mon Oct 11, 2021 4:56 pm
by Rstel01
Hi,

For those that have been following the thread and detective story and documentation on these uber-rare 1990 prototypes, I opened the "known" 3rd case that exist (the one I have). To the earlier post, I have had no success in finding any further. I have been at multiple Militaria/Military Vehicle events (where these 3 known have surfaced and all in PA) throughout the NE with no luck. Last Friday really closed the "season" and sans rounding out General Purpose "Emergencies" and some other run of the mill MRE cases, no joy at all. As such I made the decision to open and share/trade with other collectors who can understand the significance and there very odd place in "modern era" ration technology.

Case was cleanly opened and banding saved
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They were packed as called out in the "advanced combat ration technology demonstrator" report (note the two closest being of a different "brown bag" color) and they were all hand labeled over regular "brown bags"
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Menu's broke out as such:
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Here is the one I chose to open it would either be "lasagna" or beef stroganoff"
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Internal contents, very much a hybrid between an RCW and MRE:
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Note again to the other one that was opened, it is an off the shelf Mountain House. Very much differing from the Natick Labs sample photo, showing a traditional LRP main:

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That Natick Labs photo is also showing the difference in the Lot number and Dates being hand-written on the case (whereas all 3 of the known cases are printed to the same "Lot 1" and Aug 90 production by SoPackCo.

Good reference point, it is now in my display case across from a standard LRP so you can see the difference in size.

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In the event that you haven't been able to reference the documentation that I placed in the other/members section, attached is the Natick minutes of meeting for the "Long Life" project of 1990

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Re: Opening the known 3rd case of the Long-Life aka LRP II

Posted: Mon Oct 11, 2021 5:39 pm
by Amelieee1
Sent ya a PM about the lasagna one. Would kill to have such an important ration in my collection

Re: Opening the known 3rd case of the Long-Life aka LRP II

Posted: Tue Oct 12, 2021 12:46 pm
by cavguy
Awesome photos and great research too! From the looks of it I would think that that fig bar is good to eat! If that's the case, I would be willing to bet most of the items are in fact edible.

Re: Opening the known 3rd case of the Long-Life aka LRP II

Posted: Tue Oct 12, 2021 5:05 pm
by Smitty
This is why I love this forum. Fantastic!