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The title basically says it all, i dont want to get ahead of myself here but i just received both case A & B from 1997 and this menu was not in there... Kinda odd.
With that being said im declaring that i want it! and i think we may have a Big foot on our hands guys... I've never even seen or heard of someone seeing this menu before.
Yet... It still is reported to exist!

As of today im announcing my hunt for a Chicken Parmesan MRE. If you or anyone you know has one of these or knows where to get one please contact me or Steve1989

Maybe im searching for a goose egg that was laid by Big foot and taken care of by Nessy... But i wont rest until i either acquire one of these or find out the truth behind it's so called "Existence"

Stay Hungry Guys!!
-Craig

Interesting. So there was a 1-12 and a 9-20 case, but the #14 in the 9-20 is different than the known menus eh? Everything else match up? Was your #14 a chicken cavatilli? That was the #14 in 98. In 96 (the first year there ever was a #14 since 1995 and earlier had 12 total) it was Chicken Parm as well, although there always were random outliers. I can definitely confirm that I broke the seal on those cases and transferred contents to the shipping boxes as-is if that info helps. I have that early 97 case (I say early because it's stamped 97 dop, but is menused 5-16 instead of 9-20) that I can probably break up so let me check and see if there's a chicken parm in there. I'd hate to see your plan of fully documenting that transition year come down to one random ration. Definitely interested to find out what it was you got instead.

I can't find my notes right now on the exact menu timings, but I seem to recall that during those late 90's/early 2000's MREs, the production runs were odd - like the 1999 MRE would run from April of 99 through March of 2001...so maybe that accounts for your cases not containing the right menu.

Ruleryak, yes my #14 was a cavatelli, and i was missing Menu no.1 Beefsteak and Menu no.6 Smoky Franks. Here is a full list of what i inventoried from the two cases
Menu no.2 Boneless pork chop x2
Menu no.3 Chicken stew x2
Menu no.4 Ham Slice x1
Menu no.5 Chicken w/ noodles x1
Menu no.7 Pork chow mein x2
Menu no.8 Chicken and rice x1
Menu no.9 Beef stew x2
Menu no.10 Chili and Macaroni x2
Menu no.11 Pasta w/ vegetables x2
Menu no.12 Cheese tortellini x1
Menu no.13 Pork w/ rice x1
Menu no.14 Chicken w/ cavatelli x1
Menu no.15 Grilled chicken patty x1
Menu no.16 Tuna w/ noodles x1
Menu no.17 Beef ravioli x1
Menu no.18 Turkey breast w/ gravy and potatoes x1
Menu no.19 Beef w/ mushrooms x1
Menu no.20 Spaghetti w/ meat sauce x1
And no man, i know that you made sure everything got transitioned into the shipping boxes accordingly, theres no worries about that. Yeah, the chicken parm is one of the rations that i was actually super excited about and i was going to highlight specifically because i knew that it was unheard of... and im thinking it may not exist at this point haha. Ofcourse the rest of the contents were there besides the missing menu no. 1 & 6... hmmm, i dont know what happened here, maybe it was just how they were packaging the mres that day. It's really odd, but it creates more adventure to find this damn menu no.14! haha.

Kman, i think you're right. They seemed to have missed the cut do to a date cut off or something.

Oh man! Craig, you're not gonna believe this (or maybe you will). So after hearing on here what happened with the cases I sent your way, I went and opened up the only other case I had unopened from 1997. It was from earlier in the year so it was a 5-16 (before the switch to a 20 menu set) and I figured it was far too early to have had it's #14 replaced with Cavatelli. Might have been true, if there was even a #14 in there!

The case was 1, 1, 4, 5, 7, 7, 8, 8, 11, 12, 13, 15. So no 6, 9, 10, 14, or 16. Pretty far off from the expected set. The two menu 1's and the menu 4 had black marker strike marks across the front and back - perhaps to signify that they were last-ditch case fillers?

Ruleryak wrote:Oh man! Craig, you're not gonna believe this (or maybe you will). So after hearing on here what happened with the cases I sent your way, I went and opened up the only other case I had unopened from 1997. It was from earlier in the year so it was a 5-16 (before the switch to a 20 menu set) and I figured it was far too early to have had it's #14 replaced with Cavatelli. Might have been true, if there was even a #14 in there!

The case was 1, 1, 4, 5, 7, 7, 8, 8, 11, 12, 13, 15. So no 6, 9, 10, 14, or 16. Pretty far off from the expected set. The two menu 1's and the menu 4 had black marker strike marks across the front and back - perhaps to signify that they were last-ditch case fillers?

So with this being said... THERE IS NOW A VERY COURTEOUS REWARD FOR A MENU NO.14 CHICKEN PARM MRE!

Holy crap Ruleryak... I think we may have uncovered a goose egg here haha.