Late 1980's

[sahkeah]

Hello, I was in the Marines for 4 years, from 1986 - 1990, as a Machinegunner, so we were out in the field a lot and had a lot of MRE's! Anyways, one of my favorites, was the Beef Patty. I would heat some water in my MSR backpacking stove (I put the stove in a old GI sock and put it in one pocket outside of my Alice Pack and the fuel bottle in another pocket). While the water was heating up, I would crumble the crackers and beef patty and knead the cheese that came with the meal. Also, I would have a bottle of tabasco in my pack also. After the water would boil, I would add the beef patty and soup base that would come with the MRE. Stir real well and then add the crackers, cheese and tobasco sauce. Salt also. It was a good meal, especially up in the mountains in Bridgeport, CA or in the winter in Korea. All the meals were good, the one that had the most stuff, was the Ham and Chicken Loaf (Ham and choke loaf). Curiously, the Pork Patty came with some dehydrated ketschup.
In the early eighties, I was in the Forest Service, with the Flagstaff Hotshots and we had the C-Rats! MCI's. They were pretty good. We went to a fire in S. Arizona and I must have had a bad Rat and made me real sick. I only had the pears, fruit cocktail, fruit cake, John Wayne bars and pound cake after that! We also had the old LRRP rations and my favorite was the spagetti and also the orange and lemon corn-flake disks or whatever they were called. Those were pretty good!
We didn't have any little bottles of tobasco sauce or and heaters that come with a mre that they have now. We just had to improvise. The taco bell hot sauce was pretty good too.
Sometimes at a fire, we would throw the cans of peanut butter or jelly, cheese into the fire and they would explode! That was fun.
Whatever meal you had, crumble the crackers and add some tobasco sauce and they were pretty good after that! Also, we cut the meal package the long way, as that made it easier to eat and add stuff to it.
Semper Fi,
Steve

[norge]

cool reading
did you train in norway to in the 1980?
remebering the us marines from that time when i was
younger,they gave me loads of mres and usmc covers
have a nice day, cheers from norge

[kman]

Cool stuff, sahkeah. I have't tried just crushing up the crackers and mixing them in with whatever entree I have but it sounds like it's worth trying.

[sahkeah]

Norge - Sorry, but was in the Far East and didn't get to train with the Norwegians, etc.

Kman - Make sure you crumble the crackers while still in the package and then pour into the meal. The other mre that I used to like, was the "Ham and Chicken Loaf" or "Ham and choke loaf".

[donaldjcheek]

For a while in the early 80s we were issued both MREs & C-rats at the same time. Pound cake & peaches were my favored C-rat combination, but Strawberry short cake became the best dessert.

Take slices of pound cake from the C-rats, rehydrate the strawberries from the MREs, and mix up powdered cream & sugar from either accessory packet, and layer them all together. My mouth is watering just from thinking about it...

During the first Gulf War (1990-91) I would add crumbled crackers, powdered cream, and sugar to my rehydrated peaches - instant peach cobbler.

The best part of MREs is that little bottle of Tabasco, but I do miss the cigarettes from the (old) C-rats. I could always trade them (I don't smoke) for extra goodies.

[mreheater72]

Also, we cut the meal package the long way, as that made it easier to eat and add stuff to it.
Semper Fi,
Steve

That´s a really good idea, especially when using the white short spoon!

Its always interesting to read something that is written by someone, who had to eat rations for duty, not only for fun!

Best wishes mreheater72

[sahkeah]

My little MSR stove would always come in handy. In Korea, our hard-top humvee's had a metal square step, where the gunner on the turret stepped on and it was a great place for the stove. We would mix the cocoa, coffee, cream and sugar to make a 'community drink' for us all. Also, we could stick some mre meal pouches in some boiling water to heat up the meals. One time on Team Spirit 89 in Korea, we were in the mountains for 32 days and at the end of each convoy, there would be a little Korean truck that sold some noodles, a bottle of coke and a moon-pie for an MRE. One time, there was this lady who was frying up some egg sandwiches! Man, you could smell that for a mile and there was no hesitation in trading an MRE for a couple of egg sandwiches, as we didn't have anything fresh for a while.

[donaldjcheek]

This isn't really about MREs, but an interesting story nonetheless.

At Ramasun Station, Thailand, in the mid 1970s, they served C-rations once a month. Instead of eating in the mess hall, most of us would buy some "real food" off the vendor carts just outside the front gate.

One of the vendor ladies there sold cokes for a nickel - but the bottle was more valuable than the beverage. She would pour the coke into a plastic sandwich bag, add a straw, and wrap a rubber band around the mouth before handing it to you. Believe it or not , I never saw a bag leak, much less break, no matter how precarious it looked.

As I recall, she also took c-rats in trade for noodles, rice, and chicken on a stick.

[Treesuit]

sahkeah,
Hey I can remember the same thing when I was in the Corps. I think I posted a topic some time ago on the forum about trading a MRE for a bowl of kimchee and noodles. Somehow the local gut trucks always found us in the middle of nowhere. I was there for Valiant Blitz 90 and I remember trading a brown MRE for a bowl of noodles. Sure was good on a cold October night,

[sahkeah]

Treesuit,
I remember we are all trying to be 'tactical' and here comes the moon-pie truck! Sometimes they sold that gut whiskey too.
Semper Fi,
Steve 1/5 Wpns Co. 0331