Arabic MRE?

katojapan · Post by **katojapan** » Sun Nov 25, 2007 6:03 pm

I found an interesting MRE on eBay.
It's got Arabic on it, do you think it's rare?

http://cgi.ebay.com/Current-War-Rations ... dZViewItem

Post by **kman** » Sun Nov 25, 2007 8:54 pm

Wow...that's something I've never seen before. In case the auction goes away, here are the pics from it:

The rest of auction didn't really offer any other info except:

The eBay auction wrote:Current War Rations Menu 4 Sealed Marked English Arabic

This auction features one new sealed in plastic pouch Menu 4 rations labeled in English and Arabic marked "Distributed by: The Wornick Company 200 N. First Street, McAllen, TX 78501 USA."

Measurements: 13 x 7.5

Ok...so who here reads Arabic or can possibly get the text from the MRE bag into Babelfish? :-)

PC1149 · Post by **PC1149** » Mon Nov 26, 2007 5:50 pm

If you look closely at the printing, the Arabic looks to be hand written onto the basic MRE with a marker not actually printed in Arabic from the manufacturer.

Post by **kman** » Mon Nov 26, 2007 6:08 pm

Good point, PC1149. My problem is that I don't know what machine/laser printed Arabic looks like vs. handwritten Arabic. The ink looks like the same color as the rest of the text on the bag so that's why I thought it was printed at the factory.

This MRE bag looks like an older version of the Wornick Mil-Spec (I think) MREs. This is the closest picture I could find in my collection:

PC1149 · Post by **PC1149** » Mon Nov 26, 2007 6:45 pm

The only way to be sure if it is hand written is to get better pictures of the top and bottom Arabic writting on that MRE. Maybe ask for better pics from the seller?

Post by **kman** » Mon Nov 26, 2007 6:54 pm

Come on - that's almost like stopping and asking for directions! Why would we want to do that when we could just post endless guesses here? :-)

PC1149 · Post by **PC1149** » Mon Nov 26, 2007 7:03 pm

Another reason I think it's handwritten is Wornick places sticky labels on these types of meals, why would they print a foreign language directly on the outer bag when they don't even do that for the menu's in English???

Stef · Post by **Stef** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 3:17 am

Hi,
if they had a big order from -say- Saudi Arabia and if the customer wants everything to be printed, I guess everything will be printed

In fact, it looks like only "MENU 4" is written in arabic.

I've seen a lot of Arabic writting and this could be printed, we'd just need a closer view to be sure...

davek · Post by **davek** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 8:17 pm

I'll throw in one factor both ways. The dot parts of the letters look darker like what a felt marker does when lifted from the surface and aren't perfectly spaced. However, they could have copied someone's handwritten Arabic to the printing plate for the bags.

mdkoh · Post by **mdkoh** » Sun Jan 27, 2008 10:54 am

Anyone ever thought about asking the company about that unusaul markings? http://www.wornick.com/flash.html

Seems to me that if they do this for the US Military and the US Military says we need "this" for the warwe are fighting, then the contractor is probably going to do that for them.