MRE Stories

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Jack Ruby
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9:27p, 8/28/23
What are your favorites? My first was the vegetarian omelet (vomlelet) and I picked it because I was new and didn't know any better.

I've heard of the four fingers of death (I believe these were basically hotdogs), but before my time.

Beef stew was always reliable, although the mashed potatoes sucked. Usually you got a pack of sour skittles though (RIP). Chicken and Feta was good, as was the reliable chili mac. I remember making a key lime pie one time if you saved/traded enough lime drink mix powder, coffee creamer, and Graham cracker crumbs.

Also the heating element bombs and "lean it against a rock or something" directions on the bag. C-Rat stories from earlier conflicts are welcome as well.
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JABQ04
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9:39p, 8/28/23
AG
I remember sitting in the back of a humvee in Korea in the winter, excited for my Chil Mac MRE when I discovered all my water was frozen. Ended up eating a Chili Mac popsicle.
7/10. Would eat again.

My favorites (that I can remember) in order:
Chili Mac
Spaghetti
Beef Stew
????
Veggie omelette. Hell it didn't even have good snacks.
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HollywoodBQ
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10:58p, 8/28/23
AG
Pork and Rice in BBQ Sauce was always my favorite.

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OldArmyCT
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4:32a, 8/29/23
AG
I retired in 1990, took an MRE (Meals Rejected by the Ethiopians) with me. It's still in the pantry, always good for a laugh.
In Vietnam we were headed north with a platoon of Hueys, stopped to refuel and my crew chief noted a soldier standing by a pallet of C Rations. He asked him what he waiting for and he replied "The helicopters." We liberated about a dozen cases.
Driving on some REFORGER convoy as an M-60A1 platoon leader, stuck a can of beanie wienies inside the heater vent by my feet and forgot about them until they blew up. Not only did I stink from no shower in +2 weeks but I smelled like burnt beans.
Back to Vietnam, ferrying around a ROK general all morning, after we're done he invites us for lunch. We shut down at their base camp and trudge over to his tent which was a GP small with lots of flags, chairs and a picnic table. Lunch was C Rations, very disappointing.
Again in Vietnam if you took all the C Rat meat cans and had access to LRRP rations (early MRE's...dried food you added water to and boiled) you could get a big pot and dump them all together and add a lot of Tabasco, it was palatable. But you have to remember, over there a can of Carling Black Label that had never seen the inside of a refrigerator tasted pretty good, depending on when you were drinking it. Even today I'm not very picky about what I eat, quantity over quality.
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Get Off My Lawn
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8:22a, 8/29/23
In a human factors training evolution (sleep deprivation / exhaustion / hunger) I lucked out and my 1 MRE was the beef stew. When it was finally time to crack open the entree, I salted it and went to town.

But it tasted funky, so I added some more salt.

Still not right. So I dumped the rest of the salt in.

Even worse. I finally got around to reading "sugar" on the packet. So I found the ACTUAL salt and ate it all with a side of shame.
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Rabid Cougar
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12:32p, 8/29/23
AG
Trying to figure out how to open things up. An E-4 said "10% sir" I looked at him quizzingly and he responded "you just have to be 10% smarter than what your opening".

I loved that phrase and used it on my kids... I hear them use it now.... All over an MRE.
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Ham Slice MRE
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8:28a, 8/30/23
bigtruckguy3500
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9:49a, 8/30/23
The veggie and cheese omelet.... Thankfully doesn't exist anymore. My first encounter with it was during the Army ROTC winter FTX at Fort Hood. Usually vegetarian MREs have good sides, and really aren't that bad. I got this one and figured it was vegetarian and would at least have a good sides. It didn't. I always tell people it had the consistence of congealed toothpaste.

I don't know if it was the MRE, or if it was something else I ate, but a few hours after eating that veggie and cheese omelet I started having frequent diarrhea. Lasted for about 36 hours or so. I actually volunteered for 2am firewatch so I would have an excuse to go to the bathroom without having to wake up a battle buddy to walk there with me. Regardless, I'm blaming that MRE.

That being said, I still miss some of the old vegetarian MREs. The cheese manicotti was dang good. Cheese tortellini is alright if you heat it up. Soy burger was pretty meh. Ratatouille was ok. Can't remember the others I've had.

Also, went on a field exercise last year where they had regular MREs, and kosher and halal MREs. Halal ones were dang good. It was Indian food MREs with lamb. They also had like regular chicken pesto, beef stew, etc.
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CharlieBrown17
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11:03a, 8/30/23
AG
Chicken pesto pasta is solid and has good sides

Chili mac is still the OG
The beef taco isn't bad either
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aznaggiegirl07
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12:26p, 8/30/23
AG
we have to do QA/QI on the current MREs we have, every 6 months( We, I mean public health) Ive eaten one...unheated, because we cant use the heat things indoors
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JABQ04
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In reply to aznaggiegirl07 • 1:31p, 8/30/23
AG
Uhhh……were we not supposed to heat those in an enclosed space?
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JABQ04
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In reply to CharlieBrown17 • 1:35p, 8/30/23
AG
CharlieBrown17 said:
Chicken pesto pasta is solid and has good sides

Chili mac is still the OG
The beef taco isn't bad either


To get a chili Mac at least once during a week long Field Exercise I'd definitely throw my rank as an NCO around. But the other 99% of the time I'd dig through the scraps. Almost had to sleep with the MREs to keep the joes from rat ****ing them. Nothing worse than getting spaghetti and looking forward to the tropical skittles only to find one of your dudes had already opened it and nabbed the skittles.
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clarythedrill
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1:39p, 8/30/23
I joined the Army in 1990 when we still had the old dark brown bag MREs. I think, as a whole, they were better than anything since:

Chicken A'la King- Most people hated it but I loved it, so I was always able to trade for it.
Beef Stew- Always a decent meal.
Meatballs, Beef and Rice in spicy tomato sauce- Probably my favorite MRE ever.
Chicken and Rice- A decent meal, but could be a little dry.
Pork with Rice in BBQ Sauce- Another darn good meal and always had a glob of fat in it.
Dehydrated Beef Patty- Hated it, but loved the powdered soup and powdered ketchup.
Dehydrated Pork Patty- Hated this one too.
Tuna with Noodles- Not too bad if you used a lot of hot sauce.
Beef Wieners- Five fingers of death or monkey dycks. They were OK.
Ham Slice- A really good meal, and the slice was an actual slice of ham, not a pressed patty.
Chicken and Turkey loaf- As Charles Barkley would say, "turrble".
Omelet with ham- Not too bad if you mixed the cheese, crackers and hot sauce into it.

I wish I could come across a case of these old ones, I would pay handsomely for it.
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AgBQ-00
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4:33p, 8/30/23
AG
Do quad bombs count?
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aznaggiegirl07
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In reply to JABQ04 • 4:38p, 8/30/23
AG
JABQ04 said:
Uhhh……were we not supposed to heat those in an enclosed space?


Apparently not…
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whoop1995
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6:15p, 8/30/23
AG
In Korea in the '89 I remember heating mre's on 2 1/2 ton trucks when they happened to roll by. Straight leg infantry here and that didn't happen that often. I remember little bottles of Tabasco, peanut butter and pudding were big trading items. Spaghetti, beef stew were my go to. Meatloaf was dried out and needed water added and heated up.

Remember sitting on top of a hill, full ruck and here comes Ahjumma with a full ruck filled with 32 ounce Pepsi and moonpies. Always traded mre's for one of those Pepsi's and moonpies.

Still eat moonpies today when I run across them always brings me back to time in Korea.
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Ham Slice MRE
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6:42p, 8/30/23
AG
I forget which meal combo it was but I always tried to snag the ones that had the rice side and cheese side. Combo that with some Tabasco and I was happy. Worst imo was the hotdogs ( other than the ham slice which was being phased out when i was going in) but I could avoid it bc for some reason my enlisted guys would fight over it.
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JABQ04
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In reply to whoop1995 • 7:20p, 8/30/23
AG
whoop1995 said:
In Korea in the '89 I remember heating mre's on 2 1/2 ton trucks when they happened to roll by. Straight leg infantry here and that didn't happen that often. I remember little bottles of Tabasco, peanut butter and pudding were big trading items. Spaghetti, beef stew were my go to. Meatloaf was dried out and needed water added and heated up.

Remember sitting on top of a hill, full ruck and here comes Ahjumma with a full ruck filled with 32 ounce Pepsi and moonpies. Always traded mre's for one of those Pepsi's and moonpies.

Still eat moonpies today when I run across them always brings me back to time in Korea.


Ahjumma was a game changer in the field. We occupied a firing point for 2 weeks and she set up shop faster than the guns. Lived off Mountain Dew and Bulgogi and Rice for 2 weeks. Played dominoes with the boys under the tent she set up. More like a 2 week camping trip than an FTX. Also miserably colld, being end of January/beginning of February.
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Buck Turgidson
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In reply to clarythedrill • 10:14a, 9/4/23
That's funny, I hated Chicken a la King but always found somebody wanting to trade me. My favorite was these meatballs in BBQ sauce. Also, if you could get the chocolate cookie and some peanut butter you could make a passable Reeses substitute.
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UTExan
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In reply to OldArmyCT • 5:16p, 9/6/23
OldArmyCT said:
I retired in 1990, took an MRE (Meals Rejected by the Ethiopians) with me. It's still in the pantry, always good for a laugh.
In Vietnam we were headed north with a platoon of Hueys, stopped to refuel and my crew chief noted a soldier standing by a pallet of C Rations. He asked him what he waiting for and he replied "The helicopters." We liberated about a dozen cases.
Driving on some REFORGER convoy as an M-60A1 platoon leader, stuck a can of beanie wienies inside the heater vent by my feet and forgot about them until they blew up. Not only did I stink from no shower in +2 weeks but I smelled like burnt beans.
Back to Vietnam, ferrying around a ROK general all morning, after we're done he invites us for lunch. We shut down at their base camp and trudge over to his tent which was a GP small with lots of flags, chairs and a picnic table. Lunch was C Rations, very disappointing.
Again in Vietnam if you took all the C Rat meat cans and had access to LRRP rations (early MRE's...dried food you added water to and boiled) you could get a big pot and dump them all together and add a lot of Tabasco, it was palatable. But you have to remember, over there a can of Carling Black Label that had never seen the inside of a refrigerator tasted pretty good, depending on when you were drinking it. Even today I'm not very picky about what I eat, quantity over quality.


Like you, I was the Vietnam War era (never deployed there) and C ration preferences were Turkey loaf, blackberry jam and crackers and cigarettes du jour. I preferred Camel or Lucky Strike, but they were pretty stale by the mid 1970s.
“If you’re going to have crime it should at least be organized crime”
-Havelock Vetinari
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MAROON
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9:51p, 9/7/23
AG
Wasn't in the military, just a lowly CPA. For two years I was on the external audit team for the Wornick plant in South Texas that produced all those brown package MRE's. They always sent me home with lots of packages of the beef patty and the pork patty. Plus I remember maybe a hash brown type thing, and astronaut ice cream.

I will say the ladies in the test kitchen were always trying to come up with tasty recipes. I was a test subject for the beef stew.
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Not MarathonAg12
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11:29a, 9/9/23
I had this at my last FTX and it sucked ass
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BurnetAggie99
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2:23p, 9/10/23
Already a lot of good & bad ones already mentioned. I add in the best desert was the Vanilla Pound Cake.
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bigtruckguy3500
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In reply to Not MarathonAg12 • 4:29p, 9/10/23
What was bad about it? I remember seeing so many Discovery channel/History channel shows about MREs, and how the pizza MRE is the holy grail that no one can seem to get right, but that they were field testing them all the time. Hard to keep the crust from getting soggy and some other problems.

I think menu 11-14 are vegetarian, which usually at least have good sides. Did this have good sides?
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JABQ04
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In reply to Not MarathonAg12 • 5:00p, 9/10/23
AG
Isn't the new pizza MRE the one they had an entire unit searching for because one came up missing during testing or something?
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Joe Schillaci 48
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In reply to Jack Ruby • 5:48p, 9/12/23
AG
Spent 8 years in the Air Force. I have no idea what a MRE is.

I will add that the grilled steaks served every three weeks in the dining hall were pretty good.

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BQ08
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In reply to JABQ04 • 8:37p, 9/12/23
AG
JABQ04 said:
Isn't the new pizza MRE the one they had an entire unit searching for because one came up missing during testing or something?
Lol "experimental MRE" is code word for sensitive items, like NODs or weapons.
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Stat Monitor Repairman
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11:50p, 9/12/23
Quote:
Almost had to sleep with the MREs to keep the joes from rat ****ing them. Nothing worse than getting spaghetti and looking forward to the tropical skittles only to find one of your dudes had already opened it and nabbed the skittles.
Lol at this and lol at the term 'rat ****'

Rat **** was common vernacular.

You can't get away with dropping a rat **** in a corporate job.

No rolling up in the break room in 2023 asking who rat ****ed the box of granola bars.

No going to meeting and going on a rant because someone rat ****ed the deli tray.

Good times.
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LMCane
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In reply to Jack Ruby • 3:23p, 9/13/23
I got to upgrade to kosher MRE in Officer School which tasted pretty great

you boys don't know about MRE until you try some from the Israel Defense Forces. In 1992 I was eating rations of basically dog food from cans created in 1956.
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BurnetAggie99
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3:31p, 9/13/23
While in the Marines got to trade with a Royal Marine. Got to try one of their 24 HR ORP's MRE's.
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InfantryAg
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2:41a, 9/28/23
AG
I tried that veggie omelet...

It was so bad I felt like punching the inventor in the face.

It was so bad I couldn't even believe it, so in a moment of dumb, I took another bite.

Then I felt like punching myself in the face.
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clarythedrill
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In reply to BurnetAggie99 • 8:38a, 9/28/23
BurnetAggie99 said:
While in the Marines got to trade with a Royal Marine. Got to try one of their 24 HR ORP's MRE's.
During Desert Storm, my tank company passed by a British tank unit and we stopped for a few minutes to talk. We traded them a case of MREs for a 24 hr box of rations. It had the best beef stew and smoked bacon in it.
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Woodan99
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In reply to clarythedrill • 8:14p, 9/28/23
Did Col D ever get a star. Please tell me no.

That dude sucked. #korea2016
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TowGun93
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9:41a, 10/1/23
AG
"Meals Refusing to Exit"

Woe to the grunt that forgot to hydrate while eating MREs.
Ate them almost exclusively for many months in the field in Desert Storm.

Ham slice (#8), Escalloped Potatoes with Ham (#12), Beef Stew (#7).

I still use rat@!*% all the time. Good stuff.


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Woodan99
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In reply to TowGun93 • 9:56a, 10/1/23
TowGun93 said:
"Meals Refusing to Exit"

Woe to the grunt that forgot to hydrate while eating MREs.
Ate them almost exclusively for many months in the field in Desert Storm.

Ham slice (#8), Escalloped Potatoes with Ham (#12), Beef Stew (#7).

I still use rat@!*% all the time. Good stuff.


And Soldiers still rat &*&^ ing them in 2023!
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