Wow. I read the story and thought it was cute, until I got to the author's bio at the end. Wasn't ready for that emotional gut-punch. Condolences and R.I.P.
9
I don't know but as much as I hated those 'c-rats' those plastic bags look even worse than a can... but I'll bet they're way lighter and you can fit more in a small space.
2
Having eaten many an MRE on camping and river trips, over the years, I must thank the person who designed the brown spoon. It's brilliant. Would love to try French MREs!
2
Kelly,
Lovely story, wonderful writing. Thank you for sharing your life. As as Marine for the 70's I didn't get to "enjoy" the MRE's. C-rats were the standard back then. I hope to see more of your writing in the future.
Mr. Sandy Currie
4
My daughter brings her extra home. Actually I enjoy eating them.
2
MRE Haiku:
I do remember
what the ham and scalloped
potatoes with slime!
The toilet tissue
in its brown little wrapper
barely made a wipe!
And the tobasco
over everything and
not hardly enough!
The greatest weapon
of America starts brown
and ends also brown.
Oh my M R E
what a wonderful weapon
for us or against?
The whole world wonders
what the heck we were thinking
making M R E's?
Whoops, I gotta go
quick, quick, right now, quick, quick, quick
ahhhh what a weapon!
5
Not having a hometown but having a culture...what a great description of growing up in the military. I'm also an Army brat and though a couple of decades older than Kelly, her memories of Reveille and Retreat blasting out across post every day, the PX, uniforms, the constant distant sounds of artillery and aircraft (training exercises during the Vietnam era) and the formality of interaction with adults (always Ma'am and Sir!) ring so true.
Thanks for writing this wonderful article.
6
I served in the Army long enough to have experienced the Vietnam era C Rations and in later years MRE's. As a Ranger we ate when there was the opportunity and that could have been once in 24 hour period of patrolling. I don't even want to think about Ranger School, where I graduated 25 pounds lighter than when I started 61 days earlier. My point here is that they taste REALLY GOOD when one is in starvation mode. And they're great on camping trips. And those wafer thin little heating wafers? I rode shotgun in a Humvee with a heater on the frtiz from Taszar, Hungary to Tuzla, Bosnia in January, 1996. My driver and I slipped those heaters beneath our poncho liners (camouflaged nylon blanket) and were quite toasty. Thank you Uncle Sam.
6
I was in the Air Force and used to save my MREs to give to my dad for birthday and Christmas gifts. He loved them!
3
Kelly, please keep writing. That was a wonderful essay about your childhood and ode to your father. I wish you were my neighbor.
6
Lovely story...lovely people.
10
Sweet story and proves that for almost everyone, whatever you grew up eating will always taste the best.
10
Thanks for a great story and so many memories. I served 34 years in the Army uniform and spent half of those years overseas. My daughters grew up on Army bases and in U.S. Embassies. I hope they will forever treasure the unique experiences and variety of cultures from living in so many different places in the U.S. and Europe. On occasion, I even buy some MREs to share with my grandsons as I teach them to camp.
8
Very interesting story. Provides a glimpse into how a lengthy history of American military involvements around the world and the entrenched military-industrial complex economy created a culture that adores men & women in uniform, embrace the flag, shoot guns, plus a sub-culture speaking a language that includes M.R.E., Black Hawk and Chinook, and even an in-a-pouch food tradition.
8
I grew up with a career AF Dad, married a career AF husband and gave birth to a career Army son. I am old enough to remember the old C-rats of the '60s and the MREs of the 80s. I loved the military community and as a kid had my favorite components to the C-rats. Would not have changed it for the world.
5
Here are tributes written on behalf of COL McHugh...
http://www.west-point.org/users/usma1986/43461/
The last verse of our Alma Mater:
And when our work is done,
Our course on earth is run,
May it be said, 'Well Done;
Be Thou At Peace.'
E'er may that line of gray
Increase from day to day,
Live, serve, and die, we pray,
West Point, for thee.
NFE
9
LRRPR's......Why isn't anyone talking about Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol Rations........my favorite "Beans and Rice" coated with Tabasco (Vietnam 70/71, 101st Airborne).
4
@castle52 My co-worker Charles Nicholas would have, but he's gone now. He was Force Recon 3 tours, and did those long patrols. But he said they ate Vietnamese style in the bush so they wouldn't smell American.
2
This is quite frankly, sickening. "I’ll forever smile when I hear the familiar hum of a Black Hawk or Chinook helicopter flying overhead." Well something tells me that Grenadians under siege from Black Hawk helicopters 1983 did not feel the same way. Or Panamanians in 1989, or Somalis during the assault of Mogadishu. U.S. military should not be commended in this way lest we become nostalgic for causing disorder, disruption, and destroying other societies. #notinmyname #usmilitaryshouldbeheldaccountable
11
I still like MRE's too. I did not grow up in a Military family, but I did eat a lot of canned food. The MRE beef stew tastes like Dinty Moore, the spaghetti is straight Chef Boyardee.
Cheese spread- nasty. You shouldn't eat it. But I like it from time to time.
How about the reconstituted peaches? They don't have those anymore, but they did in the old dark brown MRE's.
My embarrassing secret? I can eat them cold and enjoy them.
3
Raised in the military (i.e., brat), thank you for bringing back memories.
5
Why are these floating around in Amazon it sitting in some grunt’s garage? I assume they’re military property, no? If I stole from work I suspect I’d be fired.
@Allentown How stupid. MREs are available for sale in commercial outlets and military commissaries (grocery stores for families). They are not "military property."
3
I was "issued" MREs for my in-flight meals when the mission was too long for an un-refrigerated sandwich to be indisputably safe. I remember that I paid for every one either in cash or by not receiving my pay allotment for that meal in my paycheck. Flying for hours at 400 feet following terrain in a B-52 does not improve the appetites of many aviators... So some MREs went home with me not yet eaten, but certainly paid for.
2
In 1967 at Shepherd AFB, I went on a 3 day bivouac with the USAF. Living off base and receiving $39/month to pay for my off-base meals [separate rats}. I was expected to pay for the 3 days of C-Rations that I would consume while out in the field.
The bivouac ended a day early and so I received 3 C-Rats in lieu of the $1.30 I had paid for the meals.
Taking them home I showed them to wife who noticed the dates: 1945. These had been around since WWII and they were feeding them to troops in 1967!
My wife was not impressed, but final judgement was rendered by Gretchen, our family dachshund. I opened the meal; other than it not being ham and Lima beans, i do not recall what it was.
Didn't matter to Gretchen, she came over smelled the contents, snorted and walked away.
10
As just a military brat, but with a JAG father, I missed MRE's. We got "inspection" of our rooms as kids, and military food -- but it was the Officers' Club. Not exactly a Michelin star place, but removed from the life described here -- evidence of class privilege. Not as privileged as I was once my father "retired" into private legal practice and the upper middle class, but still seriously different from the majority of military families.
Even in our armed forces, class counts.
1
This was a wonderful story and I look forward to reading your book!
2
I was deployed for months in the jungle somewhere *cough cough* in the early eighties right at the time when C rats were being phased out and MREs were starting to appear.
I remember our dismay and chagrin unloading cases of MREs in the tropical heat, all marked "For training use only. Not to be used outside the continental United States".
Well, it was either that or powdered eggs and Spam for every meal.
3
What a wonderful article. This young woman relished in her military childhood and in the love of her father. It makes me almost jealous of her experience, the closeness to her family and the traditions that they had.
I wonder what the new meals are like for the military now.
And, interesting to note she didn't seem the worse for wear for her experience.
5
Almost everyone else sees meals; I see a tribute to a loving father. Food and love are related, and when a writer so beautifully brings home this link it gladdens my heart and tempts by appetite. As a father of daughters, I honor daughters who remember us, who are usually their first boyfriends, their lovers forever.
16
@OkeEnyi
I was shaking my head in agreement until I reached your last sentence, as a woman it chilled me to the marrow. No father should think of himself as his daughter(s)’ first boyfriend or lover, not ever.
11
You are writing of a new age. They used to be called c rations, and have 4 packs of cigarettes included. Heating packs? Is that anything like a heat tab?
2
@Max NO, MRE's cannot be classified as the same as c Rations. They may be similar. But by god, with MRE's you got a hot 250 calories. (Do they come with a package of toilet paper?
1
@Max. Max, “C” is the class of ration, just like “A” and “B”. The canned Meal Combat Individual (MCI) was what was issued to troops as a C class ration and was eventually replaced by the Meal Ready to Eat (MRE). My wife would tell me I don’t have the most discerning of palates but I preferred the MRE to the MCI. Although I still occasionally hanker for the fruit cocktail that occasionally came with an MCI.
Makes me think of my Navy upbringing. I loved going to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, swimming at the base pool with my brothers and sister and then burgers at the commissary. Today, I can't look at gray and not think of a warship.
5
@Edward Gonzalez
My Navy upbringing consisted of three women, my Dad and me, and an uninsulated copper hot water heater.
The women got their showers first in the morning and then my Dad and I would scramble for whatever ‘hot’ water remained. Get wet, turn off the water, soap up, rinse, get out. Oh, the fun on a January morning!
2
My favorite part (as a brat) was the tiny bottle of Tabasco.
3
I'm always looking for stuff like this to prepare for the big earthquake. I've opted for stuff that will last 30 years as I get tired of seeing it go to waste.
5
I'm sorry … but I skip dinner tonight.
The idea that this pseudo meals can be seen as foo is enough to make my stomach turn bad.
I fully understand that military rations are what they are… but the notion that it is considered as real food, that is food for the mind and body as well it beyond me.
4
Beautiful thoughts, thank you for sharing. Myself, I'd probably never conjure up the courage (desperation :) ) to try them, but I can certainly appreciate how evocative an experience it is to eat a treat or delicacy from one's childhood.
6
I grew up a Milbrat ( Military Dependent) in the forties and fifties, when K rations left over from WWII were still used in the boy scout troops, and C rations were high tech.
I must admit that I have few nostalgic thoughts about either, though I do get nostalgic about the P38 can opener. (Google it.)
7
@Ernest Montague
Ah ! But P38 can opener was invention from a genius !
They're still available in some countries and I know I have a few scattered in my kitchen drawers and I somewhat use one regularly.
It is bound to be an "eternal" item.
5
@Ernest Montague "How to use a P38 can opener"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jnQbN_2Tnk
2
@Ernest Montague
Everyone has a P-38 somewhere, but some people don't know they do.
Wonderful column. Now I'm going to have to check out MRE's! Is there a key somewhere to what the cool extras are in each Menu, or is it always a surprise?!
It is lovely to read about your experience as a child of a parent in the military. My dad was in the Army, and I didn't realize until later in life when I met others who grew up in the military how the moves and the need to adapt had shaped my childhood.
The idea of "home" is a different one, a challenging one at times, right? So if MRE's does it, more power to you! They were much after my dad's time in the Army, and now I'm going to have to check them out! We would have loved them as kids, for sure. Your husband sounds like a good sport.
So sorry about the loss of your father. His service - and yours as his family - is appreciated more than you know. I will look for your memoir. Keep writing!
14
This Navy brat thanks you for sharing about a life most Americans can't even begin to imagine having for a childhood. I Loved Every Minute Of It!
Growing up as a military brat is a moniker I wear with an immense amount of pride.
When my father retired in 1976 and we moved to his small hometown in upstate NY - from California - yep, you guessed it, I was the only puka shell necklace/ Hang Ten Tshirt/Flip Flop wearing super tanned 'hippie' new student that 10 grade class had ever had. Only new student ever.
These guys had attended school together since kindergarten and lived in this town their entire lives.
Cheers to military brats, military families and our military men and women all over the World. One Love.
21
This is part of the reason when I got my draft notice in 1966 I joined the navy, at least we had real food!
12
Kelly, Thanks for this beautifully written piece. I can relate as an Army spouse and Army brat to everything in it.
Your parents were in our Bible study at Fort Leavenworth. Your Dad was a great guy; I look forward to your book about him. I’m sure he is smiling down on you and so proud of your accomplishments. The resiliency of our Gold Star families continues to inspire us! Keep writing!
16
Ordered some “just in case” and have been afraid to try them. You really make it sound like an adventure!
5
My dad was in the Marine Corps who retired in 1978. My little sister and I would get c rations or k rations as treats or on camping trips sometimes. We loved them! I remember there being a really good individual serving of cake in a can. I remember the weird little utensils and can opener. We used those weird little spoons to eat cereal for many years. I think they finally were tossed out when my mother sold their house. Thanks for the memories!
2
Oh for the days of the little green cans with plain black print. And the handy P-38 to open them. "Ham and Eggs, Chopped"
9
I'm a C-rat era vet, and walk down memory lane once in a while by using my old P-38 can opener. But only on a can of something delicious! Do rations still come with little packages of 4 cigarettes?
4
@Doug They stopped putting cigarettes in C-rations in 1975. As kids we always had fun trying to sneak away with the pack before mom remembered they too were in the box. Luckily, I never had to worry about that when feeding my own kids my extra MREs.
1
$15 dollars on Amazon? Do they pay you or you pay them? For the former, OK, for the latter, not a chance. Having had some of these on active duty, I would never buy one. They are most valuable for having one or two items of mild dietary interest, and then trading the rest to someone else with different tastes to get back more of what you like. There was always something in each one that interested you, but lots you could not wait to get rid of.
4
@Brendan Ward Vet here too. We keep them as hurricane prep food. We really don't have to eat them, but they keep forever and at least we're not one of those families running to the store clearing off the bread shelves. They'd keep us alive for weeks!
1
Love MREs. Crazy but I think they're great, for many of the reasons you say.
2
Macgyver reminds us that the water-activated heating pouch emits hydrogen gas. That can come in handy, too.
2
I enjoyed the piece and am sorry about your dad. Son of a Navy pilot and we moved all the time. Wouldn't trade that childhood for anything. My equivalent to your MRE memories are the distinctive smell inside an aircraft carrier.
9
The first MRE's were terrible, (Frankfurters with Bean Component, Chicken a la King); except for the dehydrated Beef Patty, which was far superior to the beef patty that came out later. I would boil water in a canteen cup, (the MRE heaters were a decade away). Add a beef bouillon cube, (which I always had a jar of), then add the beef patty, cheese spread, and finally, crumbled up crackers. Instant beef stroganoff!
During the Gulf War, I used whittle on the Oak Meal Cookie Bar with my bayonet.
The MREs came from Aiken, SC (10 different entrees), and McAllen, TX (another 10 different entrees). My ex-wife had a list of what was in all 20. Dehydrated Strawberries or Peaches were priced items because you could mix them with non-dairy creamer and a little bit of water.
During the first year of the war in Iraq, no matter what battalion I went to in Fourth Infantry Division, there was always a big box filled with Country-Captain Chicken packets. Nobody would eat them.
6
due to my mom having a serious accident, i ordered about a dozen and a half redi-meals (not MRE's... these are sold to the public). they are all in one tray meals similar, i guess, to the TV dinners we loved as kids and which were a rare treat. don't need refrigeration and only take one minute in the microwave. my dad said they were "a bit salty" which probably means they are heavy with the preservatives used in these types of meals... sounds like MREs to me, if only a home grown version. i guess i better warn against a consistent diet of them, if they cause digestive problems...
2
Thank you for a very nice, nostalgic and well written story.
I remember, as a kid, trying with some difficulty to open C-ration cans with that little P-38 Can Opener.
We alternatively lived on Army bases or in civilian neighborhoods when I was growing up. The differences between the two worlds were remarkable. On the Army posts we always knew all the families within 20 houses of ours but in the civilian suburbs we would only know our immediate neighbors it seemed.
But one huge difference, perhaps worth thinking about today, was the Socialized Medicine system for military families. If you were sick or needed a cavity filled, you went to the post hospital, the doctor fixed the problem and that was that. No billing, no payments, just Army doctors on a fixed salary.
12
@Don Oberbeck Yes, it is kind of interesting that our military, which we all claim to adore, has a "socialized medicine" health system that we all claim to dread. Government doctors giving government prescriptions to patients in government hospital, What the heck is this, communism? Millions of Americans would be much better off if they had access to such a system.
23
@Doug
Lots of retired military who were promised that care for life when we signed up would love to have it too. Instead we have to go into Medicare along with all the civilians, and hope to God when we move we can find a doctor willing to take us.
9
When in Haiti after the earthquake, to inspect schools so that they could reopen, we had a stash of Italian MREs for lunch everyday. I was told that the group that I was staying with had traded to the Italian military ( the first to arrive to start rescue operations) a pallet load of bottled water for a pallet load of Italian MREs. We split 3 MREs between 5 people for each lunch: minestrone soup, chicken pate, cheese, crackers, canned fruit, etc, and the best part in each meal , a little plastic tube of alcoholic aperitif. It was so hot at noon each day that we didn't even heat the food, even put the espresso powder in room temperature water. We usually had unopened tins and packets and little magnesium heaters which we gave to the caretaker of whatever school we were in. Now every time I open a can of Progresso Minestrone, the smell alone transports me back to that time, place, and coworkers. Smell is a powerful memory.
12
@Marie
I'm sitting in my kitchen eating a nice breakfast and working on a second cup of coffee. Your comment made me realize how lucky I am to not have to worry about where my next meal is coming from.
7
Ms. McHugh-Stewart, thank you for a beautifully written memory piece. I was near tears at the end even before the tagline broke the sad news of the loss of your father in action. The story honors him well. Peace.
15
Just to let you know, Youtube offers visual commentaries on eating MREs. And there's also an active market in MREs from France (highly sought after) to MREs from Asian countries as well. If you travel regularly, that may be something worth collecting!
I appreciate MREs. I have them ready to go for the big one out here in California!
3
I have zero military experience and neither does my family. This is delightful.
10
Does the author really believe MRE's allow soldiers to feel a little closer to home.
I think you are romanticizing your childhood, a perfectly normal thing to do. But girlfriend, please!!
Ask the soldiers currently stationed on the US/Mexican border if they find them as tasty. I think you know the answer.
6
Yeeeeah,
Civilians are not supposed to eat MREs, that stuff isn’t free. It’s issued military rations for when you’re deployed.
The government pays married soldiers additional funds to feed their families and eat outside of a chow hall (called separate rations).
When they deploy, separate rats is suspended and they are supplied/issued food just like the guys in the barracks.
To take extra food over and above what you need for consumption (limit to 3 per day) is the same as taking extra pay.
I know the stuff is plentiful and accounting if it is rather poor.
But you aren’t supposed to take any of it home and eat it later (while still collecting separate rats at home)
It’s basically stealing.
While you’re unlikely to get in trouble for it, it’s not a practice that should be encouraged.
The food isn’t free and it isn’t “community food for any soldier that wants some”.
4
@Ted She got it on Amazon - "accounting of it is rather poor" sounds like an understatement.
7
@Ted
Loosen up, Ted.
This is what my Dad used to call "fringe benefits."
If you're looking for corruption in the defense system, I wouldn't focus on military brats eating an occasional MRE.
27
I'm also an Army brat, also child of a colonel, but our upbringing was significantly different than yours - and put it this way, I envy yours. It's not the Army, it's the soldier who makes the difference. 'Nuff said.
9
In Vietnam- we got 4 cigs with the c ration.
4
@michael clarkin I remember them. Similar 4-packs used to be handed out for free on regular airplanes, in which most passengers could, and did, smoke.
3
MRE (Meals Rejected by Everyone).
5
Having served in the USMC, I was delighted by your enjoyable article. Superb job! After introducing my 2 daughters (7 &10) to MREs they became fascinated, and now we try the MREs of different countries as a path to explore their histories.
8
Wonderful piece! Thanks for sharing your memories and story. I'm now off to Amazon to get my own MREs. Don't tell my wife. I want to surprise her for our anniversary.
3
I teach a college level course on Food Culture, and an important theme is the ways in which food can be a medium for memory and identity. I will use this essay (and the comments) next time I teach the course.
Thanks for sharing!
18
Ms. McHugh-Stewart thanks for the piece you so eloquently wrote. That was an enjoyable read, my father was in the Navy but got out when I was very young. I however did 32 years both on AD and Reserves to include mobilizations and my two children can't deny they were military brats for a significant part of their lives, West Germany, VA, KS, IL and finally CA. I believe that is what has given them a different perspective on life and enabled them to be very successful in their professional aspects of their lives and in their relationships. Even now whenever a Blackhawk or C-130, C-141 or C-5 flies overhead towards the old Moffett NAS, or passing a military convoy on the highway it brings back the memories of my career and what my wife and our two children have experienced thanks to the US Army. Although they have not served, they are proud of our military and have a soft spot for the Army! On a side note they too have eaten MRE's, however just to see what their dad used to eat out in the field or on deployments.
9
I’m an Army Brat, we had to live frugally and moved many, many times, but never had to eat MREs. That seems strange to focus on. Could’ve talked more about the differences between military communities and the typical American one. Greater tolerance for differences, intolerance for prejudices, demand for individual responsibility and accountability, etc. Challenges in moving from one community to another, one culture to another and what it’s like to grow up everywhere vs somewhere.
10
@JB She's writing about her memories as a child.
9
Some of the comments here strike me as odd, but this is a sweet piece. One doesn’t need Proust’s madeleine to trigger a flood of memories of an earlier time; a humble MRE will work just fine.
27
Kelly, what a wonderful story. I am an "Army Brat" and grew up overseas. I loved your article. It captures the sentiments of being a military child. My condolences for the death of your wonderful dad!
16
It's funny how attached we become to certain things with which we grew up. My English husband talks wistfully about Pie and Mash (mashed potatoes with eel juice) and buying bags of 'crackle' (the leavings from the bottom of a deep fryer and fish-n-chips rolled up in newspaper. He pretends mock-horror when I opine about Swanson's frozen dinners (fried chicken with the little square of corn under some tinfoil), Velveeta on a cracker and mashed potatoes from a box (Hungry Jack). We both cling to our childhood memories of delicacies despite how unappealing they sound to others. Bon apetit!!
22
Do they contain potentially carcinogenic preservatives?
@andrea olmanson
almost certainly. That's part of the appeal.
10
@andrea olmanson It's amazing how little one thinks about serious long-term health risks while being shot at.
8
What a wonderful read, until you get to: "Col. John M. McHugh, who was killed in action in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2010."
Sorry to hear about your loss, even 9 years on.
49
One major problem with the infinitely unsophisticated American culture(excepting music, of course) is its infinite capacity for delusion : for example to call "food" what is merely calorie intake.
Please give me many brownie points for resisting the impulse to be more blunt.
1
@nestor potkine
I think that's a bit mean of you. This great story isn't about food as such – it's about our childhood memories, of those we loved and have lost.
Furthermore, the French only learned to add so many spices and herbs to beef, pork, lamb and chicken because for many centuries the quality of your livestock and husbandry, and your soils, was so poor compared to that in England.
26
@nestor potkine First of all, food IS essentially just calorie intake. When you are in combat and need calories to keep you alert and alive, the quality of the food in those MREs lies more in its ability to sustain a human life than in whether it is seasoned properly (according to your or anyone else's standards).
The author of this article clearly understands that MREs are not high-quality cuisine -- "My siblings and I weren’t allowed to eat M.R.E.s often. My mother said they would constipate us; back then I didn’t know what that meant, so I’d just roll my eyes." But the MREs were a part of the army culture she grew up in, and, as I'm sure you can understand having such complex knowledge of food, nostalgia is a huge driving force for many of the decisions and dishes made by the best chefs on the planet.
I think the problem with the "unsophisticated" American cuisine you are referring to is more related to our economic disparities than our "delusion" regarding what makes food good or bad.
22
@nestor potkine
Anyway don't the French get wine with their MRE-equivilents?
3
3 years?
I thought MREs were irradiated so exextensively that they bordered on sterile (a very very common food sterilization technique that kills bbacteria and at most destroys a tiny subset of the constituent chemicals of the food itself; very safe. Less chemically damaging for most vitamins, excluding possibly vitamin B, than simply cooking. In no way shape or form dangerous. Far worse to overcook your food creating excessive acrylamide or trans fats than to gamma or x-ray irradiate)
8
I've never related more to an article! You could have been describing my own childhood.
5
I've eaten plenty of freeze dried backpacking food, but never an MRE....now I am really curious how they compare to each other! Hunger definitely makes the food taste better.....I think they would need to be eaten in the outdoors, but I can understand how children are excited by this type of food!
5
@jessiepaul For starters, see if you can get somebody's leftover MREs out of their cellar for free....$15 for 1200 calories is high even by backpacker food standards. Then, take into account the exceedingly heavy packaging before adding these to your backpack.
For the cost/space/weight, I can think of much yummier options with less waste, but who am I to judge the worth of your memories or the strength of your back ;-)
4
@jessiepaul
I totally loved Mountain House's (?) Turkey Tetrazini, as my Father and I would prepare it and tea after hiking to top of a mountain.
We hiked in rain, snow, wind but one day weather so bad National Park was closed, and we tried to eat it at home.
It was not the same.
3
This really hit home. The good and bad of life as an Army brat. My father was killed in Vietnam but my mother remarried so we enjoyed many more years of life as Army brats. Life on an Army post was safe and simple. One school, one PX, bowling alley, and movie theater. No unemployment or elderly, no home repairs, no one without health insurance. So different from the world today! I can’t wait to read your book!
13
Unique transformation of the mundane into a beautiful capture of what is a largely unchronicled specifically American way of life. I look forward to the larger appreciation of her father's life, raising an American family while living a peripatetic life-style in service to all the rest of us.
16
Kelly, I wish you would write an article about how all of the benefits you enjoyed as a military child - base housing, recreational activities, health care, etc. - are or have been taken away in recent years. Your father could serve knowing that his family was being taken care of in his absence; today’s military members no longer have that surety.
23
I was a military brat, my dad was career Coast Guard. then I joined the Air Force, then my sister did. In 1975 my dad could say he had two daughters in the military.
I went on deployments with c rations , then the first MREs arrived. Dehydrated strawberries were the best
Bothe my husband and I are retired AF, now
14
Great story! Being a soldier or living on base their whole childhood as you did, has an impact on your life that others wouldn't understand. The military has its own unique culture, traditions, and language. As a former soldier who spent the summer of 1986 at basic training eating the first MREs everyday, this really brought back memories. They were a lot less tasty when they first came out - anyone remember the disappointment when you got the dehydrated pork patties?
7
I missed out on MREs except for a few during MY service in the Navy...I grew up a Navy Brat, and while MREs weren't part of growing up Navy, the moving sure was. My dad seemed to get transferred from east coast to west and back again. I've moved 22 times, and attended 9 schools before I got out of middle school.
I spent my high school living on base, riding the school bus, back in the 1960s when most kids didn't have their own cars...and, besides it could get us on base. (The first time I've been without my ID was this summer, when I lost my wallet. Otherwise, I'd had one since I was 9 years old until now...more than 55 years.
It is a unique culture, one that is unique to those who live it. If we go on to live the same life, like I did, it becomes a friendly reality that we are comfortable in immediately. I had my own duty stations and career high lights, but one that my folks knew. Dad never went to sea, and retired a Navy Captain...but they traveled to Norfolk, VA from southern California to meet MY ship, when we returned from sudden deployment to Diego Garcia. Home, sweet home.
Pr Chris
(PS: Go Navy Beat Army!)
8
It's funny the memories we cherish - not museums, or the Eiffel Tower, or sunsets on a beach in Hawaii, but MREs. Wonderful essay.
15
I flew into Goma, Zaire, with the U.S. Air Force in 1994 and I learned quickly that the spaghetti MREs were by far my favorite. Every flight I would scour all the planes and made sure I located as many spaghetti MREs as I could. The guy I travelled with was amazed how I would always score the spaghetti. Planning is everything. Loved your story. Keep writing.
19
We ate MREs, along with Red Cross meals, after Hurricane Katrina, when there were no grocery stores operating. We did get a laugh at the heating instructions to place on a rock "or something".
17
Lovely column, beautifully written.
History really is unlocked in these big "small" things, which aren't small at all. They are the details of life.
19
Ha! I know what it's like! I am German and remember how we got those packages from the army. It was a real adventure for our families! Dried fruit, real sweet, dried cake, even a piece of chewing gum! We all loved it!
11
I still think fondly of C rations. I remember opening a can that said it was sealed in 1943. This was in the mid-'60s. Yum. Being hungry helped.
14
@Don The "C's" in Vietnam were far better than the bizarre junk served in the mess halls: Weird unchewable rubbery "meat" the consistency of elastic bands fried in probably used diesel oil....who knows what it was. I still get a craving for those wonderful C ration cans of turkey loaf!! I heard LRRP rations were the best but never was able to get my hands on any......yeah, wonderful memories - haha.
To the author of the article: I'm very sorry about the loss of your father. I'm sure he is greatly missed.
5
@Don In 82 during an outing, our ship, the USS Proteus, AS-19, they had us go through all of our on-board stored C-Rats. Some had been locked into a single compartment, locked, and only opened to ascertain that yes, the room was still full of the cardboard C-rat cartons, deck to overhead.
They ordered us to go ahead and distribute and open the C-Rat cartons and to note the condition of all of the things in it. Puffed out cans are a dead give-away that the food had spoiled, as well as the rusted cans etc. Some of the crackers may have been edible still, but since it was 82 and this stuff had been packed in 41, none of us dared to actually eat any of it, but we opened cans etc and noted the state of the stuff inside. Some of it would have been edible, but you would have had to be mighty hungry. Like canned dried chipped beef.
They had us do this to clear out the old C-Rats and make room for the brand-new MRE's that had just come out.
The only thing that we actually tried were the cigarettes they had packed, and even they were discolored and dry, but you could still tell that they had started with decent tobacco.
But the rest of the story reminds me much of my own upbringing as the son of a Navy UDT Diver/SEAL.
2
@Don
We had endless dried potato pieces (c. 1 cm X 0.5 cm dry) probably Vietnam or Korea surplus, that in backpacking-intensive Girl Scout camp we carried for a week and a half and added to dried eggs and everything else--rehydrated with iodine-treated H2O they turned a lovely shade of purple.
Base camp was right across street from Camp David.
Presidents Nixon. Ford, and Cater waved to us.
Bet they weren't eating those potato frags!
3
As an Army brat myself, I can recall the delight of unpacking C rations and later MREs. I still remember when my dad provided me a case of C rations (in the green cans) one time when I was in college. It was like Christmas in July, we sorted everything- including the toilet paper and gum packets (Chicklets). Years later, I enjoyed my first MRE while deployed overnight on a drill. The teeny tabasco bottle that came with it was well utilized. I learned anything can be pretty decent with a little of that stuff on board. Thank you for sharing your memories as part of our mutual histories.
17
My Dad was in the Navy, and in the late '50's we were stationed on Guam. Truly a tropical paradise then. The kids were all in Scouts, and C rations powered their camping trips, get aways, etc. We thought everybody did that. The adults always took the cigarettes away and the jam on crackers was the best desert.
15
@Carol I was on Guam in the early 80s, and it was still a Tropical Paradise in the Pacific!
I remember those days fondly! Hafa Day!
1
Like all "born and bred" identities, I'd urge the author to look carefully at this one. Part of growing up is placing the culture we were raised in, and what it really represents, in context. Nostalgia is great, but romanticizing things that for the sake of our country should not be romanticized is not. This is true of all kinds of identities, but military culture is certainly not exempt.
13
@JKR
Hmm. Am I misreading your note, JKR? The way I read it, you are taking Ms. McHugh-Stewart to task for recalling warmly growing up in a military culture. Is this something negative and not to be remembered fondly? These are people who are too often called upon to make huge sacrifices for the rest of us. I don't think that should be romanticized, but it should be treated with utmost respect. And to be proud and nostalgic about having been born and raised in that milieu makes absolute sense to me. Correct me if I am wrong-headed about this.
34
They contain too much energy for office job people. Despite that they are good for emergency preparation because they are light and last long.
BTW, thank you for sharing your story!
11
Although the MREs weren't exactly the point of the article, I have to say I remember them. Not so fondly. I was around when they made the first ones. the dehydrated "meat" was horrible!!! It never quite "hydrated" all the way thru and you had a crunchy center. I did like the dehydrated fruit though ... tasted kind of like cotton candy. But what I really missed from the Cs ... John Wayne bars! We could trade those for nearly anything in Germany. Amaziby when you think about how good German chocolate is.
14
@rino
All the Japanese farmers I worked with who served U.S. in WWII told me in great detail about trading cigarettes for rice!
4
Sorry to hear about your Dad.
My first experience with MRE's was as an Army civilian (worked for US Army Corps of Engineers as Federal employee) volunteer headed to Baghdad in April 2003. One of the guys in our pre-deployment training said about the contents of the MRE's, "I heard that you can trade the "Skittles" candy pack for sex". He got a big laugh and I just had to try the Skittles, but not his.
10
The phrase "or something", taken from the MRE heater instructions, has been our family's inside joke for 20 years. We dumpster dove for flight rations on the Navy base I grew up on, and MREs are a treat that makes me remember my father.
20
In the reserves I met M.R.E.'s but my active duty Marine Corps culture was C-Rats. When they were distributed the senior enlisted Marine usually turned the case upside down "to be fair" so that everyone could quickly grab a box without seeing what its contents were. Of course, he and most of the rest of the Marines knew exactly what meal would be in what location (which varied with the era the case was from). There was an archaeology of Rats. At schools, the very oldest meals were provided. It was a mark of status when at Officer Candidate School the two cigarettes per box were a variety last made in 1942. One exception to this was during the Vietnam evacuations. Our artillery battery's pallet with Rats stacked over six feet high was prominently marked on one side as having been discarded by the US Army over a decade earlier as "unsanitary". We were on a Navy ship, an LPD, and sailors delighted in stealing Marine Rats. The Navy loaded that pallet and nothing else into a small hold. We posted a guard in the hold. When the evacuation ended and we sailed back to Okinawa, the guard was moved to a desk just outside the hold. Soon a guard reported that the pile of Rats was being hollowed out: there was a hatchway immediately above where the sailors had positioned the pallet. The guards were told that that was fine, not to interfere. We had been at a level of deployment that we could just write off missing Rats, and our CO wanted these out of our supply system.
17
Thanks for the memory! So sorry about your Dad’s luck running out in Afghanistan ! We never lived on post but that didn’t matter a bit. Daddy brought it all home. Once a colonel’s daughter always a colonel’s daughter!
20
Good piece. Of course, it is not really about the MREs, but about your dad.
31
A couple days before payday, who could forget Beans and Winnies with white bread. Add "These boots are made for walking" playing on the jukebox and I smell the NX at NAS Jacksonville in 1967.
13
We had C-rations when I was in Vietnam in 1969 and 1970. I haven't seen one for years.
8
How wonderfully Ms. McHugh-Stewart writes. A personal memory, simply and lovingly told, without any hint of any agenda, except to share the experience of being human.
Thank you, Kelly. I look forward to reading about your father.
34
Seriously, trying an mre or as we used to call them...c rations for the first time? These are our go to for hunting hiking fishing and nights at the cabin.
3
You should have given him MRE Menu #4 "Cheese and Veggie Omelet" and told him it was your favorite. One bite and he would've looked at you like you had two heads...
6
My dad was in the Navy. I planned a hike on The Appalachian Trail. My dad got me like 5-6 cases of MRE (12 MRE per case) and that is what I sent along to my mail drops. Dad saved me almost 1000 dollars in cost for that hike
15
Oh the difference a generation makes. Dad was finishing out his 20 in the National Guard when I was a kid in the early 70s. C rations came home fairly often. He swore they were the same he ate in the 40s. I used to love the crackers and jam and they came with a little 4-pack of cigarettes (he got those).
10
@Bob, we lived a parallel existence. My dad was a colonel in the National Guard in the late 60's and early '70's and brought them home occasionally. Even then as a 10-year-old, I found it odd there were cigarettes in the C-rations.
8
As a child I loved getting ahold of MREs from dad’s duffel bag after he came back from a field exercise! The cheese spread, the pork patties, the chili mac, the crunchy crackers! A child’s plaything. We would eat them in our tree house outside.
Fast forward 15 years to chewing on vile Beef With Mushrooms at 3:00 AM on a tank in central Iraq. All the good meals had been picked over already. It was good enough because i needed the calories.
Everything in life is situational.
43
Great article unusual for the NYT. Perhaps many of us need a taste of the things that our military gives up for our freedom.
27
MREs serve the important purpose of reminding me to go to the PX for some nuts and jerky before heading to the field, or suffer the consequences...
6
M.R.E.s are only supposed to last three years? Ha! I remember eating left over rations from Desert Storm sometime in the early 2000s. My friend gave me one and said "Eat this." I didn't think to ask about their provenience until later. There obviously wasn't anyone around to warn us off about constipation either.
I think I had the tuna casserole and he had the beef stroganoff. Honestly though, you couldn't tell the difference. It was all noodle mush with hot sauce. Naturally, someone had already stolen all the cheese.
When I was older, I found a camping store that sold the jalapeno cheese spread in 6-packs. They make for great backpacking lunches. When they weren't sold out of course, which was always.
Parents would buy up whole orders and ship them to family serving in the heady days of Iraq. That and mini Tabasco sauce were about the two most sought after food commodities. The only thing in higher demand was lithium batteries. Thanks Bush. Way to think things through.
I can't say I get nostalgic over MREs though. With few exceptions, they are pretty terrible stuff. Any food you have to kneed in plastic before it's rendered edible should give you pause. They are also too heavy to be practical for anyone who doesn't need a shrink wrapped meal that will last 20 years. The cheese spread is good though.
11
My dad was a paratrooper in WW2a C-ration man. He loved Spam and Creamed Chipped Beef till the end. I was in the grocery store the other day, and noticed this regal looking 80-ish woman choose which kind of Spam to buy. It reminded me of my Dad.
26
@Lisa
Hawai'i is Spam Central due to WWII,I would not eat the conveinice store delicacy "Spam Musabi" like two slabs of Spam enveloping a tube of rice, wrapped in moist seaweed.
But I respected its history!
4
Ugh, he'll really understand in about four days when that MRE makes a reappearance. There is no pain like MREs leaving the body.
10
MREs are reasonably tasty and you won’t be hungry.
3
I served in the Army Infantry from 1975 through 1981. We had “C-Rations”, and I still remember my “favorites”. Among them were Tuna, Spaghetti and Meatballs, etc. Along with the meal we received what were marked as crackers, jelly or peanut butter, canned fruit, etc. We ate them because we were hungry!
8
@Jack "Favorite" meaning the ones that you could actually get into the belly past the mouth.
About like any food in the military: it is not about quality, it is about powering the machinery of the human body and things like taste and texture go by the wayside when it comes to providing calories, protein and electrolytes that the body can use.
I found out I liked Yogurt because it came in pre-packaged portions that the Navy had not actually touched, so it coming from "Outside" made it safe to try, and found out was pretty good.
But when you are working hard and burning through 8K calories/day you eat whatever is in front of you, quickly, and be thankful that you have it. The grumping usually happens later when you have time to actually Consider what you are eating.
3
Bunco? Still popular, I guess.
My co-worker plays it with her friends every week.
I had never heard of it before.
11
@Joe
My sister has a Bunco group that has been going strong for years
1
Thank you for the article sharing your experience and memories. My condolences on the loss of your father, with whom you clearly shared a special bond. Reading the bio blurb following your piece, I was struck by all the things you didn’t say in your essay, yet conveyed all the same: your sense of family, and the small things that connect us and make us close regardless of how much time has gone by. You say you’ve never served in the military, and while technically that may be true, in my book the families of service members are also serving our country, by virtue of their support of their loved ones and the great sacrifices they endure. So thank you to your father for his service, and my gratitude to you as well.
My own experience with MREs first occurred during field training back in college during my ROTC days. This was where I learned what it truly means to be hungry! I can still remember downing -cold- chili mac and cheese at 4am standing on a tarmac ahead of a big exercise. I knew how to heat it but there wasn’t time for that - and who cared anyway. My personal favorite was mixing the cocoa powder and coffee creamer, which gets you get a pretty decent chocolate pudding!
41
@Dogstarra - don't forget to add the instant coffee!!
3
I lived on MRE's and rum for about 3 weeks after Hurricane Ike in 2008. The best thing about them was the occasional package of skittles and the day we got city water so I could use the kitchen again!
18
According to the article: "...when I saw M.R.E.s for sale on Amazon, I bought them for $15 apiece."
Did Ms. McHugh-Steward or Amazon break Federal law when she bought the M.R.E.? Last winter I found an M.R.E. in a dumpster in Minneapolis, and printed on it was an official D.O.D. emblem and the words: "U.S. Government Property, Commercial Resale is Unlawful"
4
@W I don't think she broke any laws. The warning like the one you saw on the MRE you had found in the dumpster (let's say I'm going to believe your story, for the sake of the argument) meant that it was specifically sold and issued to the Army, and was for that reason never intended for resale. Similar rules apply to all the equipment issued to the military, unless specifically declared surplus. It is not however in any way illegal for the contractors that manufacture MREs for the Army to make a few more and sell them to whoever they please (they are not weapons, or some kind of top-secret equipment that would be dangerous in civilian hands!). Some of those "civilian-issue" MREs end up on Amazon - and that's where Ms. McHugh-Stewart purchased hers.
12
@W Calm down. They sell them in the Commissary for $11 each, for some ungodly reason - as if anyone actually in the military would pay good money for the things when we can just save them from FTXs and Range days for free. I've got half a box in my garage. No one cares.
16
@W Yes those were ones that the government purchased. Amazon buys them separately.
7
I was in the Air Force during Vietnam, I spent a year and a half stationed in Southern Thailand at a large B-52 and KC-135 base. Although the food in the mess hall was ok, for some reason we were given C-Rations a few times every month. Working 12 hour shifts 6 days a week I would eat anything that was put in front of me, including C-Rations .... when your hungry you are hungry.
18
@Grandpa And back then the peanut butter was the bright spot of the meal!
5
@Michael McGuire
My vote goes to the fruit cocktail. One cherry in every can. After awhile I cyphered the system. Open the bottom of the can and Viola! there's the cherry! What a pick-me up at the end of a hot dusty day.
3
These things must have gotten better over time. I can remember some multi-national effort in the 1980s where the Americans would make any excuse to eat at the French or Italian compounds; the alternative was an MRE. And during the first Gulf War in 1991 the only people who would eat MREs were captured Iraqs.
8
My step-sister was Army when I was a kid. She would sometimes bring MREs when she was on leave. I don't think they were any worse than an early '90s TV dinner. Not the best vote of confidence, I know, but I've eaten less appetizing things...
8
Thanks for making me smile, what a great mental break. I was a "squid" in the Navy, and still miss sliders and bug juice.
12
@rd Sliders, Rollers and Bug Juice, Oh My!
3
Essential to this story is the association between MREs and the military. However, each case of mlitary MREs is marked, "U.S. Government Property, Commercial Resale is Unlawful". When Congress in 2006 ordered the GAO to investigate after Katrina sales of MREs on online auction sites, the GAO confirmed and concluded (GAO-06-410R Military Meals), "Military MREs are procured by government entities using taxpayer dollars, and are
intended to be consumed by individuals from authorized organizations and activities. Consequently, if military MREs are sold to the general public on eBay, then they are clearly not reaching their intended recipients and represent a waste of taxpayer dollars and possible criminal activity." Also, high-fat, high-calorie, high-salt rations are for combat conditions or disaster relief and not suitable for children or romantic play-acting.
1
@joeshuren you can also purchase MREs from Amazon, etc. that are not marked for military use only and are produced for anybody to purchase. Likely those are the ones the writer purchased.
9
@jeffk. Well, she did say they were military, that was the whole point, authenticity and self-deluded nostalgia.
1
As basic trainees at Fort Dix in the early ‘60s, we were out in the field in very cold weather. When it was time for lunch, they gave us C Rations that had been manufactured in World War II. I knew this because the little package of cigarettes that they included were Lucky Strikes, and they were in green packaging. (During World War II, magazine ads for Luckies noted that “Lucky Strike Green has gone to war.)” In any case, the food wasn’t great, the chocolate was still OK, but I noticed that the dried-out Luckies burned very rapidly!
Many years later I was a civilian reporting on an Army maneuver in the California desert. In the HMMWV with me were a one-star, a major, and our staff sergeant driver. At lunch time, we stopped and the sergeant dismounted and went to a big box at the rear of the vehicle. Opening the carton, he said, “What will you have for lunch, gentlemen?”
We each picked through the assortment, and I noticed that all of the men in green avoided the ham and lima beans, so I took the hint and settled for the chicken with noodles. Then.the sarge took me aside to demonstrate the amazing trick of the heater pack and in a few minutes I was eating hot food that actually didn’t taste bad at all. We took our food to join a tank crew chowing down in the shadow of their vehicle, out of the 100-degree heat.
10
I grew up a Marine Corps 'brat' with much your same story except that I'm older and my fond memories are of the old 'C-rat's'. I also loved them. All us kids did. C-rats contained a small pack of cigarettes:) With five kids we were always stretching my dad's enlisted pay, especially at the end of the month. Dad found cases of rations in the dump. Sounds shady but none of us ever got sick. We particularly loved the peanut butter and the chocolate. You brought back some cool memories. Thanks!
9
Yes! Critical to know which meals had the cheese spread.
I hated getting the PB (and jelly that came with it) on my hands, as it attracted biting insects.
I can recall the MRE before they came with the heating packs. We’d put them out in the sun to warm the entrees.
I miss the people and the culture of service and respect.
11
Brought back memories of my military days. I know that there were all sorts of unflattering names for MRE's. But, they were OK. Some were even fairly good. But no matter what, you learned that Tabasco covered it up. Snack packs were the best.
If you want an experience, try Ranger coffee. Open the Taster's Choice, sugar and Coffeemate packets, dump them in your mouth simultaneously, and wash it down with water.
12
@Andy Makar
Walter McIlhenny, heir to the Tabasco fortune and an officer of Marines, wrote a field cookbook for C-rats. In 1942 he arranged for every Marine deployed to get a copy, with a metal refillable flask of tabasco sauce. When the cookbooks arrived, McIlhenny was immediately promoted. Some say that part of the reason he was promoted was that his battalion, on Guadalcanal and ordered to surrender to superior Japanese forces, lost most of its officers as it fought on to victory. Some even claim that his picking up a Navy Cross (in those days, like the Medal of Honor, a Navy Cross for an officer was usually posthumous), a Silver Star, and some Purple Hearts may have been relevant.
7
During my miserable sojourn in the Army I remember getting cigarettes with rations. And learning the basic truism that Tabasco sauce is your friend.
I gave up cigarettes years ago but still put Tabasco on everything.
15
@Doug65 I learned on Guam that Tobasco Sauce on Popcorn is very very good!
2
You spent $15 on food, that a friend could have given you for free, so that you could teach your husband about your childhood? Could that money not have just been donated?
I find very little redeeming about this article or your lesson, particularly when we have way too many families forced to spend their last few dollars on fast food.
1
@Left Coast
"Left Coast", indeed. Thankfully, a few good men and women still have first- or second-hand experience in the military, even if their fellow citizens hold them and their lifestyles in contempt. It was the author's money and she (and the rest of us) can still spend our money anyway we want as long as it isn't illegal. That's one of the things those few good men and women have secured for the rest of us (whether we deserve it or not): it's called liberty.
42
@Left Coast just appalled and saddened by your hostility and judgement. I think we can all enjoy a story of a nostalgic meal without letting our prejudices and politics spoil it.
49
@Left Coast I take it that every time you set out to do something fun that isn't free, you stop yourself and donate the money to a worthy cause?
47
I thought this engaging piece was about home, not MREs or war or even the military. Each of us brings ephemera to our ideas of home: tastes, smells, sounds, etc. Right now, I smell fresh cut grass and hear children shouting to one another on their way home from school and it takes me back 60 years to another place with the same green scent and high pitched shouts.
19
While serving, a soldiers favorite things to eat in MREs were the M&M packets. Lots of people would just open them up to steal the M&Ms. My personal favorite was the freeze dried fruit, especially the peaches. I often just ate it dry. Most of the MRE meals were gross and I had a lot of them from 90' to 93' while serving in Germany. I much preferred the hot rations.
5
Ms. McHugh-Stewart, you may want to check out the YouTube channel Steve1989MREInfo, which is a collection of earnest, often hilarious reviews of MREs from a wide range of armies and time periods, including a ration from the Boer War.
8
Kelly, thank you so much for your story, and for your family's service to and ultimate sacrifice for our country. May your father rest in peace, and all of America cherish his memory. Best wishes for the future to you and all your loved ones.
21
This is a story about home; not the MREs. They are one of a few constants in the author’s life as are sounds of a fighter jet, the PX and a card that reminded her all of the time that she was just like everyone else on base (being home), in the same way we identify with sights, sounds and smells of our hometown. I’ve had my own share of C rations and MREs and while they don’t remind me of home, they are when I see them, a reminder of a community I belonged to and remember just like home. And thank you for the colonel’s service and the sacrifices his family made.
20
The corn beef hash was the best, not even a competition. The spaghetti and meatballs were absolutely atrocious and the chipped beef came in a close second.
4
MREs were part of the food we received as part of the disaster relief after hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. It tasted like heaven, warm, some of it savory, some quite bland but always warm! It took us through the worst of the aftermath of Maria, when we did not have the possibility of cooking due to lack of water and electricity. I still have some left from the last box we received since soon after we had water again, although months passed before we had electricity. It is a reminder that hard times can come back and we need to be prepared.
23
@CoquiCoqui People who have never lived though such a calamity are Not Able to understand the difficulties of getting life back to "Normal".
People do not tend to understand that what we have built up and live in as a modern world is Not 'Normal; Normal for humanity is small groups living at subsistence levels, now we have huge infrastructure and towns and transportation, power and running water, and that is ABNORMAL for most of the world.
We have to be ready at all times for the Infrastructure to break down, loss of travel and outside help, and to be FULLY Prepared for emergencies, while difficult, is very much needed.
We WILL have more Maria's, the question is will the bad recovery time be 'normal', or will we figure out how to do large scale rescue by pre-arranged preparedness? Every Village needs a way to survive or we lose the whole Civilization with the loss of the infrastructure.
1
I used to work at the TV production company that produced No Reservations and Parts Unknown and fed MREs to my staff on a semi-regular basis. Not exactly sure why, other than I was nostalgic for the experience. Having grown up camping and backpacking and having a brother in the Army, I'd get my hands on a leftover MRE from time to time. Our final at MRE day at ZPZ was attended by more than 20 people.
5
I saved a # of MREs that became emergency rations whenever a hurricane passed through previous living in Florida. The little packet of condiments, especially the miniature Tobasco bottles were essential to horde for the less tasty meals, but the tuna and scrambled eggs were my 2 favorite meals. Those miniature Tobacco bottles (now available in supermarkets) are a great travel companion when you're forced to eat less tasty meals :)
7
When I started my Army career, we ate c-rations and occasionally a field mess that prepared hot meals. Everyone preferred the latter. In fact, every time I ate c-rations I couldn't help but think that were I not in the field, I could be eating something decent. And the first thing I wanted to do after getting back home from field duty was to take a shower and get some real food.
Your story reminds me of the time I visited a German farm family. The US Army conducted field exercises on part of their land, and the farmer used to collect discarded, unopened C-ration cans, which he threw into a huge pile in his barn.
Aside from the chicklet chewing gum, the special can openers, and cigarettes, the most favored item in C-rations was the pound cake. The can didn't identify the bakery, but it was marked "Nashville, Tennessee."
I've heard that MREs are more palatable than C-rations, but I am not tempted to try one. I'm grateful that my eating options now don't include C-rations or MREs.
9
My take, is that if you think this article is about MREs, you miss the point. The article is about home, whether it's going to a football game where you once played, or tasting that familiar food. One taste of that food, and it all comes back. For me, it's creamed chipped beef. We weren't an Army family, but my parents came through the Depression, and occasionally, that was dinner. Also, my mother's family is PA Dutch, and I always associate "dried beef gravy" with them.
38
@Presbyteros I also had a blast from the past one day in the office when a workman was in the lunch room. As I walked past him, I got a whiff of sawdust. "Dad!", I thought.
10
Yes! As a kid, I assumed all men must smell like sawdust. Now it brings back memories of my dad.
6
The point of your article eludes me. MREs are pure junk food. Waxing sentimental about them is akin to someone who just had a heart attack and had a stent put in to open a clogged artery dreaming of the "good old days" when they gorged on Big Macs and pizza. Or, an alcoholic's war stories about the great adventure of blacking out and waking up hung over in a hotel room 3,000 miles from home.
The military can do a lot better than poisoning our warriors with these unhealthy meals by providing them with the dried food packs that every well informed camper packs that are nutritionally sound, easy to prepare and lighter to carry.
No disrespect intended to your loving memories of your father.
5
@Nicholas Luttinger MREs are VERY nutritionally sound, for the intended consumer. They provide a 3500-4000 calorie meal, high in protein and complex carbohydrates to fuel a soldier on a mission. For just about everyone else they are excessively caloric and too high in fat and salt.
25
@Nicholas Luttinger If you had read the entirety of the article, and the blurb at the bottom regarding the author then you would understand.
Her father was KIA in Afghanistan in 2010. My suspicion is that her enjoyment of this food reminds her of her lost loved one.
24
@Nicholas Luttinger - She's talking about "Home" and remembering her childhood and her dad, COL John M. McHugh, who was KIA in Afghanistan in 2010. Don't take this article literally.
15
Seems like a lot of military property is considered a help-yourself perk.
5
@JimmyMac - Oh please. Lighten up. MRS are sold in every U.S. commissary in the world. And once they're issued to you in the field, you don't have to give them back if you don't eat them.
14
@JimmyMac Seeing as how when you are in the Military you ARE 'Government Property', some of those things were made with the intention that they get filtered back out to civilian life. Like the old Pilot Survival Kits, with their spear, kniife, fishing setup and gold coins as well as food.
The Chocolate and cigs were always considered to be a staple barter item so that the members to whom they were issued could barter or trade for what they needed vs what they had excess of.
The Military spends billions and trillions, and there is always, Always a trail of money made already and so the military does not worry much about pilferage up to a certain point, it is expected, for one, and there is a lot of stuff that gets thrown out before it has actually ended it's useful life. But it is a write-off and accounted for, already so better to use it than waste the time, money and energy already spent on it, even if their regs say they can only hold it for so long then throw away.
1
I was in the army back in the 50's and we had to eat c-rations once a week so they could rotate the inventory so it wouldn't go bad. IT WAS ALREADY BAD! They were the most awful things I ever ate, then and now. Then again, how bad could it have been? I'm almost 90 years old. (:-(
37
@Gateman
Gotta respectfully disagree.I ate a lot of C-Rat while serving a tour in Vietnam.I thought they were great for the most part.The chocolate candy was good.I really liked the cheese/peanut butter with crackers.Plus there was always cigarettes and gum in each one.We also had LRPs which were an early version of MREs,now those for the most part were bad.But as for C-Rats I still think they were good,plus there was always swapping so you usually got something you liked.
5
@Gateman Back then, they all came with tiny packs of cigarettes that got many troops hooked––even though they were terribly stale.
2
@Solar Power:
getting men hooked on ciggies was the point of the exercise, the cigarette companies profited hugely over many, many years.
2
If only there were communal activities other than war that created such camaraderie and happy memories. Surely we can find some for a few hundred thousand million dollars per year.
13
@Richard Schumacher What's your point? Are you saying that our troops' families, which already endure the hardships of often bi-annual relocations, potential trauma or death, and surrendering of basic personal freedoms, should just be miserable all the the time? Would that make it good for you? This woman is simply recalling a childhood memory of a unique subculture. Who spit in your soup?
16
The cheese spread seems widely popular. Is it sold retail?
1
Nice bit of nostalgia. I'd not given MREs much thought since I retired from the Army in 2012. Your Mom was right about how they bind you up and the sodium probably does something bad for blood pressure too. But before we got mess halls in Afghanistan, MREs were food that didn't have microbes. I disagree with those who think this story sentimentalizes war; it just makes things a little more tolerable for those who bore the brunt of it in the field. And I wish you had your daddy back. Thank you for nice memories.
81
@Tom The story isn't about "war" at all. Its about that feeling of home and belonging when you encounter something cherished from your youth.
6
@Tom I've often wondered if the tendency toward constipation is there by design? It's certainly a lot more calories with less fiber than any sedentary civilian should be putting down. You feel like you've eaten a brick. But if you're young and exercising in anything like battlefield conditions, hiking with a heavy load, running, climbing, lifting, twisting, turning, maybe not so much of an issue? And regarding microbes, diarrhea would be the last thing you'd want to strike. They're not high-end camper food. My impression is that they're far from a home-cooked meal––and likely always will be––but a vast improvement over C rats. (Both of which I've tried.)
3
Do they still put cigarettes and gum in like the old X rats?
1
Kelly,
Thanks for a walk down nostalgia lane for me, too...though from a perspective of eating them in the field, rather than an option at home. The codes of conduct around how a group of people get to pick which dinner to have...thanks for sharing!!
Though they do lose their luster after about the 5th one in a row...
5
I remember these well and can relate to the nostalgia. My dad was USAF for 22 years, and never cared for the "bag nasties" as he called them. I on the other hand was infatuated with anything that related to his job, and still love the sound of a fighter jet screaming overhead.
7
@JL
Your father never ate "bag nasties" because they flew B 52s full of T Bone Steak, Lobster and Shrimp into the Air Force bases.
The rest of us ate C Rats and MREs
Vietnam Vet
3
@Michael Shoulda got your mortarmen to "accidentally" drop a round on one of the local water buffalo. "Roast beef" for the whole base camp!
1
@JL
My dad was also USAF (retired 1973) but never brought home MREs. Reading this thread, I was starting to assume they weren't issued in the Air Force since you'd be back at the base in time for dinner. We ate plenty of SOS at home, though.
Agree about loving the sound of a military aircraft. We lived under the flight path for Kelly AFB, one of the big maintenance facilities at the time. They'd send the planes in groups, so we'd have a dozen B-52s fly over at five-minute intervals. Sonic booms were still allowed back then and were common when they were testing the jets. You don't hear them any more. Sounds of my childhood.
3
There is nothing quite as delightful as sitting down next to a bamboo grove and enjoying a wonderful dinner (lunch/breakfast?) of ham and limas. We had a different name, of course. MRE's? Slop, pure and simple. Korean War and WWII Cs were the best ever. Beef and potatoes was another gem but the cheese spread and hardtack with a cup of coffee/cocoa mix was the best of all worlds.
9
@Terrence Gabriel
Don't forget the pound cake and fruit cocktail.
3
As I am at least 10 years older than our author's father, my memory goes back further to K-rations in Okinawa in 1947-48 as a second grader. After Typhoons, when the electrical power was out we were given these tough wax covered boxes containig something that was supposed to be food and possibly chocolate. 15 years later during my active duty time, I thought C-rats were a vast improvement. I have to admit I have never had to face an MRE.
8
@Dave McCammon
K Rations were combat rations developed in WW2 when A and B rations were not available. They were shelf stable and designed to provide nourishment which could be carried by a soldier.
You should see what the Russians gave their troops in WW2. You didn't see many dead horses lying around. The Germans had a lot of horses.
Vietnam Vet
6
@Michael
Some people believe that the K rations were named so because they were invented by Dr. Ancel Keys.
1
Great article! As a Military Brat, born in post-war Germany to my USAF dad and my German mom, we never had M.R.E.s, but we did have C-Rations as a “treat” from time to time.
9
My memory of MREs are from Post-Sandy. The hurricane that left our village without power for almost two weeks. FEMA distributed the MREs as many were not able to cook as most homes used electricity for co King and heating. My neighbors and I were fascinated by the hearing packets. The meals were a novelty for us. Luckily our power came back on a few short days after we received the MRES. So for us, MRE=POST SANDY.
12
At War: My feelings are very different than Kelly McHugh-Stewart. Having lost an older brother in the VietNam war, a commissioned officer, anything war related brings first sadness and then anger. In fact, I find it terrifying than anyone would glamorize any aspect of war. Am I alone? Judging by our country's military industrial complex, I think not. May god have mercy with blood on their hands.
15
@NICHOLS COURT
You are not alone, thank you for bringing a more compassionate perspective to this article.
3
@NICHOLS COURT
And she lost her father.
I lost an uncle
The article is still good and fair.
2
Great article! I went on eBay looking for some MREs to stick in the truck of my car...Don’t wanna be stuck one day in the NJ Pine Barrens like Pauly & Christopher with nothing to eat but tic tacs & ketchup packets!
18
@Tom And Auntie
In the winter, I always have supplies in the car: food, water, blanket and a book. You just never know.
1
The crackers are both the worst and best parts of an MRE. Tasting one confirms the former. But the crackers are the “hard tack” staple food of soldiers past. I’ve seen examples of it in US Civil War museums and am sure a Roman Legionnaire would recognize MRE crackers on sight. Munching crackers in a timeless village in Afghanistan, I often contemplated my place within the millennia of soldiering in that region. On a Paleo diet at this point, I see the crackers and most of the rest of an MRE as non-food but I’ll always feel a connection to the crackers. I hope they stay a part of MREs for that reason alone.
9
“They’re not so bad, right?” I said to Mark with a smile, breaking my dry cracker in half and smearing the lumpy cheese spread on each piece.
Well yeah, they kind of are - until you compare them with the C-rats that came before them. We were very happy to make the change. That was almost 40 years ago. There were no heater packs (we were told we could heat them on the hot exhaust manifold of a vehicle) and the variety was much smaller, but were we ever happy to see them.
7
@Cwnidog, when my USAF father “treated” us with the occasional C-rations, all 5 of his “Military Brats” with thrilled! I was his first kid, born in post-WWII West Germany! Mom was German. Mom, an amazing cook, would just roll her eyes at how excited we were to dive into C-Rations.
12
@Cwnidog
The "proper" method to heat Cs was to break into a Claymore mine and remove a little C-4 to burn. It worked especially well for "steel pot stew".
4
I heated a fair share of Cs on a manifold.
3
The true MRE experience is the negotiation and trading that follows opening the MREs at chow time in the field. My ultimate goal was usually to get a pound cake and a vanilla pudding (both desserts, coming from different MREs). Then I would make the pudding slightly too thick and use it to frost the pound cake. Pure luxury. :-)
18
@Rosie
In the 1960's I opened the C ration boxes we had just to get out the really old pound cake - yum!
5
@Rosie
Maybe the pound cake in MREs are just recycled from old C rats
8
In the late 60's, foraging in my grand-mother's attic at the farm outside Bastogne we found a few American memorabilia including food packs from WW2 - all I remember is the hard chocolate which we nibbled on and seemed ok (I am still here, so). Bastogne was and is still steeped in deep reconnaissance for the US support during the war so finding those memorabilia as kids was incredibly exciting. I still remember the moment vividly if not the taste of the chocolat.
23
Every time we glorify or "sentimentalize" the military, we make war just a little bit more likely. This is certainly not just in the US; it may be everywhere in the world.
We build statues to generals, not to the medical researchers, or civil rights protestors, etc. we should.
Yes, people who were drafted to defend our country deserve our greatest thanks, but let's remember the cost.
Let's also remember our military's attitudes towards blacks, women, lesbians, gays and now transgender people.
A military is necessary, but let's not sanctify it in any way.
38
Were you aware that the US military was one of the first large American employers to integrate? President Truman ordered desegregation a few years after WWII.
20
@kndtate i thought to write a comment after reading and seeing the pictures in this article. i understand the sentiment of olden things and memories that are funny and dear but i too believe that state-sponsored mechanized war is an atrocity that no one should glorify. in my mind it is a human abomination. i am saddened by these times where we as a nation have become desensitized by the commercialization of war and the glorious american warrior. i am troubled by the lack of independent reporting and i can only say our assent (proud or silent) is a crime against humanity.
5
@akamai
"Let's also remember our military's attitudes towards blacks, women, lesbians, gays and now transgender people."
The military is opposed to the transgender ban. Those orders are coming from the White House, not the Pentagon.
10
Beautiful words. I’m an Air a Force brat who never ate an MRE, but I get it.
23
When I would bring unused 'C' rations home in the 1960's my wife would make them into casseroles, and we thought they were good!
10
I'm a veteran, not a kid having fun or an adult reliving an experience. In the field when your cold and tired these taste pretty good. Most food does.
40
MREs are available at military surplus stores; we buy them by the case to keep around as part of our earthquake and other disaster supplies. Shortly before they are about to expire, my husband gives them to the homeless people we see every day.
43
My partner of four decades plus was drafted during Vietnam era because he had an MD; however, as a medical researcher, he was useless to the military so never sent to Vietnam. He’s embarrassed when thanked for his “military service.” I thank this author for her family’s military service - deserved.
19
@Post motherhood, he deserves the thanks! Should never be embarrassed.
8
@Inga
You're absolutely right. He still gave up 2 years of his career to the military and if the call would have come he'd of went to Vietnam.No such thing as not doing your part when you have served honorably.
4
@Post motherhood My husband was USAF for 24 years (including through the Bay of Pigs and the Vietnam era) and he never saw combat. His overseas assignment was Elmendorf in Alaska. He feels a bit chagrined when thanked for his service.
4
I find it mind-bogglingly self-absorbed that anyone can say that they will "forever smile" when they "hear the hum of a Black Hawk or Chinook helicopter". I imagine that those who received what the helicopters spewed would not describe it with a smile-even for a moment.
60
@Janice Lineberger It’s unfortunate that you went right by the wonderfully written memories, the military family life through the eyes of a child, the challenges of a peripatetic life growing up and...the fact that her father gave his life for our country, and turned it political.
Thanks, Kelly, for such a great glimpse. My brother, finishing up soon as a colonel after 30 years, once sent me several MRE’s as a Christmas present joke and my then young kids were fascinated (as were we.) Not quite fascinated to try every wrapper thing though.
106
I was a military nurse in Afghanistan on the receiving end of said helicopters. She’s right. And any attempts to romanticize the military or military life perpetuates a glory myth.
46
@Janice Lineberger
As much as I dislike violence and what our military does overseas, I do agree with George Orwell's statement "Those who 'abjure' violence can do so only because others are committing violence on their behalf."
69
The "criticisms" section of the Wikipedia article has a number of amusing expansions of "MRE" : "Meals Rejected by Everyone", "Meals Rarely Edible","Meals Refusing to Excrete" (for their low fiber content), and "Three Lies for the Price of One": it's not a Meal, it's not Ready, and you can't Eat it."
The Phil Silvers "Sgt Bilko" TV episodes regularly made references to Chipped Beef on Toast, another 1950s Army standby.
12
@PMN Chipped beef on toast often goes by SOS, which I doubt the Times would allow me to translate here. It wasn't great but not bad as so many things in life.
4
@interested we ate SOS when I was a child. My dad, whod's been in the army 1941-1944, seemed to like it.
1
@interested Stuff on a Shingle is pretty darn good, I end up making hamburger version for myself regularly still, for me though it is 'Stuff on Spuds', but the sentiment (and sediment) is the same!
1
Remember the P-38 to open the C ration cans?
15
@David Avila Yes I do! I still have my P-38 from 1968. Maybe I should get 3 boxes of c-rats for my ’kids’ so they can appreciate their Mom’s good cooking instead of complaining about it. Maybe they will luck out and be able to trade some stuff away and get a can of angel food
cake AND a can of peaches ;-)
11
@David Avila Got my P-38 on the kitchen table. The MREs must be a lot lighter than C-rations.
5
@David Avila I still have one on my keychain.😊
7
I was with a group in a remote Yu'pik village in Alaska, doing taxes for folks, eating trail mix and oatmeal, and other highly portable and boring foods. A group of Christian veterinarians came through the same village, and they had a surplus of MRE's they'd gotten from one of their group who was in the service, and they gave us all their leftover meals, since they were headed back to North Carolina the next day. Wow! What a treat! And they were good (or certainly more palatable than trail mix and oatmeal...) And just kind of cool, how they heated themselves up. And there'd be matches in some of them, and little packets of hot sauce, and powdered gatorade, and always some sort of dessert. I can really see kids going gaga over these. They really are a fascinating way to feed yourself.
69
My comment is not about MREs but the Service bubble. I lived on New River Base and attended school across town on Camp Lejuene. Then to San Diego where we lived off base. Civilians. What did they do for a living? Why didn’t they understand how we lived? They were so carefree and didn’t understand the sheltered life of living as a family in the Service.
Yes, my memories are fond and it left it’s mark. For example when attending sporting events where invariably they market to the public by bringing out a Veteran so civilians can feel good about doing their part: clapping for their Army. But where is the sacrifice? It’s with the warrior and his family and others don’t really understand that sacrifice. If we choose to fight wars everyone needs to pay a price. Not just the warrior and his/her family. And not just applauding at a ballgame.
47
MREs are one thing. Twenty+ year old C rations are something else again...
USN 1967 - 71
Vietnam 1968
14
Well written.
7
Thank you for sharing. I worked for Mars for 20 years and we were always so proud of the M&Ms in the MRE's. You didn't mention so I am hoping you can comment about them
I am sorry for the loss of your father as this was a nice tribute to him as well.
70
@thehague13 - your treats were the best part, thank you!!!
4
@thehague13 I loved it when MREs came with M&Ms--when I was commissioned in 1973 (I retired from the Army in 2000), we had C-rations that occasionally had Charms in them, but most did not. M&Ms and MREs were a real step up--thanks for making sure they were there.
1
This was a totally new take on the military for me. Thank you! It's a world many of us don't know outside of supporting our troops as civilians.
Really enjoyed the nostalgia and the appreciation for the present life contrasted with the childhood happy memories as well. Thanks for sharing the photos too!
25
This was lovely. The Times has a recipe for Country Captain Chicken that tastes like a dressed-up version of the MRE, which was one of my favorites. I make it for my family because it's nice to share these things, and mix the new experiences with memories that grow fonder with time. As I recall it now, there was a distinct pleasure in being wrapped up in snivel gear on a cold day, or wet-weather gear on a rainy one, perhaps having finished up on the range or land navigation, awaiting transport back to the dry, warm barracks, and mixing instant coffee with "dairy shake" to wash down your hot meal. Looking forward to reading your memoir.
15
A well written and humorous nostalgic piece, reminds me a lot of my own growing up.
14
I'm so old, we had C Rations in my day. The MREs are huge improvement.
13
@JND
When I arrived in Vietnam we had C rations. I remember the "thrill" of getting a fruit cocktail or a pound cake and the disappointment in getting lima beans and ham.
Then we started to get what were then called LRP rations. basically freeze dried chicken stew,spaghetti and maybe some other flavors. All we had to do was light a piece of C4 and boil some water and pour it into the bag. What an amazing improvement. Maybe these were/are MREs?
10
@Mike Tierney
We had one LRP for emergency use only. Using C4 for heat was great except when you realized that all the Claymores around the lines were not going to do much because the C4 inside was used to heat C rations. I found this out on a work detail at a Marine fire base in I corps. OTOH, except for weight and fruit cake I didn't mind C rations and always ate them cold. My mother's cooking wasn't great which may have had an influence, lol.
9
@Kevin Phillips
My mom wasn't much of a cook either. the food was so bad, the flies took up a collection to fix the hole in the screen door.
1
Enjoyed your article, my kids feel the same about them. I was at school with your father, I am USMA ‘85 and although I didn’t know him personally, I knew some of friends. Good luck with your memoir of him.
21
My French husband has made me meals of French MREs, cooked over the included camp stove. An example...Veal Marengo, Pork risotto with mushrooms, pork and mushroom paté, muesli, cheese, both salted and sweet crackers, coffee, tea and hot chocolate, fruit jellies, energy bar, nougat bar, good chocolate bar, sport drink powder, jam, Kleenex, the camp stove and fuel, water purification pills. That's an example of one box ,for one day. It is a cultural experience and fun for him to go back to his days in the service. Everything in the box was good.
55
@denise. Golly, the menu sounds exquisite, I would be tempted to join the Legion and volunteer for perpetual field duty. I am of the C rat generation. I remember never being disappointed but, losing your "key" was a disaster.
15
@denise
I guess that American field rations are made for the efficient intake of calories to keep soldiers going, taste not being of prime concern.
10
The French Army takes good care to make sure their soldiers eat well in the field. The field mess hot meals my unit enjoyed with them were out of this world! As the great French military commander Napoleon once commented, "An army moves on its stomach." No truer words have ever been spoken.
11
Those contemporary rations must be better than the grease soaked C-rations that none of us ever ate while on NATO maneuvers in Germany.I tried them only twice and quickly vomited both times. It was far more sensible to spend a few marks with the local villagers and farm folk and live on bread and cheese, with the occasional schnitzel or wurst. They went down well with the local beer and stayed down.
28
I brought a small frying pan with me to Iraq and learned how to combine MREs into some pretty good dinners when on the road. The MRE spaghetti combined with Country Captain chicken and a dash of Tabasco made a good meal for two.
Even now, if I can get hold of an MRE it brings back memories, mostly good - some bad.
28
Great story. The Times needs more stories like this, stories that unite us...not divide us.
Good luck with your book.
77
@Evan Marks What do you consider a "divisive" story?
2
@WWD
Stories documenting Trump spewing his hate and disunity would be textbook "divisive" stories.
6
Reading through the comments, I'm noticing that there is division no matter what the topic. We all need to share a meal together.
2
My choice was always chicken with salsa! The entree was terrible but it had crackers, cheese, and 2 desserts. :)
Love this story! I’ll have to get some MREs for my 2 army brats.
12
What a sweet story!
Family, love, and patriotic pride!
14
@GWBear
"patriotic pride" is what terrorists have as well.
I find very little "sweet" about the military.
@Left Coast
When you refer to 'patriotic pride' and terrorists and the military not being sweet, you must acknowledge that it is not the military service members who decide to initiate hostilities and war, it is the representatives of the civilian population of the U.S. Wars are initiated and fought (or not) with the consensus of U.S. residents.
5
@Left Coast
If it were not for the military, you'd likely be speaking Japanese. No one knows more than the military the horrors of war. The best definition of war I've heard from folks in the military is "what happens when diplomacy fails."
4
Great stories and memories; glad MREs are fondly recalled. We military outsiders never knew (smile).
6
I am not from a military famil,y but when I was a preteen my father worked as a civil servant for the German and US military in Germany and from time to time my father could buy these MREs (and the German equivalents) in bulk when they were approaching their shelf live from some NATO asset management company. Like you, Kelly, I liked them so much that when I was doing my army service in the German army, I was really disappointed that we had to eat "real food" all the time, even during maneuvers, because they always managed to have a mobile field kitchen.
13
Kelly, so many elements of your well written piece touched me..thank you. With respect to just 1 of those elements: I was in the Army in the C-ration days (late 60s). Being in an Airborne SF unit what you ate was among the other things you carried so only particular items would be selected. The cans of beef, to be augmented by rice carried in tube socks, was always first choice for me. If fire not possible the beef was good cold as were the cans of fruit. The P38 can opener was good to keep track of. Otherwise, laborious can opening with a knife. One of the C-ration items most of us did not select were the cigarettes. I look forward to your book and other articles you write in the future. Thanks very much!!
16
@Joel
I did, on occasion, smoke those dried up cigarettes. But we regularly were resupplied with cartons of cigs. Everyone wanted the Marlboros and menthols. I took the Pall Malls. Nice, healthy supplies. I am sure the Army no longer provides free cigarettes. And, hopefully, the C rations are all gone.
9
@Joel
P38 can opener, aka a John Wayne, with my dog tags...
5
One of the reasons I joined the Navy was because I had heard the food was the best of all the services, and that turned out to be true. On my ship, an LHA, we even had fresh baked bread every day, and homemade donuts that sort of tasted like Krispy Kreme (before there was a Krispy Kreme) .
The LHA I was on was part of the "gator navy" meaning that we were troop carriers - and on my ship that meant carrying thousands of Marines for deployment all over the world. Thankfully my tour was during the cold war, so we mostly deployed our marines as part of massive multi-nation "bloodless" exercises.
But everytime the Marines left the ship, they took their MREs with them, and and I don't remember any grunt coming back and saying anything good about them, And certainly not nearly as fondly as the young lady who wrote this piece remembers them
As for me, I thought they tasted OK but not so much so that I would would want to eat them every day - but what I appreciated most was the ingeniousness of them - and how they really were entire nutritious sustainable meals packed in a ridiculously small package that weighed almost nothing.
20
I don’t remember them as fondly, making them outside in the rain with a gun at the ready kind of spoiled the ambiance. I did bring a bunch that I bought on a fishing trip recently just because we were remote and food was scarce, I did eat every bite, until we caught some halibut, then I lost interest in them quickly!
40
I was among the first to get issued MRE's in '81 for a Annual Training in Korea. After ten years of thoroughly enjoying C-rats (no canned apricots were ever as good) I was not impressed with their replacement. Especially when I found out the hard way that the ink on the outside of the meal packet was toxic. With a C-Ration you fill you canteen cup with water and set it on the manifold of your vehicle, let it heat up, drop in the canned main dish and in a few minutes, you have a hot meal. Then you used the hot water to make coffee. Simplicity in a nutshell.
Try that with an early MRE and you spent the next eight hours violently ill! Eventually the Army sent out a notice telling us not to do that but by then it was too late. I don't know what the current situation is, having been retired for nearly twenty years now, but for the remainder of my career I was very leery of the MRE's and would go out of my way to find something, anything, else to eat!
Divisional level T-rations, on the other hand, are quite good.
15
My husband and I sometimes eat these while on rigorous day hikes out west. Get to the top of a mountain and the MRE will taste heavenly. The heaters also make great hand warmers :)
17
How is this a story, kids eat a lot of things that are disgusting and come out of a can.
As a side note, all those M.R.E.s sitting in the garage or back of a closet are a fire hazard. There’s a reason the instructions say to place them on a rock. I assure you they are considered hazmat.
10
Kelly, thanks for the great story it made me smile. Hope your book does well!
22
I will never again buy any MREs.
In 2004 I bought one for every day I was going to be at Burning Man. Since I was part of the set-up crew in my camp, that meant ten MREs, all of which I bought at the commissary at Travis Air Force Base in northern California. Oh, I brought plenty of fruit and eggs for breakfast. MREs were for dinner.
And boy, was that a mistake. I knew the high sodium and fat content would be good for the Playa but not for ten days straight. Dealing with constipation in stinky port-a-potties was half of the problem. The other part was the sameness of every meal. Boring wasn't in it, even though I got a variety of MREs that included pasta, Salisbury steak, and mashed potatoes, and got to try the nifty heating process. For sure, the strawberry shortcake was a bust--whatever it started out as, I saw no strawberries and the baked pastry was like hard tack.
So when I was gifted with a chance to eat at the BM volunteers mess hall, I went for it and ate a tasty baked chicken meal with rice, I think.
Today's MREs are supposed to be nutritionally superior to yesteryears' MREs. But as an Army brat in 1965 at the Presidio of San Francisco, I got to eat a few MREs dad brought home. I remember crackers and cheese and real hunks of chocolate candy in them. I forget what main dish came with them, as I mined the MREs for the chocolate. But I seem to recall canned meat like Spam, little Vienna sausages, and corned beef. Loved the metal keys needed to open the tins.
5
My dad was in the army when I was young enough that I barely remember our family living in Germany in the early '90s. When I was a bit older, back in the States, he fought fires. Between the two jobs, there were always MREs around, also an occasional treat for me and my siblings. I too have fond memories of him showing us how to heat the questionable entrees. There's a reason I'm still inordinately fond of dehydrated fruit! I'm also guessing I wasn't the only kid enamored with the tiny Tabasco bottles...thanks for the memories!
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If my time in the Army is any indication, feeding someone an MRE is not necessarily an act of love. ;-)
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My ex-husband brought home a couple MREs when he was in the army reserve. I remember the beans and franks, marked “not for pre-flight use.” We opened one and left it out on the coffee table. The cats sniffed at it, wrinkled their noses, and walked away disdainfully. But if you’re a hungry soldier in the field, I’m sure they get the job done!
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Kelly, thank you for sharing this story. I had the immense privilege of working for your father in Giebelstadt, Germany. He left an indelible mark on me and so many others who had the privilege of serving with him. Looking forward to the release of your book.
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@Stacy Heusterberg: thank you Stacey, and everyone who has written in, for serving our great country. Lovely article Kelly!
Okay, now I have to get me a M.R.E. Cheese tortellini sounds good. Or maybe meatloaf...
What a wonderful reminiscence. I never served because I have weak legs, but I am forever proud of our military.
Now I always thought that Flag Day commemorated the adoption of the stars and stripes as the United States' flag. But I like your definition better and so I will celebrate the birth of the U.S. Army on June 14.
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@Brian Prioleau
I'd stay away from the pasta ones if possible, I've found them to be too mushy. Otherwise, go for it!
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Isn't it stealing if a soldier brings these home?
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@DA Many people on active duty have to keep a deployment bag ready to go at all times.
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@DA. Contact, as appropriate, CID, NCIS, OSI, to resolve your concerns.
Or, better, apply for a tax credit or refund for YOUR estimated losses. You may receive about $0.75.
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@DA
Is it stealing if they eat it? If they are given one to eat and they instead put it in their pack and bring it home why should it be stealing?
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There is nothing like the ham and lima beans or the compacted ham and eggs found in a case of c-rations. Now, as far as heating the c-rations one needed to be creative (no pouches of "instant hot water").
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@Dan
In 1968 in Vietnam we simply used a chunk of C4. It burns really hot and boiled water in a matter of seconds.
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@Mike Tierney
Getting it safely out of the Claymore is the trick... :')
USN 1967 - 71
Vietnam 1968
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@Dan: I served when there were C rations. They were a bit odd to me upon presentation until I got the Dr. Seuss meal...green eggs and ham ! I was smitten and whenever we had to use them, I'd roam around looking for a swap. The side dishes were never my concern. Based upon her list of appetizers available, it appears that the "green eggs and ham souffle" might not be available. For me , a couple of candles would have made it romantic if I was on a date. Who knew my Dad was reading to me about my future meal.
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