Old MRE box images here an need help on new ones?????

Anheuser-Busch drinking water? Guess all they have to do is take the colouring out...

Cheers,

Chris.

WOW, WHite_34---you've got some SERIOUSLY excellent finishes on your hot rods on your photobucket site there! Fabulous painting and detail!!!

Seriously--anyone checking out this thread, take a look at some of this guy's cars on his link there in the first post--AMAZING!!!! 

Thank's Doog I love car and the like, An I'm getting to love Military modeling to. Hay Mike show them (That's the or any MREs you still have) An if any one has any type of MREs or caned MREs show the Old type or New. We all would love to see what they look like.

(Any image will help any one that is working on any armor project)

Thanks you guys hay you yah YOU Girls post your MREs to I know your out there.

http://data.primeportal.net/m113iraq/P5304896.jpg

A brief history of US Military rations:

K-Ration, late WWII to early '60s:

The K ration was a 3-part meal that had a breakfast, dinner (lunch), and supper meal in it.  Each meal was in a smaller box and labeled as such.  The meal in the box was in cans and paper packages in each smaller box. 

C-Ration, WWII to early '80s:

The C-Ration was a canned (C) meal in a box for each meal, with 12 meals in each box.  In WWII they came in wooden crates and later came in paper boxes.  There was no differentiation between breakfast, super, and dinner, but various meals that could be eaten anytime.   They were more flexible than the K-Ration and preferred since there was more variety.  They replaced the K-Ration for this reason.

MREs version 1, early '80s to mid-'90s:

First generation MREs came 12 to a box with each meal in a dark brown plastic bag.  The box was a flat rectangle.  Each meal contained plastic and foil packages with the various parts of the meal inside.  Some of the yummy menu items included dehydrated beef patty and dehydrated pork patty.  Some considered them a step down from C-Rations, which had some tasty items in them.  They all included a small bottle of Hot Sauce though, to make them taste better.

MREs version 2, mid-'90s to present:

Second generation MREs are packaged the same as above, but the box is now a rectangle that is almost square and the individual meal bags are tan as opposed to dark brown.  The menus have improved and each meal includes a water-activated heater so it can easily be heated up.  The cheese spread and peanut butter pouches are still included though.  They do have things like instant cappuccino, milk shakes, and skittles in them too though.

New case on top, old on bottom.

All of the above rations are available from various AM companies and in a few kits. 

Good luck and remember to keep your 1/35 soldiers fed.

Chef Gino

Great line up of the US portable food. A couple of notes (from the old Fa--).

C Rations were good. Some items were almost legendary. The "john wayne bar", a choclate bar which was usaully so hard you had to be john wayne to eat it. The fruit cake, the meal in itself. But the best was the can of franks & beans. All you needed was a warm engine and your can and you were all set. Nubies always learned the hard way by putting the unopen can on the engine. The can would explode and the nubie would be on heavy maint for the next month until he got the section chiefs truck clean under the hood. And lastly the famous P-38. Anyone who was in during the C-ration era had one on their dog tag chain. 

The ration you forgot was the Long Range Patrol Rations. These came out during VN and were essenially freeze dried meals. Just add water. They were not very popular since compared to the C ration these were not as good. There was always the danger of blocking the throat if you ate them raw, but if made properly were quite tasty. They have continued on in different versions, especially for cold weather ops. They never became as widely used as in VN. Here is my favorite Chili

Lastly, the original MREs when they came out did not have little hot sauce in every pouch. Within a year or so they began putting them in do to overwheling demand. Some of those initial meals, the bags tasted better than the food, the hot sauce was essential. They needed the BAM as Emeral would say.

Hopefully this gives you some food for thought!

Rounds Complete!!

God Redleg I think I remember the John Wayne bar and the fruitcake. They were also part of the Early MRE's because it took me an hour to eat each bar. It took me longer than that to eat the cracker which was so hard it made me think they were still using Hardtack from the Civil War.

That reminds me, the worst looking of the meals was the Lurps Spagetti and Meetballs. It looked like rat hairs and rabbit pellets until you added water. Then it was no bad. Being Italian it was not good but also not bad....forgetaboutit.

And for all you old far-- remember the C ration eggs. Green eggs in a can. I would love to see the chicken that let out all those Army green eggs!

The more I read this the more memories that come back....I think I need some Pepto

This was a fun thread. Not armor totally, but it gives the armor feeling....now I really need the Pepto

Rounds Complete!!

White_R34 wrote:

I was unlucky an unable to go in for Military-service but the MRE that I showed came from a guards men that helped us at the Red cross during the Hurricane Katrina aftermath here in South Louisiana. I was happy to have them that the food as well as the Guard.

I can understand your "like" for MREs. In disasters, the MRE can really shine!!

It's interesting to see the outside perspective as opposed to the military one. We just had way too many bagged and boxed meals. But trust me, for all the jokes and comments, when your hungry they are just great!

Rounds Complete!!

But also remember the Army meal has changed alot in the years. Sure on base you had pretty good food but in the field you either had to eat Rations or suffer through the stuff they called food at the Mess Tent. The food at the Mess Tent usually consisted of Powdered Eggs and Powdered potatos and some sort of potted meat product usually Spam. And let me tell ya to this day my grandfather has not touched a single Spam product in years after having to go through 4 years of Spam. But the K-Rations were actually the best thing he had during WWII.

But now the food in the field is now better than the food on base. My dad told me when we were still at Langley to never eat at the base Cafeteria because the food is so greasy it would give you the runs.

Here's some thing I wanted to try, I made some boxes for tha t up to date look. First I copyed the Mres from my tamiya Acc kit and used a binding tool the help fold the small box right. Since the image is a copy once I made all the folds I flip it over to the white side so I could make a white box like you see on M-1 Abes an M2 brads. whate you all think of my idea.

I hand painted on the waves. just some thing quick!

Now I know I should do an image thing in my photo shop but why go through all that when I can just paint it on if I'm not goint for that much detail.

Mr. E......mystery.... mre.....see how that works?  my god in the vet corps we must have inspected a ficken gazzilion of those things when i was in the sand box.  Camp victory kuwait the guys coming back would just dump them off as they were headed back to civilization and it was up to us to see if they were good or not, and re issue them to the guys going into indian country.  we did that for a while until most units changed out with their releif and then we headed north ourselves.      but whoever got rid of the crackers in favor of the snack bread needs to have their heads examined.  yuck!

Mikeym_us wrote:

You should try to do one opened up with the water bottles showing

I will do just that and show how I do it.

MRE=Meals Rejected by Ethiopians  I was one of those unlucky one to have that first generation of yucky MREs.  Potato Au Gratin was almost like a gelatin had consistency of rubber)and even racoons at Ft. Dix wouldn't even touch it. 

C/K rations were prior to my time, but my dad was telling me that his C Rats tasted A LOT better than MREs that I had to endure.  THANK GOD FOR THAT TABASCO SAUCE!  Otherwise, I wouldn't have survived in the field eating that .

Mikeym_us wrote:

I dunno I liked the Vienna Sausages Didn't like the Crackers though. Though I'll be happier once they add Corned Beef Hash to the lineup and maybe add some SauerKraut too

I didn't know USAF served MREs to their personnel. I always thought you USAF had gourmet chefs cooking 3 hot meals a day.  J/K

HeavyArty wrote:

Yup, a similar item to the John Wayne bar was the oatmeal cookie bar.  It looked like a solid piece of particle board and required half a canteen to get it down.  Ah yes, the P38 is the best piece of gear the Army ever made.  I still have one hanging on my dogtag chain.  It has come in handy many times.

I remember the Oatmeal Cookie, at least particle board softens up when you get it wet.

We use MRE's quite a bit for fireline meals. They really have improved quite a bit, still a few to watch out for but most are edible and a few are actually good. I mean I wouldn't accept them as a meal at a restraunt but they are the equal of most canned food. Thai Chicken is one of my favorites. Only bad thing about the MRE's getting better is all the colorful names are going away, like the 5 fingers of death (frankfurters, how can you mess up hotdogs??? but they were bad).

Does the military use Cubitainers aka Cubies? These are disposable 5 gallon water bladders that fit inside a cardboard box for stability and stackability.

Yeah i was kept out of service too.  I tried, but the severe issues with my knees showed up in my medical records.

I said damn just give me a bucket of ibuprofin I'll be fine.  Nogo however.