Old rations channel

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Steamforger
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Old rations channel

Post by Steamforger »

Some guy on teh Yootbz makes a habit of collecting, unpacking, and tasting ancient MRE's and other rations used by the US and other countries.

Some of this stuff apparently smells quite badly. MRE unpacking and tasting
Last edited by Steamforger on Thu Jan 21, 2016 6:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Denis
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Re: Old rations channel

Post by Denis »

Thanks, but I just had breakfast.

I was discussing military rations recently with a Finnish colleague. He said there were two items in their field rations that no-one had ever been observed to eat, black bread and tinned whitebait. He said even the cats wouldn't touch the sprats.
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PawPaw
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Re: Old rations channel

Post by PawPaw »

Steamforger wrote:Some guy on teh Yootbz makes a habit of collecting, unpacking, and tasting ancient MRE's and other rations used by the US and other countries.

Some of this stuff apparently smells quite badly. MRE unpacking and tasting
MREs are not ancient. They're a fairly new phenomena.

In 1973 I was sitting on a hillside in central Kansas with 30 of my best friends, and we had been ordered to 1) prepare to defend (which means to dig a hole), and 2) catch lunch. As soon as my foxhole buddy and I had scooped out a small fighting position, I lit a heat tab in the bottom of the hole, opened a can, and started heating lunch. These were the old C-rations. The platoon sergeant came by, approved our efforts, and asked "what the hell are you cooking?"

I told him that the can said "Meat Patties, Pork, in Gravy"

He told me that when I had finished eating, to police the area and check the date on the bottom of the can. I did so as instructed and learned that the particular can had been packed in 1948. That pig had been dead for five years longer than I had been alive. The cigarettes (Wings, I believe) were stale as well.
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blackeagle603
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Re: Old rations channel

Post by blackeagle603 »

C-rats...

When we married, an buddy who as in the Army (fulltime WA Nat Guard actually) gave us some C-rats as a joke. When we'd been in trade school together he'd sometimes give hungry student (me) ones he had left over from the field. In any case those C-rats went in a box with other gifts and then into the U-haul trailer and off across country we went honeymoon PCS'ing to NAS Norfolk.

Fast forward a few weeks to the end of the month: loving life in our first apt furnished with a couple folding beach chairs and left over moving boxes, but down to our last few cups of oatmeal and cash strapped after paying deposits and utility hookup fees, getting a bit hungry but just enough gas money to make it till the Eagle pooped on the 30th ...

"Hey!" say I, "Tom gave us some C-rats, I've got a P-38 on my keyring and they gotta still be here somewhere in one of these boxes"

Low and behold when I found and opened that box of C-rats what did I find but that Tom had stuck 200 bucks in the box.

He finally mustered out of the Guard a few years ago after a Crew Chief/door gunner tour of the Iraq in his mid-fifties. Over 5000hours in UH-1's and UH-60s. Just last month back from a contract maintenance tour in the sandbox that has paid off his house and paid for a new snowmachine to start his retirement off in style.

Yeah, that guy is a bud and I'll open a C-rat any day.
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Steamforger
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Re: Old rations channel

Post by Steamforger »

He opens and tests some Korean War era stuff as well.

I remember getting a bunch of I don't know what's from my Grandad. They were gold colored, rectangular cans with the sardine key. Inside were a lot of corn and rice bars alongside the usual assortment of accessories. I want to say they were from the late 60's or early 70's. They tasted like cereal.
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Weetabix
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Re: Old rations channel

Post by Weetabix »

I bought a house in Fairbanks in 1991 from an old guy who had had a stroke. He asked if they could come back later for the stuff in the basement. Being young and naive, I said yes. They never came back.

I found some cases of C rations. One of the labels that I remember that amused me: "Ham, cooked, sliced, with juices."

I ate those at lunch at work for quite some time because we were pretty strapped at the time. My boss made fun of me, but he didn't give me a raise.

Some of the entrees gave me heartburn but some weren't bad. The sides were OK. Tinned peanut butter and tinned jelly on very hard crackers. The tinned rolls weren't so good.

The ones I didn't like, I gave out to trick or treaters who obviously didn't put much effort into their costumes. :D

I think I may still have a can of jelly in a box somewhere. I have fond memories of C rations. They helped in a tight time.

ETA: mine were all packed in small cardboard boxes and the cans were OD.
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PawPaw
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Re: Old rations channel

Post by PawPaw »

I also remember something called the 10-in-1 ration, which was a bigger box with the supposed utility of feeding 10 men. If you were in a relatively secure area, where you had some time to prepare a meal, you could open that box and fix a hot meal. 10-in-1 rations were going out when I was coming in, and I only saw them once or twice.

They came with something called a "comfort pack", which was another box full of goodies. Bar soap, deodorant, writing paper, real toilet paper, candy and cigarettes. I seem to recall that it had five cartons of cigarettes. Pall-Mall, Players, Camels, Lucky Strikes, and something else. Oh, and envelopes for writing letters home.
steamforger wrote:I want to say they were from the late 60's or early 70's. They tasted like cereal.
That sounds like the LRRP rations, when they were experimenting with freeze-dried food. You were supposed to re-hydrate it before you ate it. They were universally damned by the troops and didn't stay in the inventory long.
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Dinochrome One
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Re: Old rations channel

Post by Dinochrome One »

At NCS Kodiak in 1970, my barracks was about a half mile from the chow-hall. The base's small commissary was closer and I found the grey boxes of C-Rations on the shelves with "regular" groceries. They were fifty-nine cents per meal, so I bought a dozen of them to stow under my bunk for emergencies (heavy snow). I don't remember seeing a date on the packages, but the cans were hand-painted olive drab with a brush. I heated the cans on the steam-radiator in my room and opened them with a Swiss Army knife.

The best one was ham and scrambled eggs; the pigment in the ham had migrated to the eggs and everything in the can was pink. Tasted okay, though.

My room-mate, RMSN Roger Miller, smoked all the dried-out cigarettes.
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MarkD
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Re: Old rations channel

Post by MarkD »

My Dad (World War II Marine) said the C-rations weren't bad, but the K-rations were God-awful.

I've also heard the Meal Ready to Eat was a lie on three counts.

Having been a Civil War reenactor, you guys are spoiled. Try hard tack and salt pork.
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Weetabix
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Re: Old rations channel

Post by Weetabix »

Dinochrome One wrote:I heated the cans on the steam-radiator in my room and opened them with a Swiss Army knife.
Ah, memory lane! I used to put them on the top of my old CRT monitor when I got there in the morning. Warm enough at lunch.

I also used to put them on the defroster vent in my truck on long drives. Same deal - warm enough when I was ready to eat.

I think I used the P-38's to open them, though, because my pocket knife at the time didn't have a can opener.
Note to self: start reading sig lines. They're actually quite amusing. :D
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