"close Combat Assault Ration"

https://www.military.com/daily-news...ose-combat-assault-ration-40-lighter-mre.html


Good morning all,

Preppers with an evacuation requirement in their planning must minimize loadout weight.

US Army is researching / developing a 40% lighter than MRE supplement or replacement.

Article mentions a "packaged caramel cheesecake slice" and some other foods.

I am a product of the C-ration era. My first exposure to MREs was as a NATO contractor in the former Yugoslavia. Someone gave me something to sample. It was "vanilla pound cake". It tasted like a piece of white bread soaked in Mario Andretti's STP oil additive.

 

Sound like they are trying to reinventing the wheel to me. What makes them any difference than these ;







And "lighter weight" would also mean less Calorie albeit with stronger taste. Most likely it will end up as some form of HardTack biscuit

I've always wonder whether or not there is US military ration that actually edible. I've test some US standards issue MRE and I found none of them is edible enough for human consumption

 

Good afternoon Varuna,

Agree completely !

They are reinventing the wheel concurrent with maintaining their jobs.

In the pre-MRE era, the C-ration box of "food" also contained 2 chicklets - 2 pieces of chewing gum with a sugar glaze. If Goliath though David had any of these for his slingshot ammo, he would have surrendered.

The chicklets were surely the world's hardest substance - harder than Wurtzite boron nitride. They could pulverize teeth very fast.

I also don't think the lightweight emergency rations will work. Reducing the weight only makes them worse because the new product can't be any different than compressed sawdust in an envelope aved some flavoring.

Adding to the nonsense I went through ..... The C-rat box had a packet of 4 cigarettes. This packet carried the Surgeon General's health warning about smoking cigarettes. If concerned about our health, we wouldn't have been in the place dining on the inedible.

 

Build your own honey roasted peanuts

https://www.motherearthliving.com/cooking-methods/honey-roasted-peanuts-recipe-zmoz12sozmel

If you create your own honey roasted nuts, then you can titrate the sodim for taste. Also, consider that if you put too much Na in there, it will cause you to crave water -- sure don't want that in a survival situation.

I buy the 2 lb. jug/jars of honey roasted peanuts. Luv'em. Their stated shelf-life is like two years, but let's face it, they'll last on and on. They are a super "give me some energy now" solution. HOWEVER, they have FAR too much sodium in them. When that Na changes your blood's osmotic gradient, your kidneys are going to slow their output and the bottom of your brain is going to send an urgent message to your brain's cortex to get busy getting some fluids into your body. Providing extra H2O in a situation where you are already having difficulty maintaining a clean water supply is not at all desired. Note that sugars have the same effect (the functional units of your kidneys work using osmotic gradient principles).

Too much info follows, but if you wanna dive into it all then be my guest, here's the visuals, the write-ups would be volumes, ...

https://external-content.duckduckgo...ads/2/5/8/1/25819795/786495012.gif&f=1&nofb=1

https://image.slidesharecdn.com/apf...lytebalancebcc-share-14-728.jpg?cb=1301390845

https://image.slideserve.com/168219/slide29-l.jpg
.

 

Good afternoon Old Geezer,

Just add any of the famous "ziplock" plastic bags and one is loaded with healthy food for a walking type of evacuation.

 

I've found that it is best just to buy the expensive freezer-type bags. The thin bags just do not do the job you need done. Expensive bags can have a double-seal mechanism and this actually is superior. Some of the better quality ziplocks may be a bit too big -- just buy them. If I have the money, I buy the best.

As a kid, I was raised to believe that wasting food was a sin. Our muscular dog is an eating machine, therefore no meat ever goes to waste in my house. Because I've raised my own veggies, I'm not going to waste them, nor the veggies others have gone to the trouble to grow. I just ate two left-over pieces of pizza that were going to go bad in the fridge. The wifer sez, "You don't have to eat those!" Yes I did. When you are raised without much, education and food become sacred. I buy heavy-material shirts and wear them for years and years. When they wear-out, they become my gardening attire. My at-home clothes come from a farm supply store. Brogans = triple stitch leather; and yes, I clean and wax them.

Care for the things you care for.
.

 

The way I see it, the half-wit half colonel & his colonel who came forward with the idea of those lightweight food ought to test it themselves by having them lock up in a room and eat nothing but the foods of their design for a full week.

Although I got to admit in my side here the field ration is actually pretty good, with the cons are the spork get broken a lot thus require us to bring our own utensils and it still need hot water thus in some situation require the breaking of light discipline (freeze dried rice + dehydrated ingredients).



There are variety of field ration that doesn't require hot water (wet food) but they are obviously much heavier and doesn't taste good if eaten cold.

4 pack of cigarettes for every 24 hours kit? or 4 piece of cigarettes per serving?

 

i must be the red headed step child i like most MRE's chili mac is my fav....

here is a link showing sampling of MRE's and military rations from all over the world and some going back 50+ years:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2I6Et1JkidnnbWgJFiMeHA

 

Good morning Old Geezer,

--- I'm up and ready for the rains. Will get them a little after Dirt Diva and you catch them first. Am on alert in case of the usual ... and I'm still in recovery from a shingles shot. - - -

After I posted my ramblings re ziplock bags, started to see what web had as a composite display; say some articles on the thicker, sturdier freezer type bags. Could not find anything decent to post though. I have most all of the sizes and companies. This is because all not used for food here. Some for docs and some for instruments not involving condensation concerns.

We have similar upbringings. Am a product of the Great Depression, WWII, Korean War, Reserve forces, family environment. NOTHING was wasted. If if could serve as food, it was food. Also heard of the stories from the old country where even citrus rind was consumed. No money could be spend on anything - except warm socks and gloves. Apparently one of the winters of the Korean War was even colder than usual. No free class on anything was avoided. Any Red Cross first aid class was packed with kids.

Our world ended afterward. It was finalized with the Great Society.

 

Good morning Varuna,

Good pictures,

Even today, I can routinely live on unsalted tree nuts and coffee. No guessing as to why.

In the above picture of the 3 pop-top lid cans - one is opened, this about the same my boats out of Singapore had in their life boats. I replaced this stuff with British rations. Had loyal workers !

It was a 4 pack of cigarettes per box of C-rations. We usually had no fixed time for dining.

 

Good morning Wally,

Just glanced at the link, ......

I did hear from some older WWII veterans that the link's pictured 1945 K-rations were worse than the C-rats of the Vietnam War - although occassionally some older stuff was distributed. to us. Getting a 4 pack of Lucky Strike cigarettes in the green pack was a valuable collector's item !

If I ever get involved in a "next time", I'll be bringing my own Waffle House.

 

I joined the military as it was transitioning from c rations to MREs. For me I loathed the transition and never really enjoyed the MREs. The weight and bulkiness of the old c rations were certainly an issue, and the bulkiness of the MRE was easily solved by opening them up and discarding what you wouldn’t eat which for me was about half the content in the MRE packets. Some of the main courses in the MREs were ok if you added enough Tabasco, but you mainly suffered through it because you needed the calories and sodium, and the MREs delivered this. I am sure any real improvement in the quality and taste in the next generation of combat rations will be greatly appreciated by the soldiers.

 

some of the newer MRE's around the world are going with BRICK like rations like varuna posted which are as appealing as a box of rocks...thats gotta be even worse on moral...an army marches on its stomach....

 

Good morning Wally,

LOL ! Brick like rations indeed.

The big - and dangerous - change has been the employment programs the military uses for these R&D programs.

Recall the "good ol' days" when to be selected for a staff, the selectee knew just about everything about the subject matter work whether on watch on a boat and also chipping ice off of something important needed for emergencies ... or the Army's selectee for rations. On and on..........

The US Army Natuck, Mass scientists are probably so removed from the downstream consumption it's like university professors discussing the Jovian moons.

When I worked in the Sultanate of Brunei, worked a little with a Brit helo pilot. He always was one pax seat short. I learned that the reserved seat was for his A&P techie maintenance manager. The pilot never flew the machine w/o the maint guy on board. The helicopter had a superlative safety record.

Visualize if the Natuck's Team Leader Lauren Oleksyk and her scientists were active duty military or excepted Civil Service and required to travel immediately as a condition of employment.

Visualize some real experts from the field preparing a month per person supply of this new ration.

Visualize the Natuck team immediately being deployed to the Polish training area mentioned in link's picture caption and then to some Middle East areas, then some Asian areas. Throw in the Mosquito Coast, Nicaragua.

The new replacement hires at the US Army Natuck, Mass food lab will be fielding something that works, is sought by the soldiers and below cost estimates. The lab won't be in Massachuettes.