Military Rations
Posted
Sat, 03/29/03
Like many other
people across the United States and the world, I've had my eyes
glued to the television of late. The war in Iraq has created many
differences of opinion among all of us. While I was watching the
news this morning, I wondered what our soldiers and other military
personnel ate. What is a typical meal for a soldier in the field?
When, how and where?
There are four ration
"types," including group feeding, individually packaged, restricted,
and specialty. But what do the groups actually entail? The four
types are also broken down into different sub-groups.
But what about the
actual food? I looked over the
Defense Logistics Library and found information I have directly
quoted with a few corrections. I'm not sure to what extent the meals
are used by troops stationed in Iraq, but perhaps it is similar to
what they are sustaining themselves with (barring the RCW):
MRE (Meal Ready-to-Eat): Designed to sustain an
individual engaged in heavy activity such as military training
or during actual military operations when normal food service
facilities are not available. The MRE is a totally
self-contained operational ration consisting of a full meal
packed in a flexible meal bag. There are twenty-four different
meals available in the MRE's, such as both Mexican and white
rice, fruits, bakery items, crackers, spreads, beverages,
snacks, candy, hot sauce and chow mien noodles for the pork chow
mien entrée. The fruits may be applesauce, pears, peaches,
pineapple or strawberry. The bakery items include a fudge
brownie, cookies, fruit bars, toaster pastry and pound cake in
flavors of lemon, vanilla, orange, pineapple and chocolate mint.
VMRE (Ready-To-Eat, Vegetarian): Designed to
sustain an individual engaged in heavy activity such as military
training or during actual military operations when normal food
service facilities are not available. This ration has many of
the same items as the MRE, except that no entrée or component
contains ingredients derived from animal or animal by-products.
The components vary among menus and include bakery items,
crackers, spreads, beverages, snacks, candy and hot sauce.
The Meal, Religious, Kosher or Halal: Utilized to feed
those individuals in the military who maintain a strict
religious diet. Each meal consists of one Kosher or Halal
certified entree and religiously certified/acceptable
complementary items sufficient to provide the recommended daily
nutritional requirements.
RCW (The Ration, Cold Weather): Used to sustain an
individual during operations occurring under arctic conditions.
The six menus contain freeze-dried, cooked entrees such as
chicken stew and spaghetti with meat sauce and other low
moisture food. Items used as breakfast include a variety of
different flavored oatmeal, a nut raisin mix, and fruit/cookie
bars. Lunch items may contain chicken noodle soup, crackers,
orange flavored beverage base; lemon flavored tea, apple cider
and candy.
LRP (The Food Packet, Long Range Patrol): Designed
to be an extended life operational ration used to sustain
personnel during initial assault, special operations and long
range reconnaissance missions. The eight menus contain
dehydrated entrees, cereal bars, cookie and candy components,
instant beverages, accessory packets and plastic spoons.
Also
listed on the
Defense Logistics Library web site is a new product known as the
Bread Pouch (pictured at right). Described as one fully baked
unit of bread (vacuum packed, white or wheat), the bread
comes ready for consumption with a shelf life of about twenty-four
months.
Pretty dry reading,
and I'll bet the food tastes about the same. However, considering
the adverse conditions (and terrible circumstances) of the war in
Iraq, I imagine the various
Military Ration meals can be a welcome respite.
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