Posted on 02/17/2006 5:51:49 PM PST by Libloather
Some servicemembers are having a tough time swallowing the idea of MREs as a collectible, luxury item.
“I’d pay someone to take them off of me,” said Airman 1st Class Aaron Stauffer, of the 603rd Air Control Squadron at Aviano Air Base in Italy.
Stauffer and friends laughed off the idea of seeking out the prepackaged meals, and were even more surprised at the idea that someone might be making a profit off them.
Sailors at the U.S. Naval Hospital Okinawa had the same reaction.
“I wouldn’t eat them if I didn’t have to,” said Petty Officer 3rd Class Kathryn Newbill, a corpsman there. “I can’t believe people actually want them.”
Newbill said while deployed for six months last year she ate MREs twice a day, and that’s more than she would like to remember. The pork chop meal was particularly “disgusting.”
Petty Officer 3rd Class Orlando Atencia, another corpsman at the hospital, said he has eaten enough to figure out ways to make the meals bearable. Mixing the cheese pouches with any pasta dish makes a good meal, he said, and adding Tabasco and salt makes it even better.
Still, he can’t imagine a GI or former servicemember going online and seeking out the MREs.
“It’s got to be civilians who are curious about these things,” he said. “For us in the military who go out to the field and eat these, they aren’t our favorite things.”
Still, at least one servicemember wasn’t surprised by the online sales.
“Everything’s on eBay,” said Airman 1st Class Sean Yates of the 603rd ACS. “If they want some bad food, then go for it.”
ping
The local surplus store sells MREs.
Correction, that's stolen government money.
This is unfortunately common, but it would be hard to put a stop to it -- the amounts of money involved are too small to justify any kind of crackdown.
MREs are tops, why can't we buy authentic civilian versions? (the civilian versions are very different)
If I'm going to buy some MRE's for my own use, I always look for the "resale is illegal" tag -- it's the symbol of quality.
Local civilians form a chain to expedite the unloading of 100 floor-loaded Meals, Ready-To-Eat (MREs) in addition to the six pallets of water and MREs unloaded by forklift from a U.S. Army CH-47D Chinook in Livingston, Texas, September 26, 2005. The U.S. Army is contributing to the Hurricane Rita humanitarian assistance operations being led by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in conjunction with the Department of Defense.
ROFL! :-)
In the Bx, I used to buy C-rations. I like them far better than MREs. :-)
Why buy C-rats. I always made my own. A few cans of canned fruit, canned meat, some crackers or cookies... A lot cheaper too.
I was getting em for 25$/CASE. :-)
Great price. :-)
They aren't very good. One of the dads of a guy in my scout troop when i was a teenager, was in the Army. We had MRE's on some trips we took and they terrible. I remember the good one, if you call it that, was hotdogs. I remember he said GI's call them Meals Rejected by Ethiopia.
"In the Bx, I used to buy C-rations. I like them far better than MREs."
When the first MREs hit it was arguable which was best, but the newer versions of MREs kick butt. C-rations were okay in the field, but the real test for military rations is to eat them for a couple of days in your civilian home. So why can't the civilian market make an exact copy of the MRE with a different package.
I have had MREs. :-)
I like C-rats much better.
The reason I'm not interested in surplus MREs is I want them for long term storage. when you buy MREs at a garage sale or the surplus store , you don't know their remaining life.
He also passed around some survival rations that were produced by "Cadillac"....woof, woof as it were.
OTOH, C-rats last basically for ever. I was eating ones with date codes of 1947 on the bottom. LOL!
I hear ya. However, when I was poor. I did eat C-rats in my apt. Better than ramen and/or macs&cheese every day. :-)
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