M14 Forum

9th

Mmmmmm C-rats!!


Whats your favorite flavor??

I'm fond of Beans & Franks myself. Some pear halves in heavy syrup, topped off with a nice can of Pound cake!!

The coconut disk was also some good eats. But, I prefer a John Wayne bar with some USGI peanut butter

What did you do to make the best of your individual combat ration??

4570govt

I liked the turkey or chicken best. Dessert I liked was fruit cocktail, and coffee cake, and I did like the G.I. instant coffee.

Trung Si

Spaghetti and Meatballs were my favorite, I even liked Ham and Lima Beans( no one else did), those were the Bigger Cans,( not for You Younger Guys), in the little Meat cans I liked the Pork Patties!

edm

I enjoyed the oatmeal bar. Beef Stew was my favorite. These were MRE's however not C-Rats.

Smoky

C-RAT fruit cake for me...........

XXIV Corps

I loved #1, #2 and #3 the best , well #4 was a good trading item.

1. Beans w/Frankfurter Chunks in Tomato Sauce, B-2 Unit. Phila., PA.
1a. Fruit Cake
2a. Jam, Seedless Blackberry
3a. B-2 Unit, Crackers, Cocoa beverage power
4a. 1 spoon
5a. Accessory Packet, Matches, Chewing Gum, TP, Instant Coffee, Cream substitute, Sugar and Salt *

2. Spaghetti w/Beef Chunks in Sauce, B-2 Unit. New Orleans, LA.
1a. Pound Cake
2a. Jam, Pineapple
3a. B-2 Unit, Crackers, Cocoa beverage power
4a. 1 spoon
5a. Accessory Packet, Matches, Chewing Gum, TP, Instant Coffee, Cream substitute, Sugar and Salt *

3. Beans w/Meatballs in Tomato Sauce, B-2 Unit. Phila., PA.
1a. Chocolate Nut Roll
2a. Jam, Grape
3a. B-2 Unit, Crackers, Cocoa beverage power
4a. 1 spoon
5a. Accessory Packet, Matches, Chewing Gum, TP, Instant Coffee, Cream substitute, Sugar and Salt *

4. Turkey Loaf, B-3 Unit. New Orleans, LA.
1a. Fruit Cocktail
2a. Cheddar Cheese Spread
3a. B-3 Unit, Crackers, Candy
4a. 1 spoon
5a. Accessory Packet, Matches, Chewing Gum, TP, Instant Coffee, Cream substitute, Sugar and Salt *

* Packaged by Cadillac Products Inc. Mich.

Enjoy a small bit of history ...

2336USMC

Had C-rats in boot camp, but I never got to form an opinion because the drill instructors came around and confiscated all the good stuff.

MREs- Omelet with ham, add a pack of cheese spread and a healthy dollop of Tabasco. Mix well. Scoop out of the pouch with MRE crackers.

For dessert- dehydrated fruit cocktail. Add a splash of water, two sugars and two creamers, stir. Tastes like ice cream.

Tabasco trivia- Owned by the McIlhenny family. General "Red Pepper" McIlhenny USMC served in WWII. Tabasco sauce is standard issue in MREs to this day- further proof of the great conspiracy of the military-industrial complex? Naw, just keeping the troops happy.

Dreampiper

Wow,so hard pick to the best...

I actually enjoyed the MRE chicken ala king. Mix in some tobasco. Came with cheese (Stone Mountain GA was the best cheese) and crackers and M&Ms.

Spaghetti w/ meatballs was good too, but it sometimes came with a track pad (chocolate covered brownie) for dessert.

Gen 1 MRE I liked to take the beef patty and make chili with water, tobasco, salt, pepper and soup base. You had to collect some of the ingredients from your buddies.

I usually ended up making ranger cookies or field expedient dust initiators with the creamer and matches. The hydrogen from the new heaters can be amusing too.

Sustinemus

Chicklets and instant coffee (the smokes were never a good brand).

Never had an MRE...

X - Man

Anyone remember LuRPs? A lot of them were made surplus after the close of Viet Nam. Spaghetti with meat sauce, orange flavored corn flake bar, chocolate with nuts, coffee, creamer, matches and T.P!

XXIV Corps

Yes, had them more than once.....

jasonk

Menu #5 for me from the MRE line
Contained/still contains:
Spaghetti with meat and sauce
Crackers
Cheese
M&M's
Cocoa beverage powder
and coffee in the TP/tabasco/matches/wet-wipe pack.
Back in 1992 I ate menu #5 for an entire rotation at JRTC. I hated omelete with ham because it always gave me the hiccups...everybody in my platoon hated menu#5 so I got it all three weeks

CAVman

Remember Them?

Heck, I think I would have starved to death without them!



LRRP's...Long Range Reconnaisance Patrol---Rations...

Boiling Water over C-4 In Your Canteen Cup---Kept Amoebic Dysentery!!!

Sometimes...Anything But LRRP's gave you the Ho Chi Minh Quick-Step !!!



Cavman in Wyoming

(2/7 Cav, RVN '68-'69)

Motown7.62

I loved the MRE bread that came in tiny loaves that we put next to the radiators in our Humvees to warm up. Out in the field in the middle of winter in Germany, warm bread and some MRE beef stew, also warmed on the radiator, sure hit the spot!

Michael Tompkins

2. Spaghetti w/Beef Chunks in Sauce, B-2 Unit. New Orleans, LA.
1a. Pound Cake
2a. Jam, Pineapple
3a. B-2 Unit, Crackers, Cocoa beverage power
4a. 1 spoon
5a. Accessory Packet, Matches, Chewing Gum, TP, Instant Coffee, Cream substitute, Sugar and Salt *

Yeah...good old Spaghetti and meat substance... It was my favorite, especially the pound cake. I loved it!!

My LEAST favorite was the Tuna Fish. You learned to get in line early and get what you wanted. If you didn't, you got stuck with the tuna. Sometimes, they would put all of the main courses in a mermite (sp?) can with hot water and they would already be warmed up. They would ladel them out and you had up to 3 chances to pick from the dip. I saw Tuna Fish drawn on the 3rd dip a couple of times and it always brought laughs from the rest of us. Good memories!

Mike

P.S. I still to this day carry my first P-38 that I got out of a '67 dated case of C-rats on my key chain. I still use it to open cans of whatever during lunch at work.