Time for something a little bit different now that we've finished off the Thanksgiving turkey.
Our special today is a military meal ready to eat. It consists of a warm veggie burger topped off with barbecue sauce layered between two pieces of wheat snack bread. Spice it up with Tobasco sauce as needed. It's served with side dishes of potato sticks and succulent raisins. To wash it down, beverage packets mixed with water produce refreshing glasses of tea and orange drink. For dessert, a cinnamon scone and two pieces of gum. Bon appétit!
The most fascinating part is the flameless heater. It consists of a packet containing magnesium, iron and salt which when exposed to a small amount of water generates an exothermic reaction producing heat. More specifically, from the freepatentsonline.com:
...said powder mixture includes approximately 7.5 grams magnesium 5 atomic weight percent iron supercorroding alloy, approximately 0.7 grams inert filler, 0.5 grams NaCl, and approximately 0.3 grams antifoaming agents. ...
To use the heater, the top of the bag is opened and water added until the water level reaches preprinted fill lines on the bag. The water passes through the holes in the pad cover and by wicking through the paperboard, wets the pad and initiates an exothermic chemical reaction. The reaction takes the general form of: Mg+2H.sub.2 O.fwdarw.Mg(OH).sub.2 +H.sub.2 +heat (and steam).
... When activated with 45-65 milliliters of water, the heater generates enough heat to raise the temperature of an 8 ounce food package 100.degree. F. above its starting temperature within 12 minutes.
After all, who wants a cold veggie burger?
Right about now you are probably asking, "Where can I get some of these?" And since it says on the package, "U.S. Government Property. Commercial resale is unlawful," one has to wonder how they came to be available for commercial resale. The story that was told to me was that the military training maneuvers in the vicinity of Ft. Bliss at El Paso often involve trips into the desert. And they take plenty of MREs with them. But once they finish with the training they dump the uneaten MREs to lighten the load for the trip home. Later, the story goes, someone collects those discarded MREs and makes them available for sale to the public.
Back to the question of where to get them. I've seen them for sale at gun shows, and I admit to being a little bit bothered by the fact that government property is being pilfered like that. But do an ebay search for MRE and see just how many are available for sale. Are they thieves or just low paid soldiers trying to make ends meet? And since so many are doing it there must be a comfortable collective sense that there's nothing wrong about it. Whatever the answer, hopefully this is as bad as it gets and some of our more important military property isn't walking off base to get sold at market prices.
Did you try it?
Posted by: Janie | November 25, 2007 at 12:06 AM
George, I'm dating myself with this comment, but your post took me back to the chhildhood, when my father would occasionally bring home C-Rations from "the office." They were fun ..... a treat, really. And I enjoyed eating them.
Posted by: Jeff | November 25, 2007 at 08:42 AM
Janie, yep, ate the whole thing. Not exactly 5 star food, but it would certainly hit the spot when there's nothing else to eat. I like to keep a few on hand in the event of a disaster.
Jeff, I bet those c-rations were a real treat for a kid. The kids in my neighborhood re-fought the movie version of WWII quite frequently. And to have had some c-rations in our war games would have really been cool.
Lee Ermey opened a can of WWII c-rations on his TV show a couple of years ago, and the contents were completely dry. They had a long shelf life, but not that long.
By the way, uh, what kind of "office" was that, Jeff?
Posted by: Geo | November 25, 2007 at 03:17 PM