If you’ve served in the US Military, I have no doubt you’re intimately familiar with the Meal, Ready To Eat (MRE). If you haven’t come across these before, let me fill you in a bit. Adopted by the Department of Defense in 1981, an MRE is a self-contained meal of around 1,200 calories.
With a shelf-stable storage life of at least three years, MRE’s are designed to sustain an armed force on the move. Gone are the days of the “five fingers of death”, as MRE’s now undergo an annual review, with new menu items rolling out all the time from soldier feedback.
While the original concept called for a maximum of 21 days where a soldier would be strictly consuming MRE’s (with logistics providing fresh food thereafter), the reality is far different. Over five deployments with the 2nd Bn, 75th Ranger Regiment, tales of chow halls were usually a distant fantasy.
After my first Afghanistan deployment, I hit Ranger School (very MRE heavy), and 2 days after graduation headed off to start running nocturnal missions over the Iraqi border to prepare our way for once the invasion officially began. That was a full year of MRE’s nearly every day, every meal. An Army travels on its stomach, and with MRE’s you can travel far and fast.
For resupply, a case of MRE’s must be able to be parachute dropped from 1,250 feet, or free-fall dropped from 98 feet, and survive. More than a few times a Blackhawk would make a low pass and kick a few cases out the door, extending the amount of time we could continue on mission without stopping to kill, cook, and eat a local goat, camel, or dog.
Contents:
While not every Sopakco MRE follows this exact template, the prevailing setup for decades has been to have every MRE contain:
- Entree, The main meal pouch, which that MRE is named after
- Side dish
- Crackers or bread
- Dessert or snack
- Jelly, peanut butter, cheese, or jalenpeno cheese spread
- Accessory pack: Seasonings, toilet paper, moist towelette
- Beverage mix powder: Juice, cocoa, or dairy shake
- Utensils
- Flameless ration heater
While there are multiple DoD-certified MRE manufacturers, Sopakco may well be the best-reputed of the “big three”, with AmeriQual and The Wornick Company following suit. Besides the military, Sopakco is also well known for distributing humanitarian MREs during natural disasters, best shown by their Survivor Daily Rations (more on those in another article).
Ok, that’s a lot of background info. Let’s break into a case of MREs. The first four I picked out of the box were Chicken Chunks, Chicken Burrito, Cherry Rolled Oats with Almond Flavor, and Penne with Vegetable Sausage Crumbles in Spicy Tomato Sauce. To make sure you’re getting the most accurate impression, I picked the one that had the least appetizing name… Chicken Chunks. I’ve eaten a lot of MRE’s in my day, so I’m not going to bother telling you a story with each one, but I want to walk MRE newbies through a meal.
The Chicken Chunks MRE comes with the aptly titled entree, seasoned beans, apply jelly with crackers, an Oatmeal Round (it’s a cookie.), grape flavored juice powder, and the usual heater packet and accessory pack.
Kicking off with crackers and jelly, the crackers are a little crumbly but also taste a lot better than they did ~20 years ago. The apple jelly is good stuff.
To heat up the main entree (or side dish, as I did), slip it into the MRE heater packet, add water to the fill line, fold the top over, and lean it on a “rock or something”. The thermal reaction generates heat and some hydrogen steam. After a couple of minutes, your food is pretty hot.
I just mixed the chicken chunks in with the beans. I shouldn’t be surprised anymore, but I am still taken aback by how much MREs have improved in flavor since I started eating them in the 90’s. The chicken chunks might not be gourmet, but they’re far from bad. Honestly, if you’ve ever eaten canned chicken or tuna from a packet, that’s a pretty close analogy. Add salt, pepper, and some Tabasco, and you’ve got a fine meal.
The Oatmeal Round is definitely a cookie. It’s dry, since moisture is the enemy of longevity, but the included grape juice powder remedies that.
Finally, all those individual wrappers fit back into the main Sopakco MRE bag, assuming you didn’t tear it too badly.
If this doesn’t seem like that much food, let me give you a little perspective. This MRE has more calories than a McDonald’s Big Mac meal, with fries and a medium Coke included. Plus, the MRE doesn’t leave you feeling greasy, bogged down, or spiritually impure. All that with a multi-year storage life, rugged packaging, and a little dose of nostalgia for veterans.
Bottom Line:
Ordering from Sopakco gets you a case of MREs for $113.40, or $9.58 per meal. So not only is this more food (and healthier) than a Big Mac meal, it’s cheaper as well. Shopping around online has found me Sopakco MRE cases for even cheaper than the MSRP. Cheap enough I’ve started buying a case a month to stock up for hunting season, emergency meals in the vehicle, and to try and replace the MRE’s my kids are constantly ravaging.
Sopakco Sure-Pak MRE’s are the real deal, and a good deal at that.
–Jens “Rex Nanorum” Hammer
@Rexnanorum
Read the full article here