I am in the military, and I just watched yesterday 's New Screen Savers with Patrick and Padre h...

[G+_Sean Miller]

I am in the military, and I just watched yesterday's New Screen Savers with Patrick and Padre heating up an MRE. ohhh...the memories!

BTW, I was taught MRE stands for Meals Refusing to Exit, as eating a lot of them tends to cause constipation.

I was also taught to never use the food heater indoors as they tend to set off the fire alarm. Usually in a commercial building, when the fire alarm goes off, the fire truck comes anyways regardless if they are actually needed or not.

[G+_Shooter_FPV (Shooter_FP]

Thank you for your service. :)

[G+_Sean Miller]

thanks. For me, it's a job.

[G+_Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ]

Yup... I was a little bound up. :)

[G+_Golden Retriever]

That's intentional because if you're in an environment where you have to survive on them the last thing you need is to have diarrhea

[G+_Jim Lloyd (AudioMaveric]

Thank you for doing what you do, and for finding the humor in life! The funny and fond memories are the best...(:>) I knew this engineer who made a compartment in his old truck to warm his lunch while he drove. Does anyone do that in the service?

[G+_Sean Miller]

In the M1083, we are sitting directly above either side of the engine. That platform in the middle gets warm enough to be annoying. Warmer than body temperature. Never leave a bag of M&M's on it. I've never seen anybody purposefully heat up anything with it. I suppose you could rig up a compartment UNDER the cab to heat stuff up, but I've never seen it. The newest M1083's have decent air conditioning in them, but I've heard many horror stories of driving the older ones in Iraq/Afghanistan--while wearing full kit (body armor). I am thankful I haven't experienced that.

 

M1083 is a member of the "Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles.(FMTV)" Every variation from the standard Cargo truck to Bobtail Semi to towtruck has the same cab and drives the same way.

[G+_Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ]

Sean Miller -- Question for you. When you are packing your MREs do you get to choose which entres you want, or are the randomly distributed and you have to trade flavors in the field?

[G+_Sean Miller]

We don't "pack" MRE's. We just get a bunch of cardboard boxes with random Menus. I went on a 2 week mission and loaded up a truck with about 150 MRE Boxes. 12 MRE's to a box. In basic training, 1 of us would open 4 boxes(Those boxes are tough to open) and randomly distribute them to the platoon. Then we'd sit in a large circle in the shade and eat. We could trade with each other if we wanted, either the whole MRE or individual items. In Basic we weren't allowed to save any parts for later.

Outside of Basic Training, everyone knows which are the "good" meals and they hunt through the box for them. At the end of a mission you end up with a lot of unused Vegetarian MRE's.

An MRE is actually 2 meals worth of food. I could make an entire meal out of just the entrée, and then another meal out of the side dishes. Even the "bad" entrees usually have decent side dishes or desserts. To be honest, I rarely eat the entrée.

I used to keep an unopened box of MRE's in my truck for emergencies. Someone else took it on a mission and it came back with the box completely plundered. They didn't even eat any of the actual foods. Just opened every MRE and took the Skittles or whatever.

Didn't even clean up the truck :< There were packets everywhere. I was furious.

[G+_Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ]

Wow... that just sounds rude. Common courtesy to your fellow soldier: "Replenish what you plunder" :(