Bacteria and other viruses can be on a person’s hands–either the cook, the server, or the consumer. Illness from eating food with dirty hands can easily take a Soldier out of the fight for a week or two. There are tons of available reports from the CDC and WHO on hospitalizations and even deaths which could have been prevented by simply washing ones hands. This acually a huge problem, especially in combat. There are hand washing stations everywhere to prevent non-combat casualties associated with dirty hands. I’ve seen entire platoons get taken out by stomach bugs which were likely a result of someone serving food with dirty hands, or using dirty utensils.
I’ve read that in many wars, such as the American Civil War, more troops were lost from malnutrition, disease and accidents than actual combat.
I think World War II was actually the first war in history where that wasn’t true.
Sarge, this MRE is disgusting.
Eat it! Nobody has ever died from eating a bad MRE.
Why should I be the first?
I had a friend who was moving in the early 00s who had a whole stash of MREs that he dropped off on me. I was actually surprised at how edible they were. I don’t remember any of them being offensively bad. And I liked the tiny tiny bottles of Tabasco they came with. At any rate, I quickly ate through all of them.
They were called “Meals Rejected by Ethiopians” at first, but I suppose that’s a bit too un-PC nowadays.
NSSC Natick is always trying to improve MREs. The latest development, announced last Friday, was that they have finally gotten MRE pizza developed sufficiently to be introduced in next years meals. The current offerings really are quite edible.
I can’t find to find the Doonesbury comic (First Gulf War?) where the reporter asked about the experience and BD says something like “now that we’re back, we’re going to hunt down and kill whoever’s responsible for MRE’s”. Reporter says “ha ha, that’s funny!” and BD says “I’m deadly serious”.
MREs give me constiption regardless of how much water I drink. The best part of an MRE is using the heater and a water bottle to make a bomb. The bomb being placed under someone’s cot, of course.
Never heard of anyone dying from one. You just can’t shit for a few days.
They have come a long way since the days of the dehydrated beef patty. But after a few days they start tasting the same.
The ground forces are no place for the fastidious dinner.
I was on active duty during the transition from C Rations to dehydrated food. While a novelty, the dehydrated stuff soon became as monotonous as the caned stuff. A friend claimed that when ever in the field, sometimes for up to 30 days without made-from-scratch food, he pretty much lived on peanut butter, hardtack, fruit cocktail and coffee made from questionable water.
I can second the claim that a coupe of days on MREs will plug you up pretty good. Of course C-Rats do the same thing. A good week in the field and nobody will have a useful bowel movement. “That’s what makes him so mean.”
One more reason that soldiering is a young person’s game.
True that, but repeated servings of any non-freshly prepared food does that.
As for the “Meals refusing To Exit” problem, I’ve found that the vegetarian meals pass through my system with no loitering. So if you make sure to grab a #11-#14 meal if you get the chance, it might help.
I’ve asked several current-duty and retired U.S. military pals, and none heard of anyone ever dying from bad MREs.
The vegetarian meals usually have the best snacks.
They do seem to be the only ones with pudding or cookies as the snack.