Originally Posted by
W3MIV
Fortunately, I never had the pleasure of MREs. Only real problem with C Ration was the weight, since everything was in a steel can, and disposing of the empty containers. Properly, the "C Ration" was actually called an "MCI ration" -- Military Combat Individual -- and they were packed in tagboard cartons, six or twelve to a waxed cardboard carton. The waxed box weighed about twenty-five pounds or so. Each small carton was a day's food for one man, and it contained (in my day) a half-pack of cigarettes and a Chunky bar -- the usual raisins, nuts and chocolate -- that was labeled as an "energy bar." Instead of being wrapped in silver foil, it was wrapped in OD foil. Also a small roll of toilet paper, which was a tradable and hordeable commodity -- even more so than the cigarettes.
When I first took my detachment into the field in 1965, I had C Ration cartons dated 1959. We ate them in the field (or threw some stuff away). I turned in the empty cartons to supply and was reamed out for eating the rations, but I was issued another set of cartons dated in 1961. By the time I turned over the office to a new SAIC in 1967, the rations in the office's trailers were dated 1966. Some small victories are worth remembering. ;)
In military parlance of those long-gone days, A Rations were hot meals served by a mess; B Rations were foodstuffs suppled ready to be cooked. C Rations were normal field combat rations supplied in platoon or squad quantity. K Rations were survival rations, light and easy to carry on an individual but not very "satisfying."
