SamSpade1941 

So yesterday evening I was going through the garage sorting things that needed to go. I opened one of the large totes in which we store things and I found this. I forgot I had these obviously for quite a while. I would say they would make good fodder for a tour but in all honesty these are past their prime since they are literally part of the first production run for MRE's having been made in 1980 and packed in 1981.

madpogue 

Those were supposed to have been left with the package unopened, for future archeological visitors to the planet to test the theory that only cockroaches, Schwinn Varsities and MREs will survive a nuclear holocaust.

Road Fan

I wonder if the Army would want them to see if they lasted? I wouldn't eat them, but I'm not sure I'd eat even a fresh one unless there was a nuclear war.

Spoonrobot 

Send them to Steve1989 from youtube. He eats all sorts of old rations - usually much older. 1980 would be pretty fresh for him

SamSpade1941 

To Answer your question I opened one last night to just to see what had happened to it in the decades I've owned these. The menu I opened was the Ground Beef in Spicy Tomato Sauce (sloppy joe) . The chocolate cookies had turned rancid, as had the saltines . The the peanut butter package had developed a leak and there was peanut oil on the entree box and on the accessory pack. The freeze dried Strawberries as was the York caramels, and Ground Beef in Spicy Tomato Sauce. Would I want to eat these ? No but they still had some nutritional value even at almost 40 years old . I remember eating tons of MRE's in the Army and I never starved , but I also never ate one when there was a field kitchen that was serving food nearby either.

Having said that I do buy and use the MCW for bicycle tours because all of the food in an MCW and the RCW is freeze dried . Same goes for the LRP .

jamesdak 

Ahhh, the memories. The strawberries with the coffee creamer and water, delicious. Same the peaches. Or at least delicious when that's all you've got. Those certainly were lacking in fiber as you soon realized after a couple of days on them, LOL!

I still keep MRE's and water in my truck for emergencies when I'm out in the wilds doing photography.

SamSpade1941 

The strawberries, peaches , and ham slice were my favorites back in the day. My least favorite was the 4 fingers of death and the Chicken ala King. Oddly enough I liked the freeze dried pork patty and the beef patty ...

SamSpade1941 

I am certain the MRE will outlast the other two with ease ....

thumpism 

Not as old or as complex.

SamSpade1941 

That is an old sports bar ....

Pompiere

About 10 years ago on a long Boy Scout trip out west, one of the dads, who was in the National Guard, brought a bunch of MREs so the boys could take them on our longer day hikes. The ones I had were pretty good.

Pro tip: Remove the coffee and cappuccino from MREs before handing them out to 10 year-olds.

The Golden Boy 

I was going to say I call dibs on the pork and beef patty.

Then again, I was in an armored cav unit- and had a way to heat them up easy- heat up water, get your ramen cooking, break up the pork or beef patty and drop it in there, drain the water, squirt in your cheese packet... Yum.

By the time I got to the airborne infantry units, we had the "new" MREs- the ones with the Tabasco jars in them. Amazing how that Tabasco made every single one of those MREs palatable.

I still have a canteen cup wrapped in plastic- I'm convinced it's going to come in handy some day.

I also have a package of beef slices in BBQ sauce to give to someone I hate.

SamSpade1941 

You sir are a bad man ... I was quite upset when my unit received K Pots about one year after I left OSUT , the steel pot had the utility of boiling water so you and your buddy could heat your MRE's .

Most of the time we just ate them cold since the FRH was not a thing through the 80's as I recall they did not show up till the Gulf War.

SamSpade1941 

When you are tired and need a pick me up open the sugar and instant coffee dump both packs in your mouth , take a drink from your canteen and swish ..

Bianchigirll 

'81? I didn't know they were making them then. When I was in boot camp in '81 we still had the good C-Rations. My first MRE experience was when I was stationed in Massachusetts and someone decided, around '89 or 90, us aircraft maintainers needed more field training and PT, you know Marine stuff. We spent the day hiking in a state park and got MREs for lunch.

madpogue 

The ingredient list aside, would you eat anything coming from a place called "(whatever) Laboratories", division of "(yet another) Laboratories"?

Might be worth carrying, if you could warm it up, to use as an emergency tubular tire-to-rim adhesive......

The Golden Boy 

I forgot about that!!!

The peaches, creamer and sugar...

Now I gotta go out and find some T-Rat lasagna ...

SamSpade1941 

Prototype MRE's were fielded for testing in 76... the Last MCI's ( C Rations like yours below ) were made in 1980. I ate MCI's in while in OSUT all mid 70's to 1980 production dates .

jamesdak 

I liked both of the patties too, as long as I ate them dry. For some reason folks were always ready to give those up, LOL!

jamesdak 

I did a REFORGER with 5th Cav out of Ft Polk back in the day and we quickly learned to use the deuce and a half engines and other sources to heat those babys up. They've got is soft now with the chem pack heaters in them.

SamSpade1941 

Agreed that was the preferred method, I would crunch them up and enjoy with a drink of water. I usually had no problem trading a meatballs and BBQ sauce for them.

SamSpade1941 

Sit them on the engine deck of a running Gamma Goat... just dont forget them .

I lost a couple of meals that way when the goat rolled off.

thumpism 

Abbott Labs also makes Ensure, the nutritional fluid for seniors, so you probably do know that company and may have had the opportunity to try the stuff during a hospital stay. Exceed bars were not bad, at least in the chocolate flavor. The banana was considerably less interesting.

Don't know about the adhesive, but a stale bar would be handy for driving tent pegs or for deflecting bullets fired at you.

88Tempo

4/7 Cav 86-87 Ramen was a staple for just about every track. I had a little gas stove I kept on board just for that.

Beef stew was my favorite.

Darth Lefty 

That's funny, I was just thinking we had a kid and dad like that in my troop too. David and his son my fellow schlubby kid Matt. They played hard-ass but none of us would have predicted what they did later:
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