I came back from the field and gave an entire box of MREs to my father. I came back a couple of days later and asked him if he had tried a couple.
"We ate the whole box."
"You just plowed down 24,000 calories in two days!"

Some of us veterans would argue about what you are and aren’t missing out on. I remember when they used to contract through Tobasco for the hot sauce and gave us literally mini bottles of tobasco also anyone else remember getting water proof matches in their MREs? Cause I had a collection of those match books

Update: Ordered 6 MREs from this company. While I am missing out on the items stated above. The QUALITY of the good items(pound cake, corn bread, etc…) is better than the original. And a lot more fresh. I would say FOR ME this makes up for the difference. And in fact makes this a good replacement MRE

I was kinda hoping you'd get those onto a tray, so I could say. Nice ! 😅🤣😄😂😆

I was a kid during the war in Bosnia (1995) and US soldier gave me one MRE. The best Xmass present EVER! even today I do have a few pieces in my car. So useful for any outdoor activities.

The Military dropped the freeze-dried fruit mix because during the 1st gulf war an innovative Sgt MTM from Tennessee cooked up "Hootch" aka: Moonshine with it! P.S. was some excellent stuff!

Hi Brad, I remember wolfing down 1945 packed C rations back in 1972 during my Army days. Trying MREs a few years ago I preferred the old C-Rats. A Hershey Bar would start my plumbing back up again. Cigarettes, Matches, and toilet paper were packed into the C-rats also. I still have a P38 can opener hooked on my keychain I've been carrying around for 45 years now along with one of my dog tags. Almost everything I used in the Army is now in museums somewhere. I'm 70 now but remember my Army days like it was yesterday.

I loved the yanks MRE in iraq , we had a few americans attached to my platoon and they where given boxes full of ration packs , i am not going to lie i used to choose eating the MREs over going to the cook house at times , I never forget the look on those amercian soldiers faces when they saw a British army cook house the look of disapointment is a understatment 🤣🤣🤣 well i was lucky enough to get to go in a american cook house a couple of times , they where great so much choice oh and the free coke ,  gateraid , milkshakes ect.

You could never open the MREs from the 90s that easy.  Almost always needed your Leatherman.

I use to give MREs as Christmas presents to non-military friends/family.  We had bins where we would store unused items.  When it was time for me to leave the area of operation, I took a box the the mini Tabasco bottles home.

Looks like the military MREs have been down graded slightly since I was in the Army (2003-2009). No big differences, just some small downgrades, slight packaging differences, and a little less food. They use to come with everything you see in this one, but also with an additional side item like applesauce, peaches, or something similar. They also ALWAYS had a 2 pack of the big square crackers or on occasion in place of the crackers it would be a god awful piece of so called bread that was dry, dense, and flat 😂. Also in most of them except for a few you would usually in addition to your desert item get either a pack of M&Ms or Skittles! Everyone always knew the few menus that didn't include candy and those would always be the last ones to get ate 😂. As far as packaging goes back then they didn't have the second clear bag, just the main outside bag with everything loose inside it. The main entree and the side item always came with the pouch inside of their own cardboard box and that box was what you put it in with the heater to heat it up, instead of the cardboard sleeve it comes with now. The last downgrade I noticed was the accessory pack. Use to they came with what you seen in this one, but always also included the famous tiny glass bottle of Tabasco sauce, a pack of matches, and most of the time a packet of crushed red pepper or some other seasoning. To give an idea of what an MRE came with back then I'll list off a hypothetical example of a likely menu. Chili mac entree, sliced peaches side, chocolate brownie, big square crackers pack, cheese spread, grape drink powder packet, hot cocoa packet, pack of M&Ms, heater and accessories pack.

I loved MRE’s in Army training! They always gave us more time to eat them than we had to eat the cooked meals.

Important to note that the miscellaneous items in both, such as beverage powder, cheese, ect will vary depending on the lot numbers. For example, the factories have 25,798 lemon-lime packets and they are bagging chicken burrito bowls. The 25,799th one will be the first to get grape beverage powder from the new batch that was put into the hopper.

Back in the  60's and 70's time frame, Mt House made a meals in a civilian and military version.  The difference was the military version came in a green package a said it was a meal for one and the civilian version came in a red package and was meal for 1.  Same meal, same size.

I used to love the freeze dried fruit that they used to have back when I was in...late 80's and early 90's.

The military also has the Training MREs that come in a clear bag, They have slightly less than the combat MREs. No TP in them either. At half the price of the combat ones. I bought a case of them at the commissary for around $50 or so.

I did 2 seasons of fighting wild fires in 1996 and 97. I think we had the military version that we would take with  us on the fire for lunches,etc. My favorites were the spagetti, beef stew and scalloped potatoes. If we were on a mountain all night and it hot cold. We would take the heat pack and place it between our shirt and yellow fire shirt and it helped keep us warm at night.

If you ate them 37 years ago, they had no heater.

We had dehydrated beef, pork, potato patties: add water.

We had powdered ketchup; add water.

Cherry, chocolate, or orange nut cake.

Dear god dude, just get too it.  Five minutes in and you’re still pounding on the packages.

I always put cheese, main and tortillas in the heater. Once they are all heated tortilla won't Crack and break as easily. Cheese is more spreadable and of course  your main is hot. Much better if you can get jalapeño cheese.

The MRE’s being wrapped in another package is something new (within last 5-6 years) when i was in my infantry unit they didn’t do that. They even started making 2 day MRE packs as well which was mind blowing to us. GREAT video!