# "K" rations and MRE'S



## GunnerGleadall (13 Oct 2012)

From 1967 to 1970, I was stationed at the 3rd RCHA, Winnipeg, Manitoba and when our Battery was on exercise, we desperately tried to enjoy those tasty meals that were supplied in our “K” rations.  The only problem was that all of the rations at that time were dated 1953 and 1954.  By then, the Hershey chocolate bars had turned to dust.

I know that soldiers today get fresh MRE’s to eat, but please tell me that the soldiers after 1970 didn't have to eat twenty-year-old rations.


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## MikeL (14 Oct 2012)

MREs are American rations,  sometimes we do get them - training in the US,  getting them on Operation, etc  The Canadian rations are IMPs,  and by fresh,  well depends on your view of it.  Sometimes you get ones made in the current year,  or they could be a few years old.  But I guess they would be considered "fresh" if the rations you were eating were 10+ years old.


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## GAP (14 Oct 2012)

Don't feel bad....in the same time period we were eating C rations dated 1943. Other than the taste, they were fine.... :nod:


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## GunnerGleadall (14 Oct 2012)

What does "IMP" stand for with regards to rations?


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## mariomike (14 Oct 2012)

GunnerGleadall said:
			
		

> What does "IMP" stand for with regards to rations?



IMP: Individual Meal Packets: Pre-packaged field rations
http://forums.army.ca/forums/threads/27637.0


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## George Wallace (14 Oct 2012)

GunnerGleadall said:
			
		

> From 1967 to 1970, I was stationed at the 3rd RCHA, Winnipeg, Manitoba and when our Battery was on exercise, we desperately tried to enjoy those tasty meals that were supplied in our “K” rations.  The only problem was that all of the rations at that time were dated 1953 and 1954.  By then, the Hershey chocolate bars had turned to dust.
> 
> I know that soldiers today get fresh MRE’s to eat, but please tell me that the soldiers after 1970 didn't have to eat twenty-year-old rations.




Perhaps then you remember the RP4s and then the IRPs as well as the LRRPs.


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## Dissident (14 Oct 2012)

I am fuzzy on the details since this is a second hand story, but a friend/boss/coworker related that he ate (amongst other things) 1950 labelled Russian tin canned rations on roto 2 (1991?) in former Yugoslavia, while on a UN tour.

He maintains that the sight of Cheese Wiz made him sick for years afterward. 

As a reservist I was never issued any IMPs/rations labelled anything more than 3 years after the production date. Lately it has been less than 2 years or so.


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## Tank Troll (14 Oct 2012)

We had French rations in Bosnia in 92 on ROTO 0 then again in 94. They came in a big Sardine like cans that you peeled the top back on. They were alright not a lot of food in them. I don't remember seeing any Russian rations unless he trades for them. We also had Brit Rations when we went to there camps. The Malaysians invited us to eat with them.....................but we passed  :boke:


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## Old Sweat (14 Oct 2012)

I've eaten Brit, American, Italian and Norwegian hard rations. All had a few good points and a number of bad points, depending on personal taste. For that matter so did Canadian hard rations from the 50s, 60s and 70s. One of my favorite meal combinations was invented as a dismounted FOO with 1 RHC in Gagetown. Take a packet of instant mashed potatoes and add lukewarm water from the waterbottle along with seasoning. Eat it with a plastic spoon and then put the spoon to work doing the same with a can of fruit cocktail with a packet or two of sugar added. It may not have been super nutritious, but it was filling and provided lots of fuel for the body and soul.


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## Rifleman62 (14 Oct 2012)

We had, as we were BAOR (British Army of the Rhine), in 1968 British Compo rations 1952-54. Everything in tins. Sweets and Cadberry chocolate bars as if made yesterday. Lots of beans! Brits like their beans in tomato sauce (number one consumer of). 

Lots of stuff was thrown away if it could not be bartered for eggs. Buried in a pit, which the Germans  dug up when we left.

In 1985 on a Medicine Man with the Royal Green Jackets, I was honored to have the attached Gurkhas made a last meal for me when I was leaving. We all sat around on our haunches and ate chicken, rice and curry. It was almost my last meal. 

In the US BX's I have been in, you can purchase MRE's or the condiments (fruit and nuts/water flavors like strawberry etc).


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## Dissident (14 Oct 2012)

Tank Troll said:
			
		

> We had French rations in Bosnia in 92 on ROTO 0 then again in 94. They came in a big Sardine like cans that you peeled the top back on. They were alright not a lot of food in them. I don't remember seeing any Russian rations unless he trades for them. We also had Brit Rations when we went to there camps. The Malaysians invited us to eat with them.....................but we passed  :boke:



I had another buddy on roto 0, he never mentioned the food.

But my roto 2 friend did also talk about French ration which were issued without the wine.


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## Fishbone Jones (14 Oct 2012)

NinerSix said:
			
		

> I had another buddy on roto 0, he never mentioned the food.
> 
> But my roto 2 friend did also talk about French ration which were issued without the wine.



Had French rations, a couple of times, in Germany early 70's. The wine was the only good thing about them, and it wasn't very good wine.


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## Kat Stevens (14 Oct 2012)

Tank Troll said:
			
		

> We had French rations in Bosnia in 92 on ROTO 0 then again in 94. They came in a big Sardine like cans that you peeled the top back on. They were alright not a lot of food in them. I don't remember seeing any Russian rations unless he trades for them. We also had Brit Rations when we went to there camps. The Malaysians invited us to eat with them.....................but we passed  :boke:



I was in 41 Fd Sqn of 4CER for ROTO 0.  We were in Vukovar and were co loc'd with a company of Russians.  We never had the guts to eat their food, and their troops were forbidden from being anywhere near the mess hall during our feeding hours,  I maintain that this was to prevent mutiny.  We tried their hard rats on a dare, not bad if you're a cat or a sable, not so good for growing boys.  Belgian RATS were pretty good, heavy on the pate', and the Nigerians RATS consisted of a wire crate full of chickens.


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## George Wallace (14 Oct 2012)

Kat Stevens said:
			
		

> ......, and the Nigerians RATS consisted of a wire crate full of chickens.



You really didn't want to know what was in MALBAT rations.......Chickens was only part of their supplement.  We had to burn all the tentage on handover to their locations......Platoon houses were covered in smoke/soot.


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## SprCForr (14 Oct 2012)

Down at NEPBAT (Roto 1) for a few weeks.

"What's for supper?" 
"Goat stew."
"What's this in my bowl then?"
"Huh, that would be part of the tomcat."

The sight of those two Nepalese cooks standing on the goat carcass hacking away with an E-tool and tossing the chunks into a boiling pot was a real eye opener for some.


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## FJAG (14 Oct 2012)

GunnerGleadall said:
			
		

> From 1967 to 1970, I was stationed at the 3rd RCHA, Winnipeg, Manitoba and when our Battery was on exercise, we desperately tried to enjoy those tasty meals that were supplied in our “K” rations.  The only problem was that all of the rations at that time were dated 1953 and 1954.  By then, the Hershey chocolate bars had turned to dust.
> 
> I know that soldiers today get fresh MRE’s to eat, but please tell me that the soldiers after 1970 didn't have to eat twenty-year-old rations.



I think George Wallace is right. You are probably remembering RP-4s as those were used throughout Canada at that time. 

1 RCHA in Germany frequently had K Rations after moving south to Lahr. I was on a flyover with Z Bty in 1980 and was employed as a FAC on a REFORGER. They issued my driver and I about a months supply of K Rations which were all Korea War surplus (I remember having a 1952 can of pound cake once.) Mercifully I spent most of the time attached to two different German divisional headquarters and got to eat with them instead. My young French Canadian driver hated German food but loved the K Rations -- go figure.


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## Colin Parkinson (15 Oct 2012)

We ate MRE's in europe when  was on Reforger exercise 84, 86. I recall getting our first IMP's during an exercise around 83-84. Might have been nice to tell us we were getting new rations rather than having the box handed to us in the dark at 11:00pm to figure how to issue and use them. I missed the canned bacon, but not the powdered tea. From the MRE's I still have the packaged brownie, even then it was hard enough to beat a man to death with.


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## my72jeep (15 Oct 2012)

I miss the Killer can openers that came with the IRP's I think I down to my last one.


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## fraserdw (15 Oct 2012)

I still have my last can opener from my last 24 hour IMP issued in 1982!  I too miss the canned bacon but they now sell it in foil wrapers at Sobeys so I take bacon canoeing all the time!


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## jollyjacktar (15 Oct 2012)

fraserdw said:
			
		

> I still have my last can opener from my last 24 hour IMP issued in 1982!  I too miss the canned bacon but they now sell it in foil wrapers at Sobeys so I take bacon canoeing all the time!


World Famous brand camping gear sells the same type of opener.  The IMP one's were the best damn opener anywhere as far as I'm concerned.  What I miss the most from those rations is the cheese, liverwurst, and the honey in the squeeze tube.  Yes, and that delicious salty bacon too.  Mind you the ravioli was excellent as well.  Heated up nicely on the manifold of my duce during fire missions.


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## Blackadder1916 (16 Oct 2012)

Colin P said:
			
		

> We ate MRE's in europe when  was on Reforger exercise 84, 86. I recall getting our first IMP's during an exercise around 83-84. Might have been nice to tell us we were getting new rations rather than having the box handed to us in the dark at 11:00pm to figure how to issue and use them. I missed the canned bacon, but not the powdered tea. From the MRE's I still have the packaged brownie, even then it was hard enough to beat a man to death with.



It seems that Canadian hard rations in Germany were usually purchased from the major (English speaking and similiar food eating) allied militaries that we worked with (The Brits when we were up north and the Americans down south).  So when MREs were introduced in the US forces, that is what became available to us.  I recall that in the waning days of 4 CMBG (the early 90s) MREs were what we received while on ex, though it was an unusual occasion (in the fd amb anyway) to actually eat them - that is a compliment to the unit cooks who, even on days during FALLEX designated for hard rats, provided "soup" (which was authorized as a supplement/beverage) that was so hearty as to make the eating of MREs stupid.   Yes,  there were a set number of days during higher formation exercises when Bde ordered that MREs had to be eaten by all - it was probably the only way that the Canadian stockpile of MREs got used.  During Kurdish humanitarian operations (4 Fd Amb deployed to southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq) there was a suggestion during a CFEHQ coord conference to donate the remaining Canadian stockpile of MREs since they were nearly at the "do not use past date".  Even at that early stage in the operation there had already been press reports about complaints from refugees concerning the quality and dietary incompatibility of MREs, so it was not a hard sell to get that stopped.

A few years later during another humanitarian operation (Rwanda), we also gained some local opinions about IMPs. Though we did not provide hard rations to refugees or patients in our facility, we did offer left-over (unused) main meal pouches to the locals working for us.  Granted the reason they were "left-over" was they were the least tasty menu items (lots of the chicken stew thingy -forget the actual name- in that group).  After one meal of that menu, most of our Rwandans refused to accept that pouch.

During that time in Rwanda, we were only on hard rats.  Because of an in-country shortage of IMPs, we received a quantity of Bangladeshi and German rations.  On a "bulk quantity" comparison Canadian hard rations always seems to win and we often come out on top in taste, and I enjoyed most of the German items, but, while the Bangladeshi package made a flavourable meal (if you like a spicy curry), their one-day ration was barely one Canadian meal.


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## Kat Stevens (16 Oct 2012)

MRE were the only hard rats we ever saw in 4 CER while I was there (88-92).


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## my72jeep (16 Oct 2012)

Kat Stevens said:
			
		

> MRE were the only hard rats we ever saw in 4 CER while I was there (88-92).


82-84 We used C Rations in 4 CER.


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## Danjanou (16 Oct 2012)

I remember C rats in 3 RCR in 1980. When did the MREs come into use? IIRC IMPs replaced IRPs around 1981


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## fraserdw (16 Oct 2012)

That's the name!!!!......IRPs [mountie]


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## Colin Parkinson (17 Oct 2012)

I remembered that the unit pooled the money we got to supplement the MRE and made deals with the local gastoff to supply a meal. We often traded the MRE’s to the local kids who gave us their dad’s beer. Seems they loved the Hershey bars, why a kid would want American chocolate when they had access to German chocolate was beyond me.  I was sent to a location to pick up “fresh rations” from the Americans, the list said potato’s and the American handed me a big box, quite light and I said; Where are the potato’s? He said in the box, turns out it was dried potato flakes……. Even their fresh rations were not so much. I suspect the cooks in the flying kitchens sometimes bought fresh produce to add to some of the food. 1984 I was with 1RCHA and 86 was with 1 Service Battalion. Both units were excellent to work with and it was an eye opener to work directly with a Service Battalion and changed my opinion of them quite a bit.


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## SuperMonkey (21 Oct 2012)

I had the privilege of eating a dusty chocolate bar from a 1998 ration found in 2008.

I come across '04 rations now and then.
Most common ones seem to be '10 for my unit. Tastier than anything I can cook at home.

I have given up trying to find the elusive 2012 rations for this year. Must've been bought out by the theorists and doomsday preppers.


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