General Rant and complain thread open to all supporters

[Neverthesame]

His favourite was the pea soup. I cannot cook it that well like they can... and why should vet lie about eating pea soup

Almost forgot to mention. I don't what years your vet served, but a quick Google search showed me that Pea-soup with Ham was in the rotation of Einmannpackung issued for a good many years. So it's certainly possible he ate it while he was serving.

 

[Freida]

A military spouse on an internet board said that I have no clue about military life because otherwise I would understand vets desire to eat just crap.

ahhh...the dreaded military spouse who thinks they know it all.
They alternately crack me up and irritate the shit out of me because most of them are full of crap. They think that because they are married to someone in the military it gives them some kind of insight that no one else could possibly have when the reality is that they only have insight into THEIR situation.

It's like being married to a vet with ptsd --- not everyone needs the same thing. Many people in high stress jobs are drawn to high calorie, high fat/sugar foods as a coping method. However, just as many are drawn to working out at the gym, meditating, etc. So for them to tell you that you have no clue about how they eat is just idiotic.

I would imagine the appeal to eat rubbish food would be the convenience of easy, fast, portable, high calorie food full of sugar. Providing instant gratification for someone who is tired, cranky, not very hungry but needing fuel.

And military food is known for being..well...crap :laugh: But it's also about eating what is available - not necessarily what you want to eat.

 

[Sweetpea76]

My Vet will literally heat up a gas station burrito on his engine block. If anything, I think serving has made him very adaptable about what kind of food he can survive on.

 

[Never_falter2]

*rant* this night first one of my sons woke me. Then vet woke me. Now everybody is back to sleep but I could not go back to sleep and now it is already morning. I will need lots of coffee.

I talked to vet who said they eat halfway healthy in the military and that the problem is just his nervous stomach, no direct connection with the military.

I have heard the story about food being not for human use but only for armed forces uses before but I am not sure if it is true or well... a story... you have to know German vets like to perpetuate myth and it is very funny for them that some civilians believe them... another myth about the military is that they have a pain killer which is not for human use. I ask myself here: would it be allowed to give soldiers things not for human use? because after all they are all they are human (or is this just a myth believed by civvies that soldiers are remotely human?) and wouldn‘t there be laws against giving any human food or medication not for human use (or would the law say: not for human use unless it is a soldier in that case it is okay).

By the way talking about myth I always thought it was a myth that there was an EPA (EPA is like a MRE) that contained a hamburger (or two hamburgers) but they really do exist. You can even buy them online. That sounds mega yucky.? I also found out that EPA really contain chewing gum. I never believed that... but I think it is a myth that EPA and MRE contain a toothpick and wipes to clean your hands, isn’t it?

You know the problem with everybody who ever served in Germany is that they seem to have an informal code of honor which I think says that they must help perpetuate funny myths about military life if they are asked by a civilian.
I always thought the EPA with the hamburger was one too though several people swore to me they ate them. Do US vets have a similar code of honor @Freida and do MRE contain a toothpick?

 

[Freida]

LOL file it under "messing with civilians" -- we do the same thing in public safety (but don't tell anyone :laugh: )
I'm so old that i was in before the current round of mres came to be so I'm not sure what all they have in them. I got to be part of the first group they served them to and all I can say is..... EEWWWW
They were pretty nasty. I've heard they are better now - more like the freeze dried stuff you can get for camping

Funny note -- yes, they came with toothpicks and a pack of cigarettes. yep. cigarettes. They were like prison cash - if you didn't smoke you could make all sorts of amazing trades.:laugh:

 

[Friday]

They were pretty nasty. I've heard they are better now - more like the freeze dried stuff you can get for camping

We called them Meals Rejected by Ethiopians (@Never_falter2 there was a famine in Ethiopia at the time)...

...but... I love my mother, I love my mother, I love my mother

When I enlisted I was just like <swoon> This. Food. Is. Amaaaaaaaazing :inlove:

Granted, I never had C-Rats. Just 1980’s cold weather MRE’s (@6,ooo kcal a pop, we’d eat 4 a day and STILL be strugglin to keep weight on, though. Those were the days. f*ck I’m fat.) & Chowhall food.

I should probably mention, it was the late 90s when I served. Most of our MREs were date stamped in the early 80s. Workin our way through the ColdWar backlog! Mmmmmm. I always sort of wondered when the meat creature I was eating actually died. And amused myself of thinking about where I was and what I was doing in 1982, 1986, etc. (military brat, so it was a fun game).

 

[Freida]

@Friday consider yourself lucky that you got to skip past c-rats! We got those leftover nasty ass things in Korea -- looked and smelled like ALPO. Sad that the 80s mres were an huge improvement But there were still a lot of games of 'WTF is it? pineapple or chicken? Place your bets folks" :laugh:

 

[Friday]

'WTF is it? pineapple or chicken?

:roflmao: That was still true. The wise man did not read what it was “supposed” to be. Meat creature. Probably. Possibly a bit of the converter belt, or hospital shoes, that were shredded in to make the weight.

Except pork patties. Pork patties were the BEST. (I think this is why McDonalds only has McRibs once a blue moon. It’s whenever the military hasn’t cornered the market). I could never understand why no one else wanted them. :happy: Mine! I’ll take it! TRADE!!! Granted, it didn’t have all the ingredients for pudding, but it DID have an extra packet of M&Ms. I can live without pudding.

I ALSO got to skip past powdered eggs with saltpeter added to them :smug: My dad still hasn’t forgiven me. I keep telling him the salt Peter wouldn’t have mattered (no limp dick to worry about, hey?) but he sees that as beside the point.

 

[Neverthesame]

I have heard the story about food being not for human use but only for armed forces uses before but I am not sure if it is true or well... a story... you have to know German vets like to perpetuate myth and it is very funny for them that some civilians believe them...

Perhaps, seeing as I will likely never see for myself, I'll take it at face value as it was a good story, true or not. ;)

@Freida I gotta ask, did you ever know anyone who actually liked the C-rat Ham and Lima beans? (Ham & Motherf*ckers I've always heard them called)

 

[LuckiLee]

My guy was OP's. He ate bugs, snakes,grass and catchup a time or two. He loves having control of what and when he eats now.

 

[Freida]

@Freida I gotta ask, did you ever know anyone who actually liked the C-rat Ham and Lima beans?

ewwww!!!! Gotta say I never had the pleasure of seeing that particular one. I think I would have puked :laugh:

My guy was OP's. He ate bugs, snakes,grass and catchup a time or two. He loves having control of what and when he eats now.

yea -- this is why I would never have made it thru survival school. They dump you into the wilds of eastern washington and you have to eat whatever you can find. Nope. Nope. NOPE.

 

[LuckiLee]

Sometimes it was for training purposes and other times as necessity. I'm surprised he still loves catchup. He and his team survived on that a few times. They spent months at a time "under the radar". ... I've seen him eat a half of a pie recently. He's no where near overweight either. When he's symptomatic he loses weight.