MRE Tips And Tricks From An Army Ranger

[@leeross3950]

Never had a problem with MRE's. They were always better than starving. Lol. That being said I still loved the old dark brown bag MRE's with the dehydrated beef and pork patties. During Desert Storm, while on remote relay sites, I would always trade my MRE's with the Brits for their " C-Rats". Kept things new and interesting. My crew and I would always fold our MRE's in half and stuff them into the heater ducts on the HMMW's or stick them on the engine manifold for a hot meal.

[@cfzippo]

HA! Ya, did MRE’s mostly in Desert Strom for 10 months! You’ll need fiber! 😂. The choices are all better now than 91. We gave the pork patties to the Iraqi prisoners. The spaghetti was my favorite, and Tabasco sauce in any soldiers mail was like a Christmas present! We also tried making hootch wine with the contents and the fruit compote. You gotta vent. Plastic bottles will explode! 😂 By the time the shooting was over, after 10 months, I was only eating one MRE a day any how. I was down 25 lbs or so when I got home in April 91. - 101ABN USAF ALO/FAC. (JTAC.)

[@hinugundam81]

Definitely drink lots of water. MREs tend to uh, clog the pipes

[@socalautisticman1975]

You served in Desert Storm !!!! 🇺🇸🎖️ Thank you for your service 💪🎖️🇺🇸

[@billradley]

Pork patties to muslims. You sound like a piece of shit.

[@TexasNationalist1836]

Why do you need fiber

[@SaundersE5]

Nice touch with the pork patties.

[@jacksman7]

If you've never done an MRE heater bomb its always impressive how loud they can ger with the right bottle. Fun watching the bottle stretch to ridiculous lengths before the boom.

[@TexasNationalist1836]

What is the best bottle to use

[@mdbizzl]

My Uncle, a Gunnery Sergeant, preferred 32 Oz gatorade bottles for the “bombs” he used to make with the unused ration heaters he had.

[@tbjtbj4786]

He didn't add the hot sauce to the heater bottle

[@sgtcote1]

I always enjoyed schnanagans with said Mre bomb and tossing the bottle in a metal dumpster. The reverb of the boom was awesome.

[@Ret64clutch]

I remember the maple nut cake And freeze dry strawberries Oh hell yeah 😊

[@whomagoose6897]

You know your old school if you had C-rations made before 1968. There was a small package of four cigarettes in each C-ration box. Mostly there were Pall Mall, Lucky Strikes, Chesterfield and Winston's on occasion.

[@ricksilver7398]

Cigarettes became chewing tobacco because you were always under orders of light and noise disapline or saved upon returning to base

[@ricksilver7398]

Love the conversation pieces that come out of the posts to how adaptable and creative one becomes when your hungry 😂

[@joeb1776]

I use to make Ranger Pudding. The coco hot beverage powder, coffee, sugar and a little bit of powdered creamer. Add water and stir…. Plus I would chew on the coffee for middle of the night security.

[@EndoftheBlock7224]

Same here. I loved anything with caffeine and did the same setup as you. I loked the caffeine mints but they were difficult to come by

[@SaundersE5]

Wise man you are and you know you’re droning when you’re dipping that coffee like Copenhagen to stay awake.

[@Ogrematic]

When I was a mechanic we would take mt dew bottles, drill a hole in the top with the tire plug tool, and put a valve stem in the cap. You put a few oz of hot water in it and fill it with air until the label stretched then huck it at someone or up in the air. Wicked loud.

[@keithfagan5424]

Anti-Freeze jugs are louder

[@harrykane3840]

No BS, we were drawing ammo at main ammo point at Ft formerly known as Bragg. Young private in 82nd rigs an MRE shenanigan. Needless to say loud BOOM in main ammo point ensured said private attention from ALL in immediate proximity. I'm sure that kid got to experience life as MRE gum for next couple of weeks!

[@SaundersE5]

It’s still Ft. Bragg

[@luisjennings6319]

Arctic MRE's are awesome... Quite a change from the dark brown bag MRE's in the early 90's.

[@nickwojtow6787]

They are called MRE MCW… meal cold weather. And they dont have 6k cals like he says lol. They 3000. Twice a regular mre. First Strike Rations are 24hr ration. And have more like 6000.

[@ericgrumbles447]

French RCIRs are still the gold standard, First Strike are what I keep on hand, and I have 4 cases of HDRs to give to "stragglers".

[@ronwick2602]

LOL, I’m old enough I started out on C rats or LRRP rats (when lucky) and had the first MRE’s which were hard on the gut. Thanks for the reminder on Ranger cookies( LOL!). They made me hate coffee.

[@BlackMetalVikingCustoms]

You can use them as hand/foot warmers after they’ve stopped rocking. They hold heat for awhile after they’ve finished venting.

[@paulwilson8672]

The chiclets gum goes back to C-Rats along with most of the accessory Pack. Did they remove the little bottle of Tabasco Sauce? In the Mid 80's when they came out with the original MRE's the dehydrated pork patty was only a quarter of the size you were showing. Coco powder, creamer and sugar mixed with a little bit of water and you have chocolate pudding. The modern ones are great!!! For the most part Bland alone, but enough to make it they way you want. Making sure my son learns from this. Great Video!!!

[@sheltermemercury]

If you’re lucky you might get a little packet of Tabasco nowadays.

[@liquidrockaquatics3900]

14:21 holy crap, the peanut butter oatmeal sawdust chunk! I love those damn things. The best aftertaste- much better than most MRE items

[@jeffpeters4497]

We used to call them John Wayne bars

[@johnbowse4693]

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE AT TACTICAL HIVE. PEACE TO YOU ALL.

[@One_of_Gods_Warriors]

Love the ranger stories keep ‘em coming

[@onpsxmember]

Learning TP appreciation with Dave.^^ Thx for taking the time to do this, that was fun. Good that you have some shade. I remember the lobster look. I asked for this. I wonder if it has to be water for the shenanigans.

[@andrewwagenaar5483]

I learned how to keep everything and not having to field strip it by packing it into the entree box then wrap it the bag for waterproofing. Also if you carry your own hot sauce everyone becomes your friend.

[@Emily-ou6lq]

French MREs are the best. Joyeux Noël!

[@ericgrumbles447]

RCIRs are the absolute best.

[@502outlaw2]

Thanks!

[@Shoots-A-Stick79]

"It will make a turd." 😂

[@philstone3859]

I trust this dude’s opinion, he looks very well fed. 😋

[@Elias.Agg.]

Love MRes, but I kinda avoid them. They are big and bulky as you said. Take too much room in my backpack. I stick mainly to granola bars and trail mix.

[@skibor3781]

Mix the coffee,creamer and sugar together. Wrap it in one of the food wrappers (They used to be foil) wrap in up tight like a cough lozenge. Heat it w/ a bic lighter until it all melts together. Slip it your lip and enjoy the hard candy caffeine.

[@dwarden7829]

Best part of the surprise MRE heater shenanigans was putting a couple hot sauces in them. Great times tossing them in a tent, at night. 😉

[@keithbrown9198]

I'm old enough that all we had in the beginning were C-Rats, and man were they heavy, and not appetizing. When we started getting MREs they were the best thing since sliced bread (not shelf-stable, lol). A huge improvement. I haven't had any of the modern ones, a case on the civilian market is pretty expensive, but I'll probably get a couple for SHTF....They really aren't bad, and if you're just trying to survive, you could do a lot worse...

[@SaundersE5]

I liked them.

[@whomagoose6897]

I first started my US Army days in 1977. So I had the last of the C-rations. And the first generation of MRE. Here's one thing you can make from the accessory package that no one does anymore. Called a Ranger Cookie. Something I learned from the old Vietnam War guys. May gotten started from the Korean War era or WW-2. Get the sugar and coffee creamer packets. Back in the day you had a creamer package that was aluminum foil lined paper. Now there's plastic lined paper. So you need to bring a section of aluminum foil to cook the cookie. Mix the sugar and creamer in a aluminum foil packet that's about the size of a creamer packet. Seal all edges of the foil cooking packet. Cook over a flame for a minute or so. The sugar and creamer powder melt. Once melted remove from the fire. Everything will harden as it cools. This is the Ranger Cookie. More like English Toffee than a cookie. Makes that nasty instant coffee much better.

[@MajorGRecording]

I liked to crunch up the crackers in the packet into as small particles as possible, then add hot chocolate mix, sugar, creamer, coffee, and a packet of peanut butter. Add a bit of water and mix it up good. Looks like 💩 but it tasted good and was filling. I once ate a dehydrated pork patty without re-hydrating it before a five mile march in basic training. 🤢That was the last time I ate a pork patty.

[@mikereese15]

No i don't want your gum😂. Nice breakdown. Merry Christmas 🎁🎄🎁🎄

[@SaundersE5]

I must be old, we had C rats back in the olden days in 1st Battalion. Sua Sponte!

[@misolgit69]

the Knife Writer James Morgan Ayres passed on a direct quote from a serving Soldier, " MREs, Meal Ready to Eat, that's three lies in one sentence" only his personal opinion of course 😇

[@therealevh]

Merry Christmas 👍

[@josephbrlt]

The laxatives gum bit... 🤣🔥☠️

[@jamesdelong6401]

I remember my dad giving I and my brother MRE'S all the time when camping

[@reddevilparatrooper]

The ham omellete, beef stew, chicken stew, spahgetti, tuna noodles main meal I would field strip all my MREs and put 3 main meals into one bag with the crackers, spoons, and the stuff you like inside. So 12 meals you can put into 4 MRE bags into your ruck sack. This was SOP in my Airborne Battalion in Panama during 1989-90 when I was there. One case of MREs per soldier, 9 quarts of water meaning a 5 quart inside your ruck with a 2 quart canteen attached, and both canteens on your LBE full. All loaded up ready for a jump, air assault, truck assault, or hump out into the jungle for field training exercise. I would cut long ways on my main meal after heating it up I would crush the crackers and cheese and mix it, add Tabasco or salt to flavor it, fast and easy. During the Panama Invasion we did the same thing when the warning order came down 24 hours before when the shit hit the fan. Then we could fill our ruck sacks with extra ammo, frags, smoke, and a battery for the platoon radios. We packed our rucks efficiently for combat.

[@patrickpearson1399]

My favorite response was, "Want in 1 hand,crap in the other and see which gets filled 1st! " lol

[@ricksilver7398]

My days were c-ration and winter time you starved because everything was frozen and the only option was eating the dry goods because you never stopped humping and if you did stop it was light and noise disapline so, forget the heat tabs that usually were never handed out so, it was suck it up until back to base. 135 lbs, 28 inch waste, and an M-60 gunner plus ruck usually outweighed me and humping mountains was a killer, but I never ever fell out or had a blister in those old leather leg boots. 12 miles plus for 3 yrs. Didn't gain weight until my 50s mid-60s achieved 200 lbs and now feel like a lard ass. 😂

[@iyn1911]

Thanks great info.

[@jamesm4252]

1968 VN = 3 day C Ration load out { Cans } dropped in a OD sock and tied to the top of your ruck sack , making a straight long tube of chow ready to take out a can of spagetti and meatballs and open with a P38 and heat with a chunk of C4 , No MRE in those days.....

[@billradley]

No one cares, boomer. You lost that war.

[@leeross3950]

Something else we would do was mix the folgers instant coffee with the sugar packet and place them inside our lip like a dip. Then we would just let them slowly dissolve in our mouths while on patrol or driving and or chase with water from.the canteen

[@socalautisticman1975]

MREs !!!! Gimme the Mexican stew and the Asian beef strips !!! That's what I would want to stockpile on and take on trips Sure pork too and pasta on weekends What you think about Mountain House Adventure Meals? It's freeze dried and of freeze dried in general ?

[@petesheppard1709]

Back in the C-ration days, we were issued small heating tabs that we burned in empty cans with holes punched all around them for heating the canned food--DON'T do this in a tent! Being a non-smoker, I looked forward to the cigarettes in the ration; they would have been trading gold! Alas, they had been removed in the early '70s. A common shenanigan was to slip the little can of peanut butter into another squad's fire...

[@billradley]

Ok boomer

[@SaundersE5]

@@billradleyuncalled for.

[@bski1611]

Beef stew, spaghetti with meat sauce, the Hot Dogs (Fingers of Death), love the pound cakes, and I think putting sugar substitutes in MREs is dumb. Artificial sweeteners always taste bitter to me. The first MREs I had were in the dark brown bags, one of my favorites was the Chicken a La King. Dehydrated beef and Pork patties with the freeze-dried ketchup were not my favorites but were palatable if you had hot water. Cold water... not so much.

[@patrickpearson1399]

MREs have come a long way since I got out in 98. You know shortly after they started putting heaters in every meal. Never got to try the heater/water bottle bomb, but can only imagine the fun!!! 😂😂😂😂

[@ashlandgunclub1000]

Ranger cookie’s rule, edible caffeine. You forgot the required Tabasco sauce supplement.

[@nomadmarauder-dw9re]

Tony Chacheres now comes in individual serving packs.

[@oreowoho]

Tactical hyve, the cooking lessons

[@jhoot3482]

Well, I never know the gum had any extra “additives “ but it does explain some incidents

[@biohazard20161]

We used to play games, with the Meals Rejected by Enemy heaters and plastic bottles.

[@begayskates]

Wait. I can take a sheet of toilet paper, ball it up,put some nesquick on it, wrap it up,stash it in my hat, go skate, pull it out hours later, and I got a chocolate teepee cookie. Hold my brain.

[@kellywalker8407]

I like MREs just fine.They sure beat going hungry. Went three days without eating, it was pretty much me and my buddies fault. We were only twelve years old. Should have listened to my dad.Years later, the second time I went without food for 3 days.........yea, pretty much my fault.....lol

[@DAH1020]

No too Splenda...... that's stuff is the worst thing for you. Great work

[@overseas_demogod]

Finally, tips I can use!😢

[@blakegrunwell5442]

That bag of food is a weapon

[@dtna]

What do you think of the "First Strike" rations?

[@quasar8898]

Strange. I served as a Security Element for a USAF Weather Team in the 1980s- we spent a lot of time with various SO groups- SF, Seals, Delta, Marsoc,etc. I don't remember any of them being the giant size, rhoided out, shaved head, bushy bearded and tattooed creatures that all SOs today seem to be. Just a bunch of physically fit guys with collar length hair, clean shaven- and quiet.

[@Coinbro]

This is literally the funniest youtube video i ever seen.. The gum bro watch out!!

[@liquidrockaquatics3900]

I never minded MRE’s but I never ate more than a whole one each day because I liked being able to poop eventually

[@fromantv5170]

The clear water bag can be used to cover your phone and keep it dry

[@u.s.aarchangelforgod3679]

TY T.H

[@Kriss_L]

Adding salt to the heater can help it work better.

[@miroslavmajer5155]

Question I would have is what will happen to you when you eat that towel. Will you have any health issue out of it? Will it desolve in your body?

[@dwightdenton525]

Don’t forget your etool, a tshirt or your socks to wipe the brick and a battle buddy for security!

[@danebrewer5931]

OK, eating the toilet paper is a new one for me!

[@chaoticcaninejb]

Omlet and ham is the only thing ever to make me gag

[@rpnbf8196]

Chili Mac ftw

[@sv650mekros]

Merry Christmas, hope no one is eating MREs today

[@stephengarner3177]

Where's the baby tabasco?

[@bullfrog8221]

you can make tear gas with that and the tabasco sauce

[@esmith3438]

That is true..lol I leaned that the hard way at SOI.

[@Slcm02]

I always remind my grandsons ( 18 ) dining and dating both have the same rule. If it smells bad don’t eat it.

[@asmith7876]

I was in the Army in the mid-80's when they were still newish. Occasionally they'd announce lot numbers of bad MRE's and we'd have to turn the case in. It was not uncommon to have guys flown out from food poisoning. No heaters, and the menus included dehydrated pork or beef patties. Disgusting no matter how you doctored it up but when you're hungry a frozen hot dog is still "food", sort of 🤣🤣🤣.

[@jermsMRE]

Fascinating video!! New sub here!! I learned a lot about how these are really used in the military!! TFF = Trans Fat Free 👍👍 Excellent video sir 🫡

[@Lead_Ache_5]

The good ol days of a solid ⚾️ dump lol

[@MrSabram07]

1st and merry xmass

[@YouveBeenMiddled]

*Top tip/trick for MREs:* avoid anyone who's happy to eat them. They're not mentally stable.

[@drsevrin100]

Meals Refusing to Exit.

[@marsoelflaco5722]

🎄🎅🏼🤶🏼🍻✌🏾

[@Benz2533]

my package doesn't even work at all.

[@ARGAR_GAMES]

Maybe first!

[@craigvisser2593]

No BS. Navy buddy, set off an MRE bomb in a trash can, inside CIC. Sent the entire pier to Security Alert. He fessed up. On the FBIs terrorist watch list. Didn't stop him, however, from going to SWCC, and having a successful career as a Boat Guy. Wouldn't recommend repeating it, though... 😂😂😂

[@franciscojsantiagonp3fs431]

😆👍

[@muteme4980]

Natural habitat 😂

[@williamsweet7511]

No Lucky Strikes? lol

[@stevewilson6723]

TFF Trans-Fat-Free.

[@corythomas3925]

Wouldn't In-nOut be considered an MRE?

[@jimjasinski4861]

WTF? 😮

[@DDGVET4]

Meals Rejected by Ethiopians.

[@nickwojtow6787]

US MREs have the most processed crap and unhealthy ingredients of any. French MREs are da bomb! Bridgeford products are so bad.

[@mauricebarlow4844]

Thank you Park Ranger sir the Mre Meals ready to Puke or crap or both I rather eat a piece of a tire off the side of a rode .

[@Valorius]

The best tip i can give about MRE's is don't eat 'em.