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I hadnt had much experience with the ‘new’ MRE’s so the six cases that a customer traded to me today are an eye-opening experience.

First of all, the shape of the case is slightly different..not as flat as the old style Im familiar with (ca. 1992). Next up , the color of the bag is different…more of a coffee-with-cream brown rather than the chocolate brown of the old pouches. Also, the new ones have the heaters included…niiiiiiiiiiiiice. ANd then theres the menu…jambalya? Chicken cavatelli? Hmmm… sounds good to me. Anyway, I traded and wound up with six cases of these things that are dated as 2003 manufacture..so theyre relatively fresh. Should have at least a good five years in them stored in my nice cool dark basement.
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In other news the Eureka USMC Combat Tent has arrived. Oooh-rah. I’ll set it up tonight and inspect it for any problems. My buddy who has a couple of these things will come by and give me the benefit of his experience with them and we’ll do whatever seam sealing is necessary. Ive been wanting one of these things for a couple years now and theyve come down on eBay to the point where theyre right around $125-150. Why this tent? Well, first of all, its pretty bloody difficult finding tents in ‘subdued’ colors like military tan and green. Secondly, it comes with soldier-proof instructions, a complete and extensive repair/patch kit, blocks light from inside the tent so you dont give away your position, has a stand-alone fly, and generally has features that make it useful to the LMI. And if Uncle Sugar can spend a couple million buckto develop this thing, why wouldnt I take advantage of that?
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Now the news reports are saying that Al-Qaeda is planning the usual ‘massive strike’ for Inauguration Day. When will these threats stop? Well, I suspect shortly after Bush finishes his second term and doesnt need to wave that particular red flag around anymore. Cynical, yes, but…..

If they were really worried about terrorists getting into this country maybe instead of stripsearching grandmas at the airport they might, oh, I dunno…put some teeth in the Mexico/US border?

10 thoughts on “”

  1. put some teeth at the mexican border!!!! ok now, THATS hate speach!!! you.. you.. you.. oh wait thats right people should immagrate under legal conditions.

  2. I’d buy one of those tents in a second if I didn’t already have an almost identical tent from Eureka, which is unfortunately, very very yellow.

  3. If they were really worried about terrorists getting into this country maybe instead of stripsearching grandmas at the airport they might, oh, I dunno…put some teeth in the Mexico/US border?

    My sentiments exactly.

  4. The new MREs are pretty yummy…as far as a field ration goes. For entertainment purposes, you can pull the flat, chemically impregnated center from an unspent MRE heater and place it (or a couple)into a partially filled water bottle, just a little water. After doing this, throw the water bottle/heater combination well away from you very qucikly, as it will soon explode with loud (very loud) effect. It could hurt you or someone else, so be careful. The active ingredient in ration heaters is soda lime, that when mixed with water, generates allot of steam (and probably hydrogen gas).

    I like those tents…I like the MOBIFLEX tents better, but the USMC tents seem pretty good. Never weathered the elements in one, however.

    I picked up five cases of MRES that a buddy had laying around for 20$ case. I’ll probably see that deal sometime next too Never.

  5. I don’t know, Commander. I’m thinking that after the second term, Al Qaeda is going to put the _next_ guy to some pretty severe testing. I think Islam, Inc. knows what to expect of the current batch of executive branch types. But they’re going to have to give the next guy a big gut-check.

    Remember the whole deal with Reagan replacing the Georgia Peach and then we instantly get our hostages back from Iran. They had a pretty good idea of what would happen, I bet, when Reagan got in. But I don’t think that the next guy is going to get a pass from Al Qaeda.

  8. They can’t “profile” potential terrorists because that would be “racist”, so they have to give wounded SF soldiers and grandmas a hard time to show they are being “random”, and not “singling out” a particular race or ethnicity. Well, I don’t see Sweedes running around hijacking airplanes.

    The new MREs are definitely better than the one’s I had when I first went in the military back in the late 1980s, but I’d rather go with a rotatable supply of off-the-shelf “(semi-)ready to eat” stuff that’s my usual day-to-day fare. MREs are good for bug-out kits, however.

    Tents are cool if you’re camping recreationally, but if you’re on the move they take up too much ruck space and time. If you’re someplace long term you’ll want something more than a tent.

  9. The tent is for more practical than tactical reasons. For example, if the house were destroyed or rendered uninhabitable by tornado, flood, fire, it would give me a place to live in my yard while I get things put back together. Its also, of course, got the trecreational aspect. This particular one, when stripped of some of the superfluous extras, isnt bad to haul around and can be split up among two people. Fort the short term, high urgency situations a ponch and some bungee cords/paracord does okay but I feel there is a need for a tent. Additionally, depending on the means of ‘move’ when on the move the weight/space may be negligible. If on horseback or vehicle, then its ceratinly less relevant than if on foot or on bike.

    Depends on the situation.

    The MRE’s dont replace the rotatable stuff but simply augment it in that they are the first choice for grab-n-go edibles. I think I covered this elsewhere in this LJ but my own foodstocks are layered: everyday foods (canned/pouch/box), MRE’s, freeze-dried, grains/beans/corn in buckets. Believe me, theres plenty of rotatable everyday food we go through here…soup, pasta, canned meat, dehydrated potatoes, canned fruit, etc, etc, etc.

  10. oh yeah those mre’s (some of them) are rather good, for example, all the spaghetti and meat sauce needs is a little sautee’d garlic mixed in to make it quite good

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