It’s a long way from the Civil War, when soldiers lived for months at a time on a mixture of beef, peas and rice and far improved from the U.S. Army rations delivered to the soldiers like your fathers and mine during WWII.

The stereotype about terrible Army food no longer seems to apply as the U.S. military has turned its focus in recent years to improving the variety and quality of rations provided to soldiers on battlefields around the world. U.S. soldiers today can request Kosher and vegetarian rations.

Known as a “Meal Ready to Eat,” or MRE, rations today provide soldiers with a pre-cooked meal that gives them about 1,200 calories. The meals are packed in plastic-foil pouches and cardboard boxes. Since 1981, available rations have grown to include a total of 24 menus from 12 menus originally. Each meal bag contains a main course, eight crackers, cheese spread or peanut butter, cake or cookies, as well as coffee and tea complete with a creamer and sugar. Each MRE ration also comes with a chemical heater.

Soldiers on the move and in heavy combat rely on a “First Strike Ration” to keep them fed and energized. Each First Strike Ration provides soldiers with about 3,000 calories and is meant to replenish energy quickly. Contents typically include a tuna fish or chicken sandwich, high energy drink mix, high energy cereal bars, beef jerky, applesauce, and caffeinated gum.

The photo shows the Ration, Type K Breakfast Unit distributed during WWII and contained a canned meat product, biscuits, a compressed cereal bar, soluble coffee, a fruit bar, gum, sugar tablets, four cigarettes, water-purification tablets, a can opener, toilet paper and a wooden spoon. Although designed to be used for a period of two or three days only, the ration was stretched out to last for weeks on end…

Dad wrote about taking classes in 1943 about the food rations as a small part of his training to become a 101st Airborne paratrooper and prior to their sea transport in February 1944.

COMES A Soldier’s Whisper remembering history and our soldiers one day at a time….

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Photo Source: Orange is the Color of the Day
Text Source: Orange is the Color of the Day & http://usmilitary.about.com/od/weapons/a/mre.htm