Marines rationing food after convoy attacks

Post by **Vympel** » 2004-04-21 04:37am

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2004-04-21 06:46am

most MRE's are actually quite tasty. Especially the hot dogs and burritos.

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2004-04-21 09:04am

Not realy in the Navy, when we go on reduced rations it normaly means we only have enough on-hand for two trips back from anywhere in the world to the US.

Considering the number of MRE's carried by your avarage convy and the number of convoy's hit so far, likley this is just caution from their CO over there rather than acutal need

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2004-04-21 09:10am

Amphibious assault troops as garrison...

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2004-04-21 09:18am

You can easily and comfortably live on one MRE a day. IIRC they pack something like 3000+ calories into one. some of them taste like shit, but you'll be fine. (You gotta find the dumbass in the plattoon and trade him your shitty omelette for BBQ pork) Rationing=not a problem

KrauserKrauser · Post by **KrauserKrauser** » 2004-04-21 09:45am

Yeah, my dad has been saying the same thing. With the latest raids on supply convoys, MRE's are becoming the staple meals. Not that MRE's are bad, it just not what he has grown accustomed to.

Nathan F · Post by **Nathan F** » 2004-04-21 10:21am

Eh, MREs don't taste too bad. I've eaten many of them whilst hunting or camping. I like the beef stew...

Plus, the little bottles of tabasco are nice.

PainRack · Post by **PainRack** » 2004-04-21 10:26am

I initially read that article and thought they were only rationing fresh food only.

Dargos · Post by **Dargos** » 2004-04-21 10:47am

[snip]

Chardok wrote: (You gotta find the dumbass in the plattoon and trade him your shitty omelette for BBQ pork)

[/snip]

Bah! Omelette is GOOD. You just have to eat it hot(not a problem now with those cool MRE heaters), add crackers tobasco and cheese. If you are lucky you can bum some of the Ham slice from your buddy and add it into the scrambled omelette with cheese. yum yum

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2004-04-21 10:52am

Nathan F wrote:Eh, MREs don't taste too bad. I've eaten many of them whilst hunting or camping. I like the beef stew...

Plus, the little bottles of tabasco are nice.

A friend of mine would keep his Explorer stocked with them for those long drives back and forth between Ft. Drumm and Rhode Island. You can just set up the heat pouch against the transmission shifter and then BAM! Hot burritos, and you didn't even have to stop. They give you the wicked shits though.

Nathan F · Post by **Nathan F** » 2004-04-21 10:56am

Col. Crackpot wrote:
Nathan F wrote:Eh, MREs don't taste too bad. I've eaten many of them whilst hunting or camping. I like the beef stew...

Plus, the little bottles of tabasco are nice.
A friend of mine would keep his Explorer stocked with them for those long drives back and forth between Ft. Drumm and Rhode Island. You can just set up the heat pouch against the transmission shifter and then BAM! Hot burritos, and you didn't even have to stop. They give you the wicked shits though.

I keep a few in my Jeep for various reasons. I have to travel over the cumberland plataeu to get home, and it can snow fairly deep there, so I always have a couple days worth of food, a canteen of water, sleeping bag, and tent on hand. Of course, all that is also my camping gear, so it's a survival kit/camping kit in one.

And before anyone jumps to any conclusions, I'm not *quite* a reactionary survivalist. :-p

Aww hell, who am I kidding, yeah I am.

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2004-04-21 11:13am

Nathan F wrote:
And before anyone jumps to any conclusions, I'm not *quite* a reactionary survivalist. :-p

Aww hell, who am I kidding, yeah I am

Ah-ha! so YOU were the driving force behind the now defunct TEOTWAWKI.com!

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2004-04-21 11:39am

Chardok wrote:You can easily and comfortably live on one MRE a day. IIRC they pack something like 3000+ calories into one. some of them taste like shit, but you'll be fine. (You gotta find the dumbass in the plattoon and trade him your shitty omelette for BBQ pork) Rationing=not a problem

there's bound to be a vegan or two in every unit.

Nathan F · Post by **Nathan F** » 2004-04-21 11:41am

Col. Crackpot wrote:
Nathan F wrote:
And before anyone jumps to any conclusions, I'm not *quite* a reactionary survivalist. :-p

Aww hell, who am I kidding, yeah I am
Ah-ha! so YOU were the driving force behind the now defunct TEOTWAWKI.com!

*kills Crackpot*

None shall ever know...

Trytostaydead · Post by **Trytostaydead** » 2004-04-21 03:17pm

Yeah, my friend out there who thank God was just recently shipped out to Kuwait for a little downtime said it gets even worse sometimes at how they ration out the food. His highlight was when he scored some ramen.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2004-04-21 03:28pm

Chardok wrote:You can easily and comfortably live on one MRE a day. IIRC they pack something like 3000+ calories into one. some of them taste like shit, but you'll be fine. (You gotta find the dumbass in the plattoon and trade him your shitty omelette for BBQ pork) Rationing=not a problem

Apparently with the normal allotment of four MRE's per day, almost all soliders will gain weight, and if they acutally eat everything in them its unavoidable no matter how intense the work and fighting there engaged in.

Ma Deuce · Post by **Ma Deuce** » 2004-04-21 09:08pm

Darth_Zod wrote:there's bound to be a vegan or two in every unit.

A vegetarian or two is more than likely, but I doubt you would find vegans, since they tend to be peaceniks who would never join the military anyway...

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2004-04-22 11:09am

vegan, vegetarian, semantics.

Chris OFarrell · Post by **Chris OFarrell** » 2004-04-22 11:25am

I have to wonder though...I mean their supply convoys are being attacked who knows how much. We've seen convoys being blown up on the TV dozens of times in the last few weeks. Are they even BOTHERING to protect their supply lines?! I mean convoys keep getting blown up by poorly armed insurgents again and again. Why havn't they reacted and put strong escorts on them to diswade such attacks? Hell I think in one of the attacks they got an Abrams, HOW I don't know, probably shot RPG's like hail at it...evey man and his dog over there has one...

Post by **Vympel** » 2004-04-22 12:03pm

Their method of convoy protection is to drive through it while shooting through windows and from gun mounts. I don't think the Abrams was on convoy escort, it got blown apart (turret flew off and everything) by stacked anti-tank mines (or an artillery shell, can't remember which).

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2004-04-22 12:48pm

An Abrams wouldn't have the range to perform convoy escort duties, anyway. It would be a waste of resources, too. If an Abrams breaks down enroute to a forward area escorting a convoy of MRE's, there's a good chance they are FAR out, and the only thing capable of hauling it back would be a tank retriever. A HMMWV, OTOH, can be towed easily by a 5-ton or a deuce and a half, and still retains some combat effectiveness in the case of an ambush.

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2004-04-22 01:05pm

Chardok wrote:An Abrams wouldn't have the range to perform convoy escort duties, anyway. It would be a waste of resources, too. If an Abrams breaks down enroute to a forward area escorting a convoy of MRE's, there's a good chance they are FAR out, and the only thing capable of hauling it back would be a tank retriever. A HMMWV, OTOH, can be towed easily by a 5-ton or a deuce and a half, and still retains some combat effectiveness in the case of an ambush.

how will the turret be powered if there is no fuel?

Post by **Vympel** » 2004-04-22 01:21pm

Col. Crackpot wrote:
how will the turret be powered if there is no fuel?

Manual crank. If there is one. Which there probably isn't. Jeez, cranking that would be a beotch ...

Ma Deuce · Post by **Ma Deuce** » 2004-04-22 01:47pm

Vympel wrote:
Col. Crackpot wrote:
how will the turret be powered if there is no fuel?
Manual crank. If there is one. Which there probably isn't. Jeez, cranking that would be a beotch ...

The Abram's turret can be traversed by handcrank if the hydraulics fail (IIRC, this is true for just about all modern MBTs), but given how it has to be geared to allow the gunner to traverse such a prodigious turret by hand, it is excruciatingly slow. If the hydraulices fail, the gunner would coordinate with the driver to turn the tank so the gun is roughly pointing toward the target, then use the cranks to fine-tune his aim (the gun can also be elevaded/depressed by hand). That method would be a problem if the tank runs out of fuel or gets a track blown off.

It is possible to move such a large object as an MBT turret by hand if you have the right gearing: For example, at the Ontario Science Center, there is a 20-ton ship's propeller that is connected by a series of gears to a small handcrank. It is possible to actually make that huge propellor move with only your pinkie! (although it takes quite a few minutes to complete one revolution, even when you are spinning the crank as fast as you can).