phantomfixer Posted April 15, 2020 Share #1 Posted April 15, 2020 As you can see, I love my spaghetti n meatball rations I picked up this tin today, on the left, it feeds 12 and I think dated 1987..is it GI? the tin is about 2 inches deep, and roughly 10x12... it was in a box full of old MRE's and other rations... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allan H. Posted April 15, 2020 Share #2 Posted April 15, 2020 The big silver cans are called T Rations. They were designed to be dunked into boiling water for a certain amount of time to heat them. They were then opened up and served off of a T RAT Trailer (usually). Soldiers used paper plates and plastic utensils. They rolled these out just before Desert Shield as I recall. We were served T's as the dinner ration. The Cold Weather Rations were an even higher calorie version of the MRE as I recall. Allan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rakkasan187 Posted April 15, 2020 Share #3 Posted April 15, 2020 T-rations.. As Allan has stated these tins were immersed in hot water and then served to the Soldiers.. The T-ration packs were often supplemented with loaves of bread and peanut and jelly packets and long shelf life milk, and other fresh foods like fruits and for the evening meal we also had fresh salad... And these were issued with the paper plates and plastic wear.. The T-rations often came on pallets and the mess sergeant or supply sergeant would often chose the menu and draw so many T-rations for the unit.. There were breakfast t-rations of eggs and sausage, and if I recall there was also French toast sticks... and I remember the cinnamon crumb cake, apple spice cake and some of the other desert T-rations.. which were pretty decent.. The meals were alright, but if your mess sergeant drew a whole pallet of chili mac then you were stuck with that menu for several days... Leigh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phantomfixer Posted April 15, 2020 Author Share #4 Posted April 15, 2020 Thank you for the info gentlemen...pleased to know that it is GI...I remember pallets of MRE's baking in the sun.. but never saw these before...and imagine the taste was hit or miss like other rations hopefully your mess sgt wasn't a fan of chili mac... edit, just googled T ration...this was cool article... https://www.greensboro.com/gulf-war-providing-bonanza-for-food-processing-industry/article_20c64c2c-41c0-52ab-aa5b-8d0a3dc61a1d.html Thanks again John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeb137 Posted April 16, 2020 Share #5 Posted April 16, 2020 Its been too many years but when I was in my last Seabee Battalion 1999-2002 we got these along with standard MRE's. We rarely called the T-rats, usually they were call Tray Rats by the Battalion I was in. Each tray was supposed to feed (If I remember correctly) 15 people. We'd issue them to a squad, or if it was camp set up/tear down they were put in GI can's with emersion heaters. (those are fun to use, too much gas and the stack blows, too little and the fire goes out, puddles and then when you relight it, it blows the stack). Jon B. Newaygo MI Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phantomfixer Posted April 16, 2020 Author Share #6 Posted April 16, 2020 Jon...yeah man those immersion heaters were/are a blast..the drip method was also used in the small squad cook stove, and IIRC the M45 tent stove when converted to gas ...all very volatile .. Sadly...this ration had a pin hole in the lower right corner of the pic...a small brown spot on the picture...when wiped away, the pressure released from the tin..I heard the air escape...or get sucked in?...the rust must have sealed the hole just enough... JB weld sealed the hole, but now the ration is display only ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allan H. Posted April 16, 2020 Share #7 Posted April 16, 2020 While deployed during Desert Shield/ Storm, our cooks pulled three pallets of T's for a company of 85. EVERY ONE of them was Chicken ala puke. If I ever eat Chicken ala King again, it will be too soon. I believe the T stood for Tray, so jeb 137's recollection is evidently what they were calling them in the navy. Leigh's recollection of the salad, fruit and the bread brought back memories. The bread was "shelf stable" and came in a little brown foil package. Nine times out of ten, the bread was good. That tenth one would be moldy. We used to grab up the bread, peanut butter and jelly and carry those instead of MREs. Woe be to the guy that opened his last bread ration and found it moldy. Blech! Allan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phantomfixer Posted April 16, 2020 Author Share #8 Posted April 16, 2020 the memories...never had the T rations...but do remember being issued the MRE's with fruit and bread...this was USAF field conditions...training...in actual field conditions there was no bread or fruit...but we could help ourselves to whatever menu MRE we desired...and yes Allan H...woe be the last guy ...cause he usually got the omelette with ham...nasty seems the T rations came about prior to Desert Storm and phased out in the early 90s... Thanks for the input guys...and by all means share the MRE/ration stories... in USAF basic, 1983, we received the C rations...and damn if I didn't draw the spaghetti back then too...I liked it...sitting under a shade tree, and opening up those tins of food Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rakkasan187 Posted April 16, 2020 Share #9 Posted April 16, 2020 Allan, Please accept my deepest condolences for the Chicken A La King.... Weeks and weeks of Chili mac and another classic the Potato's A Gratin AKA Potatoes are Rotten....was what we had to endure... I think when they palletized these meals they stacked all the same on one pallet instead of breaking them down into a mix.. I do also remember ham slices (which was supposed to be served with the Potatoes A Gratin).. I believe I remember one of the veggies was corn and another meal that we had on a rare occasion was the beef tips in gravy, which I remember was served with mashed potatoes.. Another breakfast I remember was that we had on occasion was some type of egg omelet that had chucks of ham or spam in it and green bell peppers..(Or at least I hope that's what the green chunks were...) I forgot about the moldy bread.. But yes I remember that halfway through the loaf it would get either moldy or soggy, which is the beginning stages of getting moldy, so we stuffed PB & J packets in our pockets and also the small cereal boxes of Frosted Flakes, Apple Jacks, Corn Flakes and Shredded Wheat.. On occasion we would get the General Mills cereal boxes that had Cinnamon toast crunch, cheerios and Coco Puffs... Brings back a smile thinking about those days gone past... Leigh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KRIS FORD Posted April 17, 2020 Share #10 Posted April 17, 2020 Leigh's post above about the cereal reminded me I saw 2 grown men almost get into a fistfight over boxes of Golden Grahams on the FWD messdeck of the carrier I was on LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rakkasan187 Posted April 17, 2020 Share #11 Posted April 17, 2020 Leigh's post above about the cereal reminded me I saw 2 grown men almost get into a fistfight over boxes of Golden Grahams on the FWD messdeck of the carrier I was on LOL Ah yes the fight over cereal.. Funny how some Golden Grahams vs plain Cheerios would change one's demeanor.. As one of the NCO leaders of my unit we always let the enlisted Soldiers eat first which meant that they got the first pick of the cereals.. so by the time the NCOs and Officers went through the chow line we ended up with Corn Flakes and Rice Crispies.. No Fruit Loops or Frosted Flakes for us,,, but taking care of our Soldiers was more important part of unit cohesion and camaraderie, plus it was the right thing to do when there was little or no food... We had to take care of the grunts and door kickers... We did a lot of MRE trading back and forth which was fun to watch and all the excess food packet items went into a platoon community box which was open to anyone who wanted some extra grub... Lots of creamer and sugar packets and coffee packets were thrown in which was great for when the First Sergeant would come to our area,, We would make some coffee and he would sit with us for hours.. One of the greatest Senior NCOs that I ever worked for.. Leigh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msgt norway Posted April 17, 2020 Share #12 Posted April 17, 2020 Nice tread cool to read your stories about rations. cheers ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattS Posted April 20, 2020 Share #13 Posted April 20, 2020 I've got a tray of GI corned beef hash in my RV that came from a surplus store, never had a large enough pan to boil it in though. In the field in the 90s, we got 1 mermite can for breakfast (3 sleeves, 1 each of egg/sausage patties/toast), MREs for lunch, and these for dinner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allan H. Posted April 20, 2020 Share #14 Posted April 20, 2020 As I was working as an advisor to the Saudis during Desert Shield and Storm, we were located near the first POW camps established in Northern Saudi Arabia, near Log Base Saudi South. The 301st MP (POW Camp) ran the operation. Since I had ready access to native Arabic speakers, I would occasionally go over to the camp to help when they were having problems with the first Iraqi POWs. One day, I was called over because the Iraqis were chanting and they wanted to know what they were going on about. I got there when the MPs were issuing out US MREs. The US forces hadn't anticipated the early rush of POWs that we had gotten. There were a lot of interesting stories about them, but I'll just be specific about this instance for now. The Iraqis were chanting "TAMANIYA! TAMANIYA" which is the Arabic word for the number eight (8). It seems that the Iraqis quickly figured out that the MREs had numbers on the bags and the number eight MRE was "Ham Slice." Of course, we weren't supposed to the serving pork to Muslims, so that was also a problem, but for the time being, the Iraqi POWs all wanted the ham slice MRE. One associated ration story from ODS, we would get cooked bacon in a number 10 can (about the size of a paint can). While I was living with the Saudis, I had some US forces give me a case of these cans of bacon. Of course, I wasn't going to open the cans in front of my Saudi counterparts, but to not share was considered to be VERY rude. One of the Saudi captains that I worked with spoke very good English and had even gone to school in the US. I explained to him that the cans were full of bacon. He got very excited and immediately started opening one of the cans and happily started munching away on the bacon. I warned him that it was pork. He smiled and said that he didn't red English, so he didn't know any better. A few seconds later, ALL of the Saudis that I was working with were happily eating the bacon. My Saudi captain just told me to keep my mouth shut, which I did. From that point on, anytime I could get bacon, I'd take it back to the Saudis and let them enjoy it. Allan aht Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brig Posted April 30, 2020 Share #15 Posted April 30, 2020 On 4/15/2020 at 4:19 PM, Allan H. said: The big silver cans are called T Rations. They were designed to be dunked into boiling water for a certain amount of time to heat them. They were then opened up and served off of a T RAT Trailer (usually). Soldiers used paper plates and plastic utensils. They rolled these out just before Desert Shield as I recall. We were served T's as the dinner ration. The Cold Weather Rations were an even higher calorie version of the MRE as I recall. Allan The cold weathers are supposed to be higher calorie, and maybe they were back then, but they certainly aren't now. They're comparable to regular MREs, just dehydrated. This perplexed both us and the Brits in the arctic since, yes, caloric intake in such an environment is supposed to be as high as 9000 calories a day, and we were lucky if we were getting half that. On average, we each lost 15-20 pounds in 5 weeks. On the rare occasion we did get to eat in the chow hall, Marines were dissolving butter in their coffee for extra calories. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BEAST Posted May 1, 2020 Share #16 Posted May 1, 2020 In 1989, during Reforger, our First Shirt would bring the T-rations out to us for breakfast. One of the T-rats that we would receive was a tin of cherries in a syrup which usually went to waste. My platoon shared an assembly area with a German signals section which consisted of about six to eight men and they very much wanted the tins of cherries. We gave them one and found out why they wanted them so badly. The Germans had a reflecting oven and using these cherries, would bake cherry pies which they shared with my platoon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bummer Posted May 3, 2020 Share #17 Posted May 3, 2020 We had T rats in Alaska in 1987 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NBCguy Posted April 22, 2023 Share #18 Posted April 22, 2023 T rats YUM! I remember these from the late 80's. The best ones where the deserts (Spice cake especially). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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