Thursday, October 20, 2011

MRE's

Thursday  20 October 2011

Greetings.

Sorry its been awhile that I've blogged ... life as a Flight Operations Coordinator on an active Airbase in a warzone can be a very interesting experience.
We have security drilled into our heads all the time, so I cant really elaborate on alot of things I see here.
Sorry. You'll have to wait till I'm in the rocker and tell my "when I was in Afghanistan" stories.


One thing I will comment on....  I daily watch and hear the dedication of our military people here at Bagram Airbase Afghanistan and it has given me a deep and thankful respect for the work that they do.
They walk the walls, they go outside of the wire, they prep, they practice, they're very kind and respectful when I talk with them at meals and ask them questions.
Their dedication to "Army Values" is beyond impressive. I am honored to be in their presence.

Daily, I walk into the Green Beans Coffee cafe here ("Honor First, Coffee Second") stand next to the line, wait until a Soldier/Sailor/Airman/Marine orders, and step up to the cashier and pay.
I tell the soldier I do this daily as a very small gesture of thanks for what they do.
Please .... no "gee Dan, how nice" thoughts ... it is nothing compared to what these very young people do every day.
The other day, the soldier I stepped up for was a 2 Star General.
When I went to pay, he told me that wasn't necessary.
I explained that I do this gesture daily in gratitude for what our soldiers do, and that I'd be equally honored if he accepted as would a pimply-faced very young private here.
He did, I thanked him, and disappeared.

My brother Pat, besides being a Captain in the USCG, is his Boy Scout Troops "Pop Corn Kernel".
Pat recently sent me a box full of popcorn, along with some TERRIFIC chocolate cookies that his wonderful wife Carlene packed into the box.
I had the honor to walk up to soldiers here and give away the popcorn. ((I ate the cookies !!!)

Due to the desert conditions of Afghanistan and the unforgiving terrain, our fleet of aircraft carry onboard  survival equipment (along with some other toys). In the survival equipment are Meals Ready to Eat, a self contained packing of food and snax, easily warmed up.

Those not in the acft are in storage. I asked for and got permission to try one.

I went for the Chicken and noodles.
The packaging is a heavy plastic, like a 6 ply bag. Easy open zip top.


Here's all the stuff in the MRE kit.
The Reeses pieces were gone within a minute.
Hey, this IS survival !!
((do you know thats NOT peanut butter in them !!!))
There's a spoon, crackers, coffee making kit and the meal itself.
I'm just going to make the meal .... I'm hungry.
The coffee ? I'm a Green Beans Cafe guy !!

 Nutritional facts ..... not bad !!
 Instructions for heating the meal ..... Reeses pieces ? 10...9...8...7...6...
Basically, you add a small amount of water to a heat generator that looks like a teabag.
The packaged food heats up inside of the bag ... takes ~15 minutes.
 Julia Childs, check this out !!!
Here's a test human actually eating the MRE ..... pretty good .... 7.6 on a 10 scale ,,,,
Guess what ..... it tastes like chicken.
Darn .... wish there were more Reeses Pieces !!!!!

Next ...... Lasagna !!!

Later gator !!