The
Meal, Ready-to-Eat — commonly known as the
MRE — is a self-contained, individual
field ration in lightweight packaging bought by the
United States military for its servicemembers for use in
combat or other field conditions where organized food facilities are not available. The MRE replaced the canned MCI or
Meal, Combat, Individual rations in 1981 and is the intended successor to the lighter
LRP ration developed by the
U.S. Army for
Special Forces and
U.S. Army Ranger patrol units in
Vietnam.
The first soldier ration established by a Congressional Resolution during the Revolutionary War consisted of enough food to feed a man for one day, mostly beef, peas, and rice. [1] During the Civil War, the military tended toward canned goods. Later, self-contained kits were issued as a whole ration, and contained canned meat, salt pork, bread, coffee, sugar and salt. During the First World War, canned meats were replaced with lightweight preserved meats (salted or dried), in order to save weight and allow more rations to be carried by soldiers carrying their supplies on foot. At the beginning of World War II, a number of new field rations were introduced, including the Mountain ration and the Jungle ration. However, cost-cutting measures by Quartermaster Command officials during the latter part of World War II and the Korean War again saw the predominance of heavy canned C rations issued to troops, regardless of operating environment or mission.[2] The use of canned wet rations continued through the Vietnam War, with the improved MCI field ration.
After repeated experiences dating from before World War II, Pentagon officials ultimately realized that simply providing a nutritionally balanced meal in the field was not adequate. Service members in various geographic regions and combat situations often required different sub-sets of ingredients for food to be considered palatable over long periods. Moreover, catering to individual tastes and preferences would encourage service-members to actually consume the whole ration and its nutrition. Most importantly, the use of specialized forces in extreme environments and the necessity of carrying increasingly heavy field loads while on foot during extended missions required significantly lighter alternatives to standard canned wet rations.
In 1963, the Department of Defense began developing the "Meal, Ready to Eat", a ration that would rely on modern food preparation and packaging technology to create a lighter replacement for the canned Meal, Combat, Individual ration. This led in 1966 to the Long Range Patrol or LRP ration, a dehydrated meal stored in a waterproof canvas pouch. However, just as with the jungle ration, its expense compared to canned wet rations as well as the costs of stocking and storage a specialized field ration led to its limited usage and repeated attempts at discontinuance by Quartermaster Command officials.[3] In 1975, work began on a dehydrated meal stored in a plastic retort pouch. It went into special issue starting in 1981 and standard issue in 1986, using a limited menu of 12 entrees.
