Or this one?

[ludickid]

I went back to the commissary, risking my precious freedom to snap amusing pictures for you ungrateful cowards. (At one point, I actually made a joke about ending up in Gitmo for snapping pictures on a military base, and a nearby uniformed woman gave me a look best described as “dire”.) Anyway, the big sad news was that the Keebler-elves-in-

Comments

[ludickid]

I would like to note that not only is that MRE being sold at markup by a for-profit commercial entity, which is completely illegal, but it costs eight dollars. For what is described on the package as a single serving of penne pasta. No wonder the military budget is so out of control.

[calamityjon]

I have met SO many ex-GIs who are ADDICTED to MREs. They will turn down home-cooked meals if they happened to remember the four-year old chicken parm pack they've got stashed in their desks ...

[ludickid]

Man, you know what? Me too. And frankly, I have eaten MREs, and I don't get it.

Plus EIGHT BUCKS!

[roninspoon]

It's cause they're chock full of all the addictive food elements that doctors tell us are bad for people who sit behind desks all day, but are good fuel for high stress situations and high exertion tasks. They contain something like 2500 calories. Eat two of those a day in a normal white collar job and you'll gain weight faster than Nichole Ritchie loses it.

Also, you'll poop a lot too. They really get your bowels moving for some reason.

[ludickid]

Yeah, see, again, that's why I don't get eating them as a civilian or a desk-jockey. Those things are designed to be superefficient fuel for people in the field. You eat 'em at home, you'll turn into a monster.

Which, now that I think about it, explains a lot of the people I see at the commisary.

[roninspoon]

AAFES is a department of the DOD. The labor is often times contracted out, but the commissaries and exchanges are run by the DOD, with all profit being "returned back to the customer." It's actually one of the few reasonably run government entities with more than 90% of their sales profits going to pay for things like utilities and employee wages. They get very little congressionally appropriated money

[ludickid]

Huh, I didn't know what about the AAFES. Interesting. I guess I will not report them to the CBO, then.

I think that particular type of MRE probably comes with a heating device as well, which is probably where much of the cost comes from.

At any rate, I still find it inexplicably why guys would still wanna eat these things when you're not in the field. Maybe you can speak to this, 'cause frankly I haven't had one for ages, but my memory is that they're terrible.

[roninspoon]

I don't know really. I haven't had one in close to 14 years, and I'm practically salavating thinking of the corned beef hash and oatmeal bar. Maybe it's nostalgia. Maybe it's because by the time you get one when you are in the field, you're so hungry that it's the best thing you've ever eaten. I know I used to keep a stash of them in my wall locker when I lived in the barracks because it was easier and better than going to the chow hall.