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Army dishes out new combat rations

The Army served up its latest field chow Wednesday at the Pentagon, displaying a smorgasbord of new combat rations scheduled to hit the battlefield over the next couple of years.

The combat feeding demonstration featured new menu items for the Meal, Ready-to-Eat, Unitized Group Rations and the soon-to-fielded, First Strike Rations. All the new menu items are scheduled to be fielded between this year and 2010.

Food experts from the Department of Defense Combat Feeding Program manned the two different chow stations, serving samples to soldiers, veterans and reporters.

Among the new MRE items soldiers preferred the buffalo chicken and the corn bread slated for 2009. They also liked the southwest beef and black beans coming out in 2010.

But as always, there were disappointments.

Spc. James Lewis and Pfc. James Santa of the 4th Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard) didn’t care for the garlic mashed potatoes, which should hit the field in 2010.

“They have never done them right,” Santa said, referring to past attempts at instant mashed spuds. “The mashed potatoes are kind of gummy.”

Santa added that “the corn bread was good, the buffalo chicken was good. I think they are a pretty good improvement.”

Maj. Gen. Anthony Cucolo summed up the importance of new menu items in field rations by saying “chow and mail have the greatest impact on the individual soldier’s morale. I mean, we will climb mountains, we will fight in urban canyons, we will sleep on the ground as long as we will have a reliable source of food that’s preferably hot and preferably interesting — meaning not the same things everyday.”

The event also featured samples of the Army’s new First Strike Ration, a compact, eat-on-the-move assault ration designed for fast-moving combat. The new rations, scheduled to be available this summer, are less bulky and lighter than MREs and include easy-to-eat food such as pocket sandwiches.

Soldiers liked the concept and but weren’t overly excited about the flavor.

Sgt. 1st Class Donna Stump described the French toast pocket as “a little dry but no worse than a Fig Newton.”

The UGR Heat & Serve menu items proved very popular.

Among the favorites were the boil-in-bag scrambled eggs scheduled for 2010 and boil-in-bag bacon, which should be in the field this year.

“The eggs are much improved; they actually taste like eggs,” Stump said, adding that “the bacon rocks.”