Napoleon once said "an army marches on its stomach". I am starting a new topic on food in the military what you think of it. I'm curious how what meals are served in foreign armies as well. Please feel free to post thoughts an ancedonts. Bad or Good. Are MRE true to their reputation or are they not too bad?

Im tell a story I got a big kick out.

My mom used to work at the French Consulate in NYC. During about 10 years ago the French Helicopter Carrier Jeanne D'Arc paid a visit to New york Harbor. We were invited for a tour by the head Chef. Now the thing that kicked me was when he showed me the wine celler. Now as you know France makes some of the best wines in the world, but inside this ship was the largest wine celler I had ever seen. Not to mention the fact there was alcohol on board a military ship.

Well, I have been on courses at three different bases here in Aus, RAAF Bases Willianmtown and Wagga Wagga, and Lone Pine Barracks Singleton. We ate at the Airmens/Soldiers messes respectivly, and I had no problem with the food. It is some real high quality stuff.

Wine in an aircraft carrier? I cant believe it. Why?

We have a wet mess on our ships aswell,

the MRE ive had wasnt that bad....it took a long time to warm up the food though since i was at school and couldnt use alternative means than the water/chemical mix that heats it and even then it was still kind of cold, but not that bad...

I don't know what u get served in the mess hall when ur in the army but i do have a mate whose dad is in the army and he gets ration packs. The ration packs are some really nice stuff.

My cousin said that when he was doing his basic training for the airforce that the stuff the had in the mess was absolutely fantastic.

Rich.

in the USMC the food isnt that bad in the chow hall, im at Camp Pendleton 24area isnt to bad but if you go to the 22 area its horrible . at New River air station the chow hall was also pretty damn good, i liked the hours there too and how close to the barracks it was . but when i was at pensacola NAS (a navy base) that chow was pretty disgusting, didnt like it at all. MRE's are pretty good till youve eaten every single kind, then its starts getting very boring. if it was up to me i would never have a MRE again but i know when im gonna be hungry ill be VERY happy to have one. thats my take on the different chow halls ive eaten at.

I can only judge the food we had to eat while I was in the Army, and all I can say it was bloody awful, which the cooks managed to make even worse. The RAF Station were we did our Parachute Training seemed like a luxury hotel rather a military base to us lads from the army. Tables with clothes on them, cereal and toast on the tables and as much as we could eat, my did we make up for lost time. We ate so much that they made the Army set up their own camp down the road as reckoned they could not afford to feed us.

The standard of food in the Army (UK) is very poor imo, thats why when soldiers (especially Scottish ones!) go mad in other services/Nations cookhouses.

24 hr cookhouse in Doboi, Bosnia I was filling my Daysack with Bottles of Gatorade and ice cream bars Young american cook comes out from the back "Dude , No need to Steal its free!!"

"Aye , But it tastes Better big man"

I never had MREs but C rations weren't bad. To quote Mick Dundee," tastes like s**t but you can live on it."