When our Air Force Civil Engineering unit was deployed for training to a location in the Southwestern desert in the early 1990s, we spent long days sharpening our war skills at building defense, bomb damage repair, and RRR (Rapid Runway Repair) tactics, much of which was conducted in partial or full chemical warfare gear in the desert heat.

As a senior non-commissioned officer, I would sometimes task one of the airmen, often a junior member of the team, to take a truck to the supply house about 10 miles away to retrieve the MREs or "Meals, Ready to Eat." None of these were especially flavorful, but some surely became favorites, such as "Chicken A La King" or "Tuna Casserole", favored by most over the "Bean Component" or "Eggs & Ham" for the lunch or dinner meals. We ate these meals each day at room temperature, regardless of the flavor. We were all tired from the day's duties, but for each Airman I assigned to fetch the meals for the rest of the teams, I offered a "secret" incentive. Occasionally, when the duties allowed, I would accompany the Airman I had assigned to fetch the meals, and we would return to distribute the MREs to the other team members, or let them choose their own, then we would eat ours a few minutes later.

One day, the lieutenant leading our team pulled me aside and asked why I didn't send the Airman alone all the time to fetch meals. I asked if he wanted to accompany me to get the dinner meals and offered to show him the reason behind my participation. At the warehouse, as I loaded the several cases of MREs into the truck while the Lieutenant and I talked, I asked him what his favorite flavor was, and offered for him to select it from the cases of meals. I think he chose the "Scalloped Potatoes & Ham" and I chose my favorite "Chicken A La King".

I cut the MRE pouches open and pulled out the entrée meal for each, sealed in a metal foil vacuum pouch, opened the hood of the truck and laid both of them across the hot engine. The lieutenant's face broke into a wide smile as he realized my "secret", and he and I chatted as we drove the 10 miles back to the deployment area, knowing we would be the ones enjoying a "secret" of HOT meals that evening.

Sometimes, it doesn't take much to make each day a little more special.

Dave Croker, MSgt USAF, (Ret.)

LOL Right on. That's awesome.

That's how it's done.

isn't it also commonplace to put them in the exhaust pipe of a HMMWV to heat them?

awesome!!!