Posted on 02/17/2006 5:51:49 PM PST by Libloather
Resale of Meals, Ready to Eat questioned after eBay trading spotted
By Leo Shane III, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Saturday, February 18, 2006
WASHINGTON — Meals, Ready to Eat, the prepackaged rations infamous among servicemembers, remain hot collectibles on the online trading site eBay.com, despite defense officials’ efforts to stop the practice.
MREs typically cost about $4.50 to produce, and are intended solely for use and distribution by members of the military, according to Defense Department rules.
But the water-activated rations are being marketed on the site as both survival gear and collector’s item, with some cases of 12 going for upward of $100.
On Friday, more than 90 unopened cases with U.S. military markings were for sale on the site, and more than 300 other listings featured individual meal packets, MRE desserts and other related foodstuffs.
In many of the listings, warnings reading “U.S. Government property — Commercial resale is unlawful” are clearly visible on the packaging.
“If they’re on eBay, they shouldn’t be,” said Gregory Kutz, managing director of the Government Accountability Office’s special investigations department. “They weren’t intended for that. In all of those cases, that’s wasted government money.”
The GAO testified before Congress about the issue this week, as part of a larger examination of abuse of relief supplies intended for Hurricane Katrina victims.
In a sampling of some of the MRE sales on eBay last October, the GAO found a few sales of the food packets by Katrina victims, a practice Kutz admitted is probably legal even if it’s not what military relief workers had in mind.
But his investigators also referred six cases to the Defense Department Inspector General’s office for possible charges of theft and misappropriation of government property. Four of those involved active-duty troops who claimed to have obtained the MREs legally.
Kutz said his investigation was only a snapshot of one day of eBay MRE sales, and does not provide any statistical evidence of a systemic problem.
In 2002, the Defense Supply Center in Philadelphia, which handles procurement of military MREs, requested the trading site voluntarily shut down all MRE sales by their sellers since the meals are “owned by the government until consumed by authorized personnel.”
GAO officials said MRE sales on the site dropped sharply after that request, but have picked up again in recent months.
Pentagon spokeswoman Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke said the Defense Criminal Investigative Service has been investigating the sales, but would say only that eBay has been “very cooperative” with those efforts.
EBay spokeswoman Catherine England said the company has no plans to halt the MRE sales.
“These are perfectly legal to own and perfectly legal to sell,” she said. “When the Defense Department approached us we asked them to show us a law that prohibited the sale of these items, and they could not do that.”
Without such a law, England said, a ban on those transactions would be unfair to sellers and buyers on the site. The only MRE sales prohibited by the company are meals with already expired use dates, for safety reasons.
Some servicemembers are having a tough time swallowing the idea of MREs as a collectible, luxury item.
“I’d pay someone to take them off of me,” said Airman 1st Class Aaron Stauffer, of the 603rd Air Control Squadron at Aviano Air Base in Italy.
Stauffer and friends laughed off the idea of seeking out the prepackaged meals, and were even more surprised at the idea that someone might be making a profit off them.
Sailors at the U.S. Naval Hospital Okinawa had the same reaction.
“I wouldn’t eat them if I didn’t have to,” said Petty Officer 3rd Class Kathryn Newbill, a corpsman there. “I can’t believe people actually want them.”
Newbill said while deployed for six months last year she ate MREs twice a day, and that’s more than she would like to remember. The pork chop meal was particularly “disgusting.”
Petty Officer 3rd Class Orlando Atencia, another corpsman at the hospital, said he has eaten enough to figure out ways to make the meals bearable. Mixing the cheese pouches with any pasta dish makes a good meal, he said, and adding Tabasco and salt makes it even better.
Still, he can’t imagine a GI or former servicemember going online and seeking out the MREs.
“It’s got to be civilians who are curious about these things,” he said. “For us in the military who go out to the field and eat these, they aren’t our favorite things.”
Still, at least one servicemember wasn’t surprised by the online sales.
“Everything’s on eBay,” said Airman 1st Class Sean Yates of the 603rd ACS. “If they want some bad food, then go for it.”
ping
The local surplus store sells MREs.
Correction, that's stolen government money.
This is unfortunately common, but it would be hard to put a stop to it -- the amounts of money involved are too small to justify any kind of crackdown.
MREs are tops, why can't we buy authentic civilian versions? (the civilian versions are very different)
If I'm going to buy some MRE's for my own use, I always look for the "resale is illegal" tag -- it's the symbol of quality.
Local civilians form a chain to expedite the unloading of 100 floor-loaded Meals, Ready-To-Eat (MREs) in addition to the six pallets of water and MREs unloaded by forklift from a U.S. Army CH-47D Chinook in Livingston, Texas, September 26, 2005. The U.S. Army is contributing to the Hurricane Rita humanitarian assistance operations being led by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in conjunction with the Department of Defense.
ROFL! :-)
In the Bx, I used to buy C-rations. I like them far better than MREs. :-)
Why buy C-rats. I always made my own. A few cans of canned fruit, canned meat, some crackers or cookies... A lot cheaper too.
I was getting em for 25$/CASE. :-)
Great price. :-)
They aren't very good. One of the dads of a guy in my scout troop when i was a teenager, was in the Army. We had MRE's on some trips we took and they terrible. I remember the good one, if you call it that, was hotdogs. I remember he said GI's call them Meals Rejected by Ethiopia.
"In the Bx, I used to buy C-rations. I like them far better than MREs."
When the first MREs hit it was arguable which was best, but the newer versions of MREs kick butt. C-rations were okay in the field, but the real test for military rations is to eat them for a couple of days in your civilian home. So why can't the civilian market make an exact copy of the MRE with a different package.
I have had MREs. :-)
I like C-rats much better.
The reason I'm not interested in surplus MREs is I want them for long term storage. when you buy MREs at a garage sale or the surplus store , you don't know their remaining life.
He also passed around some survival rations that were produced by "Cadillac"....woof, woof as it were.
OTOH, C-rats last basically for ever. I was eating ones with date codes of 1947 on the bottom. LOL!
I hear ya. However, when I was poor. I did eat C-rats in my apt. Better than ramen and/or macs&cheese every day. :-)
Cool. I get freeze dried meals from REI now. But those are prob pretty expensive compared to others.
I have several cases of MREs...my hubby is retired military, and he almost never, ever ate any of the MREs he got...he just brought them all home....so we have them boxed up, and piled up, in the garage...saving them, for when we might need them, I guess...
I still have a couple of unopened boxes (not cases). ( I know the fruitcake will still be good)
"I have several cases of MREs...my hubby is retired military, and he almost never, ever ate any of the MREs he got...he just brought them all home....so we have them boxed up, and piled up, in the garage...saving them, for when we might need them, I guess..."
They have a shelf life so you might want to eat one occasionally to check their status, the gum and candy go first, if a bag is puffy destroy it before throwing it out.
In my previous post, I meant I still have original C-rations.
If I go to the field and am issued MRE's for my meals and instead of eating them I buy my own food, how is it stealing for selling those meals? The government can pay me separate rations and have me buy my own food instead and I'll eat a hell of a lot better.
I deploy in a unit with 60kw generators and our "field comfort box" contains a hot plate, coffee pot, and a microwave. I'm a darn good cook and with a few basics I can easily cook up better meals than Haliburton or an MKT. You'd be amazed at how creative you can get with Spam and canned corned beef when your alternative is a vegetarian cheese tortellini MRE. I'm considering buying a fridge to add to the "kit" so I can take stuff like cream, eggs, and sausage. How about some biscuits and gravy or chorizo omelettes?
If the government doesn't want their precious MRE's sold on Ebay then stop issuing them for field exercises and only use them for wartime. I was in a TDY school where they contracted with a caterer for meals. For the standard government price per meal/person we were eating prime rib, smoked turkey, BBQ steak, etc.... The caterer would set up his tables and BBQ out in the field where we were training and we ate like kings.
The good side of the story is that the soldiers on the deployment were giving the MREs to the locals. I appreciated what they were doing, but I secured the back door and kept a concentrated eye on the remaining inventory. ;)
You know, once I heard someone on TV saying that those MREs will last until the next Ice Age...guess I was taking him literally...thanks for that tip, we should occasionally eat one of those and see if they are still any good...
My husband, when first in the army, would bring the C-rations home, and those cans just piled up in our pantry...but my dad loved those C-rations...but once every two years my parents would visit us, and my dad would gobble up the C-rations, and what he did not eat when he stayed with us, he would take home...the man would eat anything(except popcorn, watermelon, yogurt and cottage cheese)....
C-rats were pretty good during the late '70s. I really liked the pecan nut roll and pound cake. as long as you could get the main course hot, they were pretty tasty, except for the ham and MFs. I even had a guy in my platoon wh o would seek out the ham and eggs from a box guys would toss their unwanted cans into.
Never had anything as sickening sweet as the John Wayne bars.
At almost $60.00 a box of 12, I don't think the average G.I. sees how quickly that amounts to real financial loss. The military probably has some big figures to show about pilfered MREs.
The take on it that I heard was "meals resistant to excretion."
Now that's funny right there.
Call me crazy but I prefer MRE's over C-rats.
"I even had a guy in my platoon wh o would seek out the ham and eggs from a box guys would toss their unwanted cans into."
I loved them, I was burning serious calories at a younger age and would scavenge for what all the other guys considered inedible,such as fruitcake. By a great stroke of luck, the only C I didn't like was the most popular, canned peaches, so that really helped my trading.
"When I was a new IN platoon leader, my platoon sergeant introduced me to the joys of dry salami and cream cheese sandwiches"
We had heard that officers were issued taste buds.
Having had MRE's on a regular basis from my Marine Days, I cannot see the appeal of paying good money for them on E-Bay. I can still remember that infamous "chicken loaf" which I am almost positive consisted of soggy, shredded cardboard.
What is the half-life of a fruitcake, anyway/
Those meals are dated - no? Maybe you got yours a bit early. It may not have had enough time to properly 'breathe'.
I liked most of the C-rat meals except the ham and lima beans. I had a good recipe for LRP rations that added onion, chopped peppers and fried egg to make a great fried rice meal. Season to taste with Tabasco sauce and a little catsup. It was also fun to watch the Vietnamese react the first time they saw a Jippy Pop popcorn in the little aluminum pan begin to pop and expand the pouch.....most would back off fearing it was going to explode. LOL!
"Then stop issuing the lousy things for field exercises and give the troops seperate rations or contract with a caterer. Save the MRE's for a real wartime situation like they were designed for. If you are issued MRE's in the field and don't eat them is it pilfering if you keep them and sell them later?"
I agree they are expensive and should be used for extended field operations only.I don't think using your own personal issue any way you like is pilfering, but the cases are given away pretty casually and that starts to amount to pilfering.
Yikes! LRPS now that is some bad food, primitive dehydrated recon rations from the 60s. (I have a few of those too)
"What is the half-life of a fruitcake, anyway"
My understanding is that once something is canned it is edible for (100yrs?), it will lose its nutrition, and may be a consistancy you don't recognize, but as long as the seal held, you can eatit. I would try a fifty year old fruitcake now, and bet it hasn't suffered much, nobody is really sure what they were to start with, I was the only guy that would eat them as far as I know.
I was eating them in the 60s so they were fresh. LOL!
"I was eating them in the 60s so they were fresh. LOL!"
When compared to modern dehydrateds what do you think and have you tried the new generation MREs? (which have no deydrates ,I think).
I haven't had one of the new MREs so I can't comment. I haven't heard that many complaints from troops who have eaten them, though.
The hot chocolate in an MRE will wire you good. The dried strawberries are pretty good but I don't recommend eating the chocolate.
It freaks me out every time I look at those boxes...I'm just positive a can of old spam is going to explode or something...LOL!
Yikes! The new stuff isn't too bad but you have to be careful what you eat. It will either wire you or bind you up. Useful on the battle field I suppose.
I called them MRE's before...my husband would die. I think they are "K" rations. They also have a little tiny pack of cigarettes inside. I've seen the "innards" as he has one that's open as well.
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