chocolate-covered cookie bar, powdered fruit drink, Starburst candy, spoon, and Accessory Package “A.”
MREs are relatively messy to eat. (A hint: Use your Swiss Army knife or multi-tool to slit the wet-pack bags the long way to reduce the mess.) All the packaging material produces a lot of wet garbage, which is not just an environmental nuisance. It forces paratroops behind enemy lines to carry their trash with them, or risk revealing their path and numbers.
Along with the basic dozen MRE menus, there are other pre-packaged rations in Army issue today. Since World War II, the Army has tried to supply soldiers of the Jewish faith with approved kosher meals. There also is an increasing requirement to accommodate the religious dietary beliefs of Muslims and strict vegetarians such as Hindus and Buddhists. In late 1993, a new series of ready-to-eat vegetarian MREs based on lentils, rice, beans, and potatoes were produced and issued. Amazingly, they proved highly popular with mainstream soldiers, many of whom found the new rations more tasty and health-conscious than the regular menus. Later, with the coming of widespread relief operations like those in Iraq and Bosnia, the vegetarian MREs found a new and politically useful role. Sealed into bright yellow pouches and airdropped as emergency humanitarian relief rations to refugees, these “politically correct” MREs have proven extremely popular, and politically beneficial. Distributing plenty of such humanitarian rations to civilians caught in the combat zone is a good way to win friends and influence people. The Defense Personnel Support Center, Directorate of Subsistence, in Philadelphia, proudly claims that it can procure humanitarian rations that are “culturally, ethnically, regionally, nutritionally, and religiously acceptable” for any scenario.
The Army’s next generation of combat chow is called the Family of Operational Rations (FOR), designed to overcome some of the problems of MREs. For field operations, the emphasis is on reduced packaging and weight, with ready-to-eat entrees that can be held in the hand and eaten on the move, like sandwiches or burritos. For a generation raised on a diet of pizza, burritos, and hamburgers, this is far more acceptable than stuff you have to spoon out of a bag. Another ration issue is the matter of troops in barracks. Combat troops deployed to distant contingencies spend much of their time in camp or garrison situations, so the new FOR includes self-heating group meals, packaged with disposable plates and utensils. This has been found to be a great morale booster, certainly compared to spooning stuff out of a plastic bag. Unfortunately, the Army has revealed no plans to develop an air- droppable, laser-guided, self-chilling keg of beer!
The other vital area of sustenance is fresh water. As mentioned earlier, personnel exposed to the extreme heat of your average desert in the summer will last just hours if they are not properly resupplied with fluids. To this end, each trooper will carry about 6 quarts/5.7 liters in two canteens, and a pair of flexible bladders in his rucksack. In temperate climates, this is enough for up to three days. In higher heat, though, it may only last a few hours. To augment these limited supplies, many troops are buying their own personal water carriage systems. Called “Camelbacks,” these are flexible bladders that ride between the troopers’ backs and their ALICE rigs. A hose feeds the water to the soldiers, so that they can take a drink whenever possible. Beyond what a single man can carry, the 82nd Airborne Division is set up to receive bulk water supplies via airdrop, as well as creating its own fresh water when reverse-osmosis equipment can be air-delivered into the combat zone. As an interim measure, troopers are frequently supplied with purification chemical tablets to make local water sources potable.
Putting all of this together means that, in theory, an airborne trooper should carry enough food and water to last three days in the field without resupply. In a pleasant climate, this would mean carrying the aforementioned 6 quarts/5.7 liters of water and a dozen MREs: a total weight of over 361b/16.4 kg! Along with the basic weapons/tool/ammunition/clothing/electronics load, which is already over 50 lb/22.7 kg, this means that a paratrooper’s basic load (before any personal gear) is rapidly approaching 100 lb/45.4 kg. As a result, many soldiers cut the load of MREs in half in the hope of an early resupply. Also, they load up on all the water that they can possibly carry, since they will die of dehydration long before the effects of starvation can take effect. All of this affects the final items that will be going into the soldier’s basic load, his personal equipment.
Personal Equipment
Back in the Roman days, an army on the march would halt every afternoon to build a fortified camp for the night. The legionary often had to carry a spade or pickax and a couple of sharpened wooden stakes, along with a thick wool blanket that doubled as a cloak in cold weather. In rainy weather he got wet, unless the ox-drawn baggage wagons made it through the mud with their cargo of heavy leather tents.
Today, though, things are a bit different. After everything that we have mentioned earlier, it is hard to imagine that there will be room for anything else in a paratrooper’s ALICE pack. However, don’t underestimate the ingenuity of the American airborne troops or, for that matter, the strength of their backs! When fully loaded, a paratroop’s rucksack will be stuffed with rain/cold-weather gear, a change of underwear, fresh socks, the rations and water for at least three days that we mentioned earlier, a first-aid kit, and a few personal items (like a shaving kit and maybe a paperback book to read during the flight to the drop zone). With these and other simple items, you might be surprised just how comfortable paratroopers can make themselves.
For example, almost every soldier packs a stainless-steel cup and some utensils. Some even bring along tiny portable camp stoves, fueled by small tanks of liquid propane, to heat water for coffee or reconstituting freeze-dried rations. The soldier also carries a tightly rolled sleeping bag and a waterproof “poncho,” a versatile hooded, sleeveless raincoat. For cold weather, there is a blanket-like poncho liner. Many troops also carry a “Space Blanket.” This is a layer of Mylar (aluminum bonded to a thin plastic sheet) with a sturdy quilted cover for use as a ground cloth. Using these things, a trained trooper can usually get a warm night’s sleep in anything except arctic or mountain conditions. Another tiny but important item is a kit of camouflage makeup, or “face paint.” The human eye and brain have evolved to recognize human faces at long range, and the face and hands are normally the only part of the soldier not covered by the BDU. There are about five different colors of face paint, suitable for camouflaging light-skinned or dark-skinned soldiers. The idea is to apply a pattern that breaks up the normal outlines recognizable as a face. You can use a mirror, or have a buddy apply the stuff.
The soldier’s rucksack will also contain a shaving kit, foot powder, and a couple of clean towels (also colored olive-drab!). There may also be two small plastic vials, issued with the approval of the unit’s medical officer. These are “go” and “stop” pills. This is a controversial subject, but a familiar one to combat veterans. “Go” pills are based on amphetamine, a drug discovered in the 1880s and widely used by the German Army in World War II to keep troops awake and alert for extended periods. “Stop” pills are a fast-acting barbiturate designed to induce rapid sleep. The rationale for using such drugs is obvious. In combat, since airborne troops may have to stay awake and alert for up to seventy-two hours, “go” pills can provide a vital edge. This is because after three days without sleep, even superbly conditioned troops will begin to drop out, hallucinate, or just generally become combat-ineffective. On the flip side, it may also be impossible for troops under combat stress (not to mention jet lag from traveling halfway around the world) to establish normal sleep patterns. Thus the need for the “stop” pills. Such chemicals can help, and in an Army with zero tolerance for drug abuse, there is little danger that they will be used in an inappropriate manner.
One last item that paratroops always carry is rope, since one of the greatest hazards of parachuting is a tree landing. All jumpers are issued a coil of green nylon rope, just in case they need help getting down from a
