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Curzon
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Curzon

Date

October 16th, 2005

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Rations

I found this while rummaging through a Japanese politics discussion board—a visual explanation of the the rations of various militaries around the world (translation by yours truly).

What do you say, Lirelou and Eddie? For me, I’m just glad I’m not in the Chinese army.

Away for the week, posting to resume on the 22nd.

Comments to this entry

The Glittering Eye » Blog Archive » Catching my eye: morning A through Z
October 16, 2005
3:35 pm
[...] Coming Anarchy has a picture of military rations from a number of different countries including the United States, Japan, the Netherlands, and China. It’s fascinating. I gather the Chinese are planning to live off the land. [...]
Chief Wiggum
October 16, 2005
4:55 pm
Please don't supersize me!

I wonder what the French army gets? Whatever it is, it probably includes a pack of Gauloises and a glass of muscatel to wash it all down.
Yago
October 16, 2005
5:12 pm
which forum is that?
Jing
October 16, 2005
5:21 pm
Whoever created that montage has a careful eye for propaganda value. Note how that every single other ration item is either has a professional photographic backdrop or is carefully displayed in order to facilitate a pleasing image, except for the Chinese photo which displays what seems to be a field photo of a rehydrated MRE by itself (The Canadian and Dutch photos are apparently showing mess hall food). I have seen some of the individual photos in the montage before though, but never juxtaposed in this fashion. I'm not sure what is in that particular MRE, but it has to beat the hard biscuits that they were issued in the 80's, by biscuits I mean ballistic plateing. Anyways, the standard issue Chinese field ration as of now I believe consists of dehydrated self-heating packages in sealed plastic pouches. Dehydrated rice, yum.
Curzon
October 16, 2005
5:56 pm
Yago -- it may have been "爔 Ã§Â¬”˜Ã¦Å½Â²Ã§Â¤ÂºÃ¦Â?¿,":http://wibo.m78.com/clip/clip.cgi?page=0 don't remember exactly.
DeadPen
October 16, 2005
11:59 pm
Dehydrated rice???

And what goes with that? Vitamin tablets so you can get daily dose of protein and antioxidants? For a supposedly rising power they really need to upgrade that - an army runs on its stomach after all. What China is dishing out is worth mutiny at its finest.
Joe
October 17, 2005
12:01 am
Ah, I wouldn't knock Chinese rations without tasting them first. China's never placed a premium on appearance of food. If it tastes OK and sits well in the stomach, why not?
maskull
October 17, 2005
2:26 am
When marines in Viet Nam were restricted to C-rations for months, but the sentry dogs were getting frozen horse steaks... Barbeques were suddenly all the rage.
Mutantfrog
October 17, 2005
3:37 am
Horse meat's not that bad. Although I did get a little sick of it after a week in Kazakhstan.
Nathan
October 17, 2005
4:27 am
Horse meat's not that bad.

What are you, insane? It's incredible! :)
Eddie
October 17, 2005
4:53 am
Yikes... And I thought Navy food was intolerable....

The Dutch doesn't look too bad though...
lirelou
October 17, 2005
5:20 am
French officers and NCO mess food was better than most high quality restaurants I've eaten in on any continent. French field rations were equally well prepared and did include wine. While in France, each regiment selects its own wines, which are often bottled in a special edition with the unit insignia. Marcel Lettre (of Vermont) brought this custom back to the 82nd Airborne Division after a tour with the French airborne in the late 1980's. I don't know if it survived. The French Airborne School also had its own brand of Armagnac, bottled in 1941, and terming it "exquisite" would be an understatement. U.S. soldiers serving with combined forces often trade rations. One retired U.S. Army mess steward who took a job with Brown and Root managing five mess facilities in the former Yugoslavia told me that he always timed his visits to the mess to include either the French or British messes for dinner, as that was the only place in country where he could get a drink, and that field ration swaps between the Yanks and French were common. Aussies and Americans in the (Vietnam era) MIKE Force ate the same "PIR" field rations as the "indig", supplemented with occasional C rations. PIRs were essentially a zip lock bag of dried rice that you poured water into, added a small packet of dried fish, shrimp, or mystery meat, and let set for half an hour. Aussie supplemental packs included pipe tobacco ("Dr. Green's", if memory serves) that made premium trading material with the pipe-smoking tribessmen and women. But back in base camp, the Aussies could really get picky and demanded Fosters or Tooth's KB in the cooler. God help us on the days they got back to find only Budweiser, or worse, Schlitz. We occasionally had near riots. From the digger's perspective: "Tucker's tucker, Mate, but a bloke needs real beer to keep going."
tamura
October 17, 2005
5:23 am
(JSDF)
http://phototec.hp.infoseek.co.jp/zieitai.htm
http://phototec.hp.infoseek.co.jp/siryou.htm

(old Imperial Japanese Army's cooking site,all japanese)
http://www.gokoku.gr.jp/exhib-web.html

(Translation,But if you know more better translation engine or Web-page translation site, and you use it)
http://babelfish.altavista.com/

...I use this site and made double-translation, But this site made very broken japanese...
I don't eat any ration.
If you are free, and read it.
Simon World
October 17, 2005
6:16 am
Daily linklets 17th October

Back and babe-less... Plus ca change...bird flu and SARS*. Related...I wonder if the MTR charges for chickens? American and Chinese economic officials have a chin-wag*, but more importantly there is still no agreement on textile trade between the two n...
davesgonechina
October 17, 2005
6:43 am
Jing, the Chinese rations don't look like a field photo - unless it was cropped out of one, what with that black background. That aside, anybody else find the Taiwanese rations suspect? I could get the same can of fish in any small shop on the Mainland - that's not what I'd expect Taiwanese soldiers to be carrying.

And the Russian and German rations look nearly identical... interesting.
R. Elgin
October 17, 2005
10:22 am
Forget China! I'm guessing they eat like that to force their army to eat off of the land.
Korean field rations must include kimchi and choco-pie though.
asiapundit
October 17, 2005
12:31 pm
rations

Via Curzon at Coming Anarchy, a display of military and relief agency rations of the world. There have been some suggestions that Taiwan soldiers would either not fight or would side with mainland China in the event of a
Jing
October 17, 2005
1:05 pm
Here are a few links to actual Chinese field rations, unopened but with markings that are clearly identifiable.

http://static.flickr.com/31/53366143_bce795d5af.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/33/53366144_d63e725b21.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/24/53366145_ddb791d1e9.jpg

I think they are essentially the same as a US MRE, just add water and bam! The most common recipe? Beef Noodle.
sun bin
October 17, 2005
8:35 pm
opening jin's 3rd package....it becomes "energy" congee.
800-1000 Calories
comes in 3 flavors
1. spicy meat steamed rice
2. preserved vegie/mushroom + meat noodle
3. pres vegie _ meat fried rice

!http://chat.myxfiles.com/cover/29/29.01/food4.jpg!

the capitalistic PLA has "an affiliate":http://www.8264.com/ad/food/
selling this to civilian hikers and campers, over the internet.
sun bin
October 17, 2005
8:39 pm
US counterpart

!http://t1.baidu.com/it/u=2589341740,2491269772&gp=0.jpg!

!http://t0.baidu.com/it/u=317945833,1076481857&gp=2.jpg!
sun bin
October 17, 2005
8:40 pm
US counterpart

!http://www.xbzh.com/news/2005-4-5/20054511122843.jpg!

!http://img.hc360.com/food/Info/images/meiguo4.jpg!
sun bin
October 17, 2005
8:44 pm
package 1 above, preparation steps

!http://www.wayie.com/cover/29/29.01/food1a.jpg!

!http://www.wayie.com/cover/29/29.01/food1b.jpg!

!http://www.wayie.com/cover/29/29.01/food1c.jpg!
sun bin
October 17, 2005
8:48 pm
"another version":http://bbs.duoluojie.com/UploadFile/2005-6/20056139593859123.jpg
sun bin
October 17, 2005
8:52 pm
american version opened

!http://www.cnwine.cn/pic/2004988550.jpg!
sun bin
October 17, 2005
8:57 pm
PLA 1976-82 use this

!http://photo.sohu.com/78/28/Img202382878.jpg!

1990-96, dry food
!http://photo.sohu.com/09/29/Img202382909.jpg!

post 1996, self heating canned food
!http://photo.sohu.com/92/28/Img202382892.jpg!

post 1996, tablet drinks
!http://photo.sohu.com/99/28/Img202382899.jpg!
sun bin
October 17, 2005
8:58 pm
"PLA congee with lean meat (canned)":http://military.china.com/zh_cn/bbs2/11018521/20040825/11848991.html
sun bin
October 17, 2005
9:02 pm
beware of these food, "this guy said he Sh!t only every 4-5 days!
(no roughage, I guess)":http://news.xinhuanet.com/forum/2005-04/25/content_2875329.htm
tdaxp
October 17, 2005
9:50 pm
American Warship Enters Chinese Waters

"US Warship Arrives In China For Visit," SpaceWar, 13 September 2005, http://www.spacewar.com/news/superpowers-05j.html (from Life from the FNDF).

A nice complement to an older story about an American warship docking at Saigon:

A top grade US g...
Chirol
October 18, 2005
1:13 pm
On this subject: Seems the British Army's rations aren't good enough for Americans.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4349916.stm

The US has blocked the distribution of 357,000 British ration packs sent out to help survivors of Hurricane Katrina, amid fears they are infected with mad cow diseas
Nathan
October 19, 2005
8:23 pm
It's by design sun bin. Peace Corps stores MREs at consolidation points in some countries. We were told they are designed to stop you up, and that's quite a blessing in Central Asia. It's all we ate waiting for evacuation.
Defense Industry Daily
January 2, 2006
5:39 am
Filling Those MREs

Mmm, Parmesan Chicken... Even civilians are familiar with the USA's MREs, or Meals Ready to Eat. While there are reports that the French RCIR (Ration de Combat Individuelle Rechauffable) has superior trade value on the front lines in Afghanistan, MREs...
Defense Industry Daily
November 7, 2006
2:49 am
US MRE/Humanitarian Ration Orders, FY 2007

The Defense Supply Center Philadelphia (DSCP) in Philadelphia, PA issues contracts for American field rations, knows as Meals Ready to Eat (MREs), and for Humanitarian Daily Rations used when providing aid in emergency situations abroad. DID readers wi...
US MRE/Humanitarian Ration Orders
February 12, 2008
5:10 pm
[...] rations. DID readers with a high fright threshold might wish to view a set of comparative photos of modern army rations from various militaries; even if you knew nothing about China, you could guess that their soldiers are draftees. Or, you [...]
US MRE/Humanitarian Ration Orders, FY 2007
February 12, 2008
5:51 pm
[...] rations. DID readers with a high fright threshold might wish to view a set of comparative photos of modern army rations from various militaries; even if you knew nothing about China, you could guess that their soldiers are draftees. Or, you [...]
Filling Those MREs
February 12, 2008
6:02 pm
[...] readers with a high fright threshold might wish to view a set of comparative photos of modern army rations from various militaries. All I can say is, even if you knew nothing about China, you could guess that their soldiers are [...]