There were 6 varieties of LURPS back in the early 80s. All of them except the chili flavored rocks smelled, tasted and looked the same. LURPS as we called them are what we were issued at Camp Mackall after C-rations were phased out. We had to do pushups and pull ups before each c-rat meal until they ran out. The Senior Tac suspended that policy when they started issuing us LURPS. He said that no one should have to do that for a LURP. They were just awful compared the the MREs that came along later.
I remember being issued those chili flavored rocks. In the field, it didn’t matter how long you soaked them. LURPS as we called them were just awful. Also, we stripped what we were going to carry in our rucks from the original bulky bag. I had them in 1980-83.
You remind me of the progenitor of all MRE (U.S. and foreign) taste test videos on RU-vid. His YT moniker was, "mrejap". I believe he was a young man living near Yakota U.S. Air Force Base in western Tokyo. Mrejap produced a large number of videos in the early 2000s of American and foreign MREs. He would purchase most but supposedly once in a while someone would donate a ration to him. Mrejap loved to play with his plastic realistic-looking weapons during his MRE presentations, including pistols, hand grenades and a Claymore mine reproduction. I wonder if he scared the local Japanese law enforcement authorities. One day, mrejap suddenly disappeared off RU-vid and shortly thereafter, all of his MRE videos. He went completely dark and no one to this day knows what became of him. That was sad because he had a HUGE fan following. When I saw all of this host's military weaponry in the background, it brough back memories of mrejap. Mrejap one time even obtained a East German 24-hour ration box. He paid good money for that. Value-wise, it was a waste. Historically, it was valuable to watch. The East German 24-hour ration box was filled with nothing but unlabeled cans of various foods. it had been produced around 1984-85. By the time mrejap examined it in the 2000s, a number of the cans were leaking and rusted. The East Germans had been using simple canning technology that had been around just before WW2. As such, canned food like that did not last very long. Canning technology improved much in the decades after WW2 using, double seams, inner can polymer liners, improved can design, improvement to the canning process itself. To be fair, U.S. Army C-rations from Vietnam employed simple canning technology and simple metal cans, too. It didn't matter that the cans did not survive over the years. C-rations were meant to be eaten by the infantry grunts within three years of manufacturing, at most. Your typical Vietnam grunt dined on C-rations that were typically under 18 months manufacturing date.
Ha, ha, ha, ha! I remember that one! I'm sure mrejap is still around today. But for some reason he cannot or will post his mre videos anymore.@@RoninDays
I’ve got to say I’m a veteran of the United States Marine Corps in operation desert shield/storm and have eaten a lot of MRE’s and I can tell you I would never eat that even 60 years ago lol
I remember eating LRPS in the late 70s and as I recall there was lots of rice dishes that stayed hard after letting it rehydrate for a long time. Not a lot of taste. On your last MRE I told you that I will send you some TOTMs if you have a PO Box. Please let me know.
Rice needs boiling water to rehydrate properly. Cold water is never going to work well. I'm referring to cooked white rice that has been dehydrated so that it can be easily reconstituted with boiling water. Very hot water will work mostly. But the hotter the water the better.
I are plenty of these back in the day. I personally like them way better than MREs of the day. The MCIs were the best my favorite was spaghetti in meat sauce and all the fruits were the bomb.
I would add more water since I like my chili con carne looser. Plus if you have broiled white rice with chili, you want more liquid in the chili. I notice that U.S. Army LRRPS are not easily available on the civilian market, even civilian versions.
Carrying extra water for the rations negated the benefits of the light weight rations. Then the water needed to stay hydrated. I prefered carrying the C's myself.
i checked and i could be wrong but blue toilet paper was issues around the early 80's but it caused bum issues so it was discontinued. this ration looks like early 80's
