Miss Charlottable

This isn't a MRE. This is an IMP. Get with the program!

From:

Oh, you beat me to it. However, MRE and IMP both translate as 'Rat Pack', don't they?

Personally, I prefer the Yank MREs with their enclosed ration heaters, which fit perfectly into parka pockets. Not so impressed with the 'hot beverage bag' set-up, though.

And quite agree about the dreadfulness of the omelets, which could of course be repurposed as maquettes for first-aid training. :/

From:

way back when the omelettes came in a tin - not so much for consumption but for use as a weapon to hurl at the enemy. The last amendment to the Geneva Convention put an end to that nonsense!

From:

Note the 06 issue date. I wouldn't be wanting to eat the omelette, not even if I were starving. :/

From:

freefloat.livejournal.com

Oh, they're quite safe for up to (I think) 5 years from packaging date. Usually. (ask if you really want the story)

From:

Oh, from prior bitter experience over there I do, alas, know more of the story on true versus claimed shelf life. :/

Now that I am very much retired, it's all moot. Enjoy your swiss steak!

From:

I'll check the expiry date on the packages - perhaps it will be along the lines of that for Twinky's - never.

From:

you made me cry.

From:

It's boiled lung for dinner for you!

From:

Ah, yes. I wonder whether anyone at D Pers ever reads those notes?

From:

Not in 23 years.

(Of course, this is the first time I've come across IMPs since Cornwallis...)

From:

"Learn to Serve". Includes serving breakfast, apparently. ^_^

Here, can you identify this shoulder flash? Hint: things that go bump in the night.

From:

hmm. it has something to do with the bollocks on jessie's wee willy wanker?

From:

Uh, no. But it does involve the Fulda Gap.

From:

Something to do with who has the keys to open the toolbox first thing in the morning...?

From:

Oh, if you open these sorts of toolboxes wrong, it's going to be a very sunny morning, for the rest of your life. ^_^

From:

And yes, there's a sunrise, a key and two wrench-ends in that little bit of heraldry.

From:

Ahhh...something in an EOD vein then?

From:

Well, you don't really dispose of these beasties, so much as try to keep their fangs trimmed and ready to go.

On an allied note: nobody seems to have set up an overarching heraldry-search system for these sorts of insignia: enough to say that these flashes belong on mess dress, not battle dress.

From:

...and not likely seen on any air force dress.

From:

adornments on combat clothing draw enemy fire...

From:

...and all that costume jewellery on these army DEUs are a decided FOD hazard on an air force ~~parade square~~ flightline.

From:

freefloat.livejournal.com

I think they just might. One year, as a bored no-hook private, I filled out a bunch of them and sent 'em in. I suggested that they might consider a steak (read: burger patty) in with sliced mushrooms and sauce (since I know mushrooms keep well canned)

And whaddaya know, a few years later, I'm in the field and what do you think is on the label of my IMP?? :D It was pretty good, too, for an IMP.

From:

Oh, gawd. The swiss steak; I completely forgot that inedible concoction. However, one year they did have salmon in dill sauce. 04, maybe?

From: