Lunch was on me

[WolfBrother]

A number of years ago, before life interceded like it can, a friend of mine and I would do a guys only camp out at one of the local state parks. Each year we'd do some skill, one year Land Nav with a 1:24,000 map of the park, another year basic 1st aid.

The year that lunch was on me, I was going to show everyone how to rappel. As we were getting ready to go to the spot ( it had a 30 foot cliff with 10 of it being a free (no rock to bound against) I told the guys to not worry about lunch that I had it covered. I did tell them to bring their own drinks. That year was one of the largest we had IIRC 14 guys all total.

At lunch, I broke out the life raft rations. One group was made by Datrex, another by Mainstay, the third I forget. One had a shortbread taste, one was a light lemon cookie dough taste, and the third was a coconut taste. Each bar was a 3600 calorie bar that came divided into 9 - 400 calorie bars.

I told em all to take as many as they wanted but to try at least 2.

Results
- about 1/4 preferred the short bread flavor
- about 1/4 preferred the lemon cookie dough
- about 1/4 preferred the coconut flavor
- the rest - was a Meh! they're all OK.

Most of the guys were surprised that they didn't require much in the way of liquid to wash them down. Most of the guys ate 2 1/2 to 3 - 400 calorie bars. A couple of the younger guys ate more. We went back to training and after about 3 hours hiked the mile back to camp.

Come 6:30ish one of the younger guys said it was their turn to cook, what did we want. Most of us were still OK that way.

My impressions - the life boat rations are very good for short term use. They are filling and didn't seem to be thirst provoking. I wouldn't want to have to live a long time on them.

Non-thirst provoking - in this aspect - means to be able to digest the ration, the body does NOT have to provide any water from itself. Other rations (MRE's for example) can require as much as a qt. of water, in addition to what's already in your body, to properly digest the ration and absorb the nutrients.

When I was active duty, I had 2 - 3600 Mainstay bars 100mph taped together as my emergency eat on orders only ration.

IF you're going to invest in them - get some, try them, have everyone in your family try them, buy the ones that are liked.

Most of the guys on our camp outs had not served or camped/hunted when kids so our camp outs were always an adventure for them.

We had hiked to get there, gone down the 30' and up the trail back to the top for a couple of hours before lunch. And having real honest to goodness "Emergency Ration Bars" on top of rappelling was a fun thing for them.

I don't think our results are really that much different. The results I noted were which of the 3, if you were having to use these for real, would you prefer? I didn't note likes/dislikes just preference spread. My caveat emptor was to say if you're going to depend on them to try the different flavors to find the one you prefer.

If I was having to do a 3 day op - one day to get there, one day to get back, one do to do the deed - I would consider using them for that. Then again - I found that most C-Rat meals were OK also. Didn't like the ham and eggs nor the ham and lima beans but all the rest - meh! OK.