Bloody ridicilous, but it doesn't surprise me.

I understand the FDA/USDA will not allow the importation of UK beef to the US - which is being overly reactive in an attempt to 'protect' the US; however, for the MRE's they should at least be able to make an exception, especially since the US Govt had asked for them.

As far as I'm concerned, UK beef is just as safe as US beef. I'm sure most of us on here who travel overseas have eaten UK beef - I've eaten it in London when I travel to England. I'm sure when I eat beef on flights from the United Kingdom to the United States (and other countries) the beef is from the UK.

I'm sure the evacuees from Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi, who have lost everything and need to eat would be happy to eat the beef in the MREs, be it American, Canadian, or British.

/Rant On While somewhat off-topic, but related, US Customs & the federal bureaucracies here in the United States can make things difficult when it comes to simple things.

Two Examples:

(1) I just received a document-only package from Australia via an "Express" service which was held in US Customs for over two weeks. Instead of documents, if this package contained essential goods for hurricane relief, the people who need it wouldn't get it in a timely manner.

(2) This one makes even sicker - Two weeks ago I sent some documents from Louisville, KY, US, to Melbourne, Australia, by UPS Express. The package was supposed to take 53 hours (or shorter) for delivery (many people pay a premium for this) - this is from the time I dropped it off to the time it was guaranteed for physical delivery. At ONT, US Customs "Export" Control took possession of the Express Shipment for an "Export Security Check" - US Customs held this Express shipment of documents from being exported for THREE DAYS ...? Why is US Customs interested in an ENVELOPE of documents from being EXPORTED? I could understand if Australian Customs waned to hold/examine it, but US Customs? Thanks to US Customs, it was not only held for a period longer than it would take for delivery from SDF-MEL, but it took 152 hours door to door for delivery - four days late. The US Govt doing what it does best /rant off

In closing, I wouldn't put anything past the federal bureaucracies here. If documents can be held like the above, just think of what could happen to large express shipments of relief items from overseas? Instead of prompt delivery, it wouldn't surprise me if many relief items from overseas are sitting in warehouses awaiting inspection to see if any "problems" can be found so it can either be returned or destroyed.

SDF_Traveler

NO electricity remember?
The items cant be xrayed or CTX checked.

There is power in downtown, have they not re-connected the airport?

Sounds like the authors are making it up as they go along.

I realize this is off-topic but how sure are you that it was US Customs and not UPS that held the shipment? I've shipped with FedEx for years and while I've had shipments delayed at the destination end, I've never had anything at the USA end delayed on the outbound leg. AFAIK, US Customs isn't even alerted to what is leaving the US. The manifests are normally transmitted electronically to the destination country to prealert customs to what is coming and they can decide what they want to inspect.
In fact, the more I think about it, the more it seems it would be UPS not customs. When you shipped your documents, they are loaded with the other documents, most likely taken to the hub there in SDF, and I assume flown from there with a stop in ONT. At ONT, they aren't likely to be resorted as they are containerized. I don't think there is even enough time for US customs to look at a manifest for a loaded wide-body and decide what they want to hold and what they don't.
I think you're getting excuses from UPS. Give FedEx a try next time and see if they can do any better.

And if a few years from now people did get BSE from the beef the same people screaming the gov't held up help would be screaming the gov't poisoned these people when they were helpless.

Our gov't is far from perfect, but it is really tiresome hearing all the hate on these boards for them - no matter what they do its wrong and horrible and a conspiracy. If you hate the US government so much, go live somewhere else. I highly doubt you will find much better elsewhere. If you think a perfect government is even a realistic concept you would stop reading so much fiction!

Well that explains why you would believe this story

Actually, I've heard more people refer to MREs than c-rations. After the relief effort fiasco in Ethiopia and Somalia several years ago involving MREs, plus a couple jokes during Johnny Carson's and later Jay Leno's monologues, I think a great many Americans know what MREs are. I think very few people know what c-rations are just as very few nowadays even know about eight-track tapes, Beta video recorders or LPs.

The military type MRE's do have some metal in them. The inner pouches have a very thin foil to protect the food.

The flexible aluminum retort pouches used in MRE pouched food products are composed of multiple laminations of aluminum foil and plastic film. Rugged durability, extended shelf life and ease of stowing have earned the MRE pouch a well-deserved nickname "the flexible can"

In addition, the military MRE's come with the so-called "flameless heater" which is a water activated reaction on 2 metals (Fe and Mg??) that produces heat and hydrogen gas. As a device that could produce a flammable gas, these will probably fall under the DOT ban. These military MRE's are not allowed to be shiped by civil air (UPS ground only)

If they are "civilian" MRE's (e.g. SPOACO) there is no heater and aside from the aluminum foil should be OK to fly

MREs are NOT prohibited items. The flameless heat element IS prohibited, but this would not result in the entire packet being prohibited. In checked baggage, they are permitted as long as the MRE packet is still intact. Otherwise, if opened, the packet is prohibited.

The point of this thread is that food was apparently taken away from people in great need of it. I tend to doubt that happened solely because the MREs alarmed a metal detector. There's more to this story than what we're being told.

Bart: Thanks for the reply, I only wanted to comment on the contents of MREs to note that they have metal in the food packets and a heater which probably couldn't fly. I have some cases of MREs rotated out of my household emergency food supply and I had wondered about using them onboard a no-food flight as a BYOF. Since the heater is within the main outer bag, I would have to open that bag and remove the heater. If I understand you correctly, the remaining items would be OK to fly? (I also understand the accessory packet has a book of matches, so the limit would be 4 per person unless they were removed)

As a way OT comment, the old brown MREs from years ago had several menus which had beans as a part of the meal. Printed on the entre bag was something like "BEAN COMPONENT, NOT FOR AVIATION USE". I guess those may have trouble getting on the plane

When I posted this story originally I linked to the EMS site. Then it appears to have been forwarded over to the comedy magazine "Socialist Worker" which I would not have linked to, given their long term inability to report the truth.

However, unless you are of the impression that they (SW and NYT) are one and the same, the juicy bits of the story have now been picked up by the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/10/na...gewanted=print

and CNN's Anderson Cooper is now focusing on the story (the blocked bridge part, not the c-rations/MRE part).

P.S. To those who mock the use of the term "C-Ration", may I ask (by means of "type"-ing on my QWERTY keyboard) are there not quite a few terms that have been in reality made anachronisms by more recent developments?

Do you still "dial" a telephone number?
Have you recently bought a CD at the "Record" store?
Do airplanes really have a "Starboard" (from the old Norse for Steering-board) and a "Port" side?
Have you really walked down a "Pier" at Schiphol Airport?
Was the pavement infront of your house finished using a "Steamroller"?
(And for those of you who speak certain other languages, do you "light" your TV set?)
etc. etc. etc.

Absolutely correct on both counts (removing the heating element and limiting it to 4 matches for carry-on).

Many years ago, while returning to Fort Bragg after a week in the field, we had to make an emergency stop in Charleston Air Force Base, SC (one of the C-130's engines malfunctioned in mid-flight---but that's another story). When we landed, the Air Force sergeant in charge told us that we could go to the chow hall while waiting for our bird to be repaired, but all they had to offer were MREs. We had been choking on MREs for a week, so one more meal wouldn't matter.

Here's how the Air Force serves MREs: when we entered the chow hall, we picked out the MRE we wanted and a mess cook would take it out for us. When it was served to us, it was already cooked and served on a platter with all the trimmings on the side. It looked good! It tasted good! Never thought this was the same stuff we squeezed out of those plastic bags out in the buckwheat on a cold rainy day. Never complained about MREs ever again. Certainly never ate them cold again!

<with my geek hat on>
Your point is valid (and it sounds like you've eaten your share of them). C-rats, as we affectionately called them, were still going strong into the 1980's. IIRC, it wasn't until about 1983 that MREs replaced them...so...c-rations fit in line with cassette tapes and even CDs (which went mainstream ~1980). A mere 25 years ago.

CD's went mainstream around 1980? I must have been way behind, but I don't remember CDs taking off until closer to 1990 than 1980.