Army Colonel Samples 40 Year-Old MRE! Yuck!

Alicia Cruz

Senior writer

Theblackurbantimes

With a pop and hiss, an Army Colonel chowed down on a 40-year-old MRE at his retirement ceromony as family and colleagues looked on and cheered.

"It smells good," Moak said as he put a handful in his mouth. He jokingly staggered back a few feet and loudly cleared his throat, while one person yelled out, "Eeww, gross!" Moak pronounced the cake "good." "It's even a little moist," he said, wiping his mouth.

Colonel Moak aquired the c-ration back in 1973 when he was a Marine helicopter pilot during the Vietnam war. The MRE was dated "1969." Colonel Moak stashed the MRE in a box along with other momentos from the war and vowed to hold onto the MRE until he retired...and he did.
Suprisingly, Moak said he wasn't worried about getting sick from any bacteria that may have gotten into the old can, because it looked sealed. Moak says though he warned his children over the years not to touch his pound cake, he did let them eat some other rations when they were growing up in the 1980s, including canned spaghetti and crackers.

For the record, military officials strenuously discourage people from eating outdated rations citing health threats such as mold and deadly botulism if the sealing on the food has been broken. Sometimes one may not be able to see broken seals so it's just best not to eat any canned rations "whether they seem sealed or not," said Lawrence Levine, a spokesman for the Defense Supply Center in Philadelphia. Happy retirement Colonel Moak!

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