Comments on: A Few Bottles Are Still Here, Somewhere

By: Crocodile Dundee

Crocodile Dundee — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:20:12 +0000

@Innonexess: coulda sworn we called them Meals Rejected by Ethiopians, but it’s been a while since I was in the army reserve…

By: Garutar

Garutar — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 04:43:20 +0000

That was quite amusing I must admit. How someone would not have noticed that seems beyond me but then again I have a hard time visualizing everything here.

Although it still seems amazing how the fellow who ordered the MREs didn’t know/check before making hte order, I can’t even begin to imagine trying to explain THAT one with a straight face.

By: RabidCoqui

RabidCoqui — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 23:24:02 +0000

I still have a couple of MREs from my last time in the field… Beef Stew (a personal favorite) and BBQ Pork Rib (don’t remember trying that one before). It was always fun when everyone would hunker down for a meal and we would start trading MRE stuff… I would always go for the jalapeño cheese spread.

BTW, Tabasco isn’t in all MREs now. Some still have it but others have red pepper.

One other thing… MRE bombs are fun.

By: Kinzlayer

Kinzlayer — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 17:27:26 +0000

/clap

Another Monday morning brighten up by Airman Howell’s story.

By: Tego

Tego — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 16:05:51 +0000

can’t find the right equations right now, but looking at what i could find. its about 33mm mercury @ 70,000 feet (listed operational ceiling of a U2 from Wiki) and assuming the bottles started out near 100F (you did say it was the middle east after all) they would be at about 305k when they went up to altitude… Yeah the sauce would have boiled away, then likely sublimated the rest of the remaining water once it froze. same reason that the Pilot flies in a pressure suit. blood boils at body temp that high up… still gave me some amusing research for a boring work day =)… I wonder if I still have that vacuum chamber about…. could test it ::goes rummaging through old test equipment::

By: Tego

Tego — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 15:41:22 +0000

Still amusing as all hell. i guess U2’s are hardened against mild acids like vinegar… damn it I got my head into science mode… :::goes off to look up calculations on air density etc to figure out if the water would have boiled:::

By: BRK

BRK — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 15:16:25 +0000

I can’t tell from the picture, but is there any of the solids left in the bottle?

The pic in this post is not of our hand; it’s a generic pic from the Internet. We can’t find our stash of bottles. They’re in the closet… somewhere.

By: Tego

Tego — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 14:31:30 +0000

@ bayonet… considering his readership there is a good chance they have seen this by now… and for the evaporation. @ the flight ceiling of a U2 there is something like 10% of the pressure or less than what we have at sea level. that combined with the low temp would probably be enough to unseal the bottle (through bottle shrinkage etc). At that point it probably would have flash boiled/frozen and then sublimated away.

I can’t tell from the picture, but is there any of the solids left in the bottle?

Then again what do I know I’m just a simple dwarf

By: Bayonet

Bayonet — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 14:00:47 +0000

You should send this story to the folks at tabasco. I’m sure they would love to hear about it.

By: Jadenq

Jadenq — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 13:10:29 +0000

Great story, keep it up BRK!!!