# Freeking Army...now giving recruits bedtime snacks!



## Ooh-Rah (Mar 23, 2017)

That stupidity out of the way, (and by stupidity I am making a inner-service joke about the Army being pampered ) 

Curious to what the "folks in the know" here think about this the need and usefulness for such nutrition as a bedtime snack.

Army develops new nutritional bed-time snack bar for basic trainees


*edited*: to clarify what I guess was a failed attempt at humor and not being specific enough in the question I was answering.


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## TLDR20 (Mar 23, 2017)

Ooh-Rah said:


> That stupidity out of the way, curious to what the "folks in the know" here think about this.
> 
> Army develops new nutritional bed-time snack bar for basic trainees



Seems like a good idea.


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## DA SWO (Mar 23, 2017)

Ooh-Rah said:


> That stupidity out of the way, curious to what the "folks in the know" here think about this.
> 
> Army develops new nutritional bed-time snack bar for basic trainees


Did you actually read the article?

They are essentially giving them supplements to reduce stress fractures, why do you consider reducing injuries to be stupid?


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## Ooh-Rah (Mar 23, 2017)

DA SWO said:


> why do you consider reducing injuries to be stupid?



I don't. 

That is why I was making a joke out of the headline. My reference to "stupidity" was making an obvious (I thought) joke about Army recruits getting "candy" before bed.

In reality it is probably a good idea, especially if the test platoons had such a measurable response.


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## GhillieDude08 (Mar 23, 2017)

In Bootcamp we got CLIF bars before we went to sleep.


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## Grunt (Mar 23, 2017)

Dang...I learned a lot of lessons about starvation in boot camp...

Seriously, I can't count the number of times I went to bed starving. Besides the normal physical exertion throughout the training day, my metabolism was eating itself. I would have killed for something to fill the void before bed. Good for them.


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## AWP (Mar 23, 2017)

Just because something was hard "back in the day" doesn't mean it was smart. We can grumble about it being easier or whatnot, but think of all the good dudes you met who washed out because of a stupid injury or how your body will feel as you age. I wish we had all of this exercise, physiology, and nutritional information available to us pre-Internet. We can wear those injuries, especially to our backs and knees, like some badge of honor and while I'd do it all over again I do wish we had some of the tools available to "kids" these days.


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## Red Flag 1 (Mar 23, 2017)

AWP said:


> Just because something was hard "back in the day" doesn't mean it was smart. We can grumble about it being easier or whatnot, but think of all the good dudes you met who washed out because of a stupid injury or how your body will feel as you age. I wish we had all of this exercise, physiology, and nutritional information available to us pre-Internet. We can wear those injuries, especially to our backs and knees, like some badge of honor and while I'd do it all over again I do wish we had some of the tools available to "kids" these days.



Amen to this ^^^^.


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## ThunderHorse (Mar 24, 2017)

Back when I was at the Institute, during indoc/Hell Week, whatever you want to call it.  We got rat snacks at night, Banana and a granola bar.  Probably should do whole foods instead of a processed bar.


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## Devildoc (Mar 24, 2017)

Navy boot isn't quite so..._taxing_.  We ate well.  No snacks, but we were never hungry, and I don't think we needed them.  The Marines and Army, and in the more physical schools?  Yeah, it makes sense.


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## Marauder06 (Mar 24, 2017)

During ROTC Advanced Camp we received sundries including pudding, granola bars, fruit, and Gatorade during field training.  I thought it made a lot of sense.

My dad was still in the Army when distance running was done in boots.  I'm glad we've moved past that, too.


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## Topkick (Apr 28, 2017)

GhillieDude08 said:


> In Bootcamp we got CLIF bars before we went to sleep.



We had to sneak Snickers bars in because we didn't get anything after evening chow. We continued to train and went to bed hungry. Occasionally, we would get caught with a candy bar and it was like " a jelly f......g donut, private Pyle" Get outside right now! That was a long time ago and we didn't care about nutrition like we do now. A healthy snack is always a good thing.


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## kb2012 (Apr 28, 2017)

Yeah we did this at OCS. Pretty soon it'll hit the whole Marine Corps as well.


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## Ball N' Chain (Jul 25, 2017)

Fresh out of OSUT, I can say those bars were tremendous. We did not start getting those bars until Black Phase when things got more strenuous, and I was one of the ones with some serious shin splints.
I greatly attribute my quick recovery to those bars. Plus, it was a huge moral booster throughout the company. After the initial nine weeks without those bars, we got used to racking out hungry, but when we started getting those, quality of training noticeably improved.

Just my opinion based off my experience the last 4 months.


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## arch_angel (Sep 13, 2017)

We did, too. Except we got what they now call a Performance Nutrition Pack first thing after lights in the morning. I can say, in comparison to getting nothing but chow hall food at boot camp, it did seem to help in giving some much needed energy when we went to PT.


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## CQB (Sep 13, 2017)

No-one knew what hypothermia was back in the day, it was just the weak bastard shivering in the corner.


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## Kakashi66223 (Dec 4, 2017)

Just revisiting this thread. Is this still being fielded? Or is it change 1 to change 2 as Performance Nutrition Pack (post 15) or some other name?

My interest has been _peaked_ for sometime now, well since the original post by @Ooh-Rah. Grabbed this from his original link. Noticed I could not read the ingredients.



Below is a link to pdf which has more in-depth info.
http://www.dla.mil/Portals/104/Documents/TroopSupport/Subsistence/Rations/pcrs/misc/prb/P049.pdf

Crudely the ingredients of the 65g bar, below.


Would never tell a person to not take this, but it could have been more nutritious ergo more protein and lower in sugar. Taken with Multivitamins tablets.

Performance Readiness Bar has possibly 5:1 carb/protein ratio and don't see this as a good thing to eat before bed.


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## ThunderHorse (Dec 4, 2017)

Geeze, Corn Syrup is the main carbohydrate source?  How about we just Issue Bananas and some PB?  It would be much more nutritious and save money.


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## R.Caerbannog (Dec 5, 2017)

I don't think PB and banana's store or ship as well as those bars. From what I remember, logistics rule almost every aspect of what Joe gets to wear and eat. It also looks like those bars are made really cheap...can't believe it took so long to get a supplement like this out to Joe, especially with increasingly heavier gear loadouts.


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## CQB (Dec 5, 2017)

Performance Readiness Bar..Isn't that Viagra? oh, sorry, wrong thread. DOH!


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## The Hate Ape (Dec 5, 2017)

When I was in boot camp, we were given the quarter-deck and our general orders before bed.


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## Grunt (Dec 5, 2017)

The Hate Ape said:


> When I was in boot camp, we were given the quarter-deck and our general orders before bed.



And a nice serving of the mini-grinder as a dessert....


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## PapaBoar (Dec 9, 2017)

No ... puke, gag, puke... comment!! I just think of all of those sweet recruits, and Officer Candidates I will have cheated out of their Dorito’s rations if the Corps follows suit. My Darlings that I bill fucked to sleep could have been enjoying a cookie and milk... oh my... “ The horror...the horror”


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## mcgurkms (Jun 4, 2018)

Research based, bone remodeling started in as few as 8 weeks.  The bar provides calcium and VIT D along with nutrition to help recruits who otherwise would go 12-14 hours without eating (train - Dinner 1700-sleep-PT-0800 Breakfast).  Google USARIEM and Performance Readiness Bar


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## mcgurkms (Jun 4, 2018)

Fit, nourished and resilient    The Performance Readiness Bar (PRB) is a calcium- and vitamin D-fortified snack bar developed to optimize bone health in basic trainees. The snack bar was distributed at Fort Benning, Georgia, in the summer of 2017 and will be distributed at all four Army basic training locations in 2018. Calcium and vitamin D have already been proven to be necessary nutrients to improve bone health. However, USARIEM researchers’ findings indicated that basic trainees needed higher-than-average amounts of calcium and vitamin D to support bone health during initial military training.


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## Gunpowder (Aug 22, 2018)

AWP said:


> Just because something was hard "back in the day" doesn't mean it was smart. We can grumble about it being easier or whatnot, but think of all the good dudes you met who washed out because of a stupid injury or how your body will feel as you age. I wish we had all of this exercise, physiology, and nutritional information available to us pre-Internet. We can wear those injuries, especially to our backs and knees, like some badge of honor and while I'd do it all over again I do wish we had some of the tools available to "kids" these days.



I agree with you 100% on this one...got off a plane after a 4 hour flight yesterday and the knees and back were a definite no-go.  My daughter keeps reminding me of all my 'bad' eating and training habits in my past life.  If only...


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## MikeDelta (Oct 6, 2018)

I got an orange before hitting the rack once in basic; because I re-directed the supply line in the dining facility at breakfast. ;)


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## rhanzlikusaf (Oct 30, 2018)

MikeDelta said:


> I got an orange before hitting the rack once in basic; because I re-directed the supply line in the dining facility at breakfast. ;)


Call of Duty; DFAC warfare


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## MikeDelta (Oct 30, 2018)

rhanzlikusaf said:


> Call of Duty; DFAC warfare



There would have been warfare if the DS found that orange, still feel a twinge of  guilt for taking it out of the chow hall. Tsk tsk

I actually used it for a ruck march the next AM. Never FELT an orange give me energy till that day. The timing of my consumption of said orange was perfect. Almost immediately after gobbling it down we were ambushed, at the top of a rather large hill called Big Bane. The OPFOR purposely attacked us at the top of the hill knowing that we would be more fatigued, but that little orange gave me some extra kick.

The point of the story and all kidding aside though, despite my war and service being pre-internet, no AC and snail mail, I don't judge. Deployments today are long and back to back. I have nothing but respect for every single service member serving today, in any branch or MOS. So, I say give them AC,  internet, video game care packages and bedtime snacks. If that means we will be more fit to fight, great.


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## rhanzlikusaf (Oct 31, 2018)

MikeDelta said:


> There would have been warfare if the DS found that orange, still feel a twinge of  guilt for taking it out of the chow hall. Tsk tsk
> 
> I actually used it for a ruck march the next AM. Never FELT an orange give me energy till that day. The timing of my consumption of said orange was perfect. Almost immediately after gobbling it down we were ambushed, at the top of a rather large hill called Big Bane. The OPFOR purposely attacked us at the top of the hill knowing that we would be more fatigued, but that little orange gave me some extra kick.
> 
> The point of the story and all kidding aside though, despite my war and service being pre-internet, no AC and snail mail, I don't judge. Deployments today are long and back to back. I have nothing but respect for every single service member serving today, in any branch or MOS. So, I say give them AC,  internet, video game care packages and bedtime snacks. If that means we will be more fit to fight, great.


I feel the same way, As much as I wish we could continue to breed hardened soldiers, the saying "work smarter not harder" applies everywhere. We wouldn't have flying robots firing missiles from space if we only produced hardcore grunts.


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## DocCallahan (Oct 31, 2018)

So now they don’t have to sneak the bars from the galley. That’s nice. We never got caught til 4 days (approximately) before graduation


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## MikeDelta (Oct 31, 2018)

rhanzlikusaf said:


> I feel the same way, As much as I wish we could continue to breed hardened soldiers, the saying "work smarter not harder" applies everywhere. We wouldn't have flying robots firing missiles from space if we only produced hardcore grunts.



The Army is always trying new things. During my OSUT they had low, medium and high stress training BNs. One BN, I believe B40 had a pizza party during training, they were obviously a low stress BN. The diametric opposite was my BN. One day my platoons DS ordered us to fall in on the PT stand where they had all the care packages laid out that they had held as contraband; this was because they were full of cookies and such. They then told the privates to eat as much as they wanted and then proceeded to SMOKE the shit out of us, once it was obvious some of the privates had their fill.The gluttons were vomiting while trying to keep their composure and follow the exercise commands. We kinda had a laugh about it afterward, but this was our mentality. If the DS pointed to the sky and told us to run after a chopper, we would’ve followed it till it landed.

However, my first trip to the PX for razors also yielded some multivitamins, potasium and BCAAs that I kept in my personal drawer. I ended up earning a PT Excellence patch and I'm ure the supplements incrementally helped. So, taking some smart advantages certainly doesn't equate to being soft

Ironically the low stress pizza party BN had some poor private blow his own brains out during BRM. So you never can tell the outcome till you test and test again.I wonder who had to sift through all that data for an answer on better training? Anyway, my .02 cents.


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## AWP (Oct 31, 2018)

rhanzlikusaf said:


> We wouldn't have flying robots firing missiles from space if we only produced hardcore grunts.



This statment is utter madness. You're being sarcastic, right?


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## TheReal0651 (Nov 1, 2018)

If you look at the generation that the military in general is currently recruiting, and where the world is going, the military doesn't need to be full of "hard chargers" as much anymore. Future wars are predicted to be won before the actually fighting happens, and in order to do that we need smarter people. In many instances you have to lower one standard in order to raise another standard and I believe that this is what is happening now. If the "brainiacs" that are going to save the world need a protein bar before they go to bed, let them eat it. lol


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## DasBoot (Nov 2, 2018)

TheReal0651 said:


> If you look at the generation that the military in general is currently recruiting, and where the world is going, the military doesn't need to be full of "hard chargers" as much anymore. Future wars are predicted to be won before the actually fighting happens, and in order to do that we need smarter people. In many instances you have to lower one standard in order to raise another standard and I believe that this is what is happening now. If the "brainiacs" that are going to save the world need a protein bar before they go to bed, let them eat it. lol


I agree in that we need to tailor training to expectations. I don’t give a shit if the drone operator can do a 12 miler to Army standards. I do think the 11B and other combat arms training courses need to be as tough as ever- yes, proper nutrition is great. I want smart training that actually makes guys strong and healthy and able to do 20 years without being physically incapacitated after retirement. With all that said we still need guys who can suck it up when it’s cold, when they’re chaffed from heat, when they have the runs in the field, or when they roll the shit out of an ankle and still finish a Long movement in kit. Combat arms needs to train smart when appropriate, and hard when necessary. 

And regarding the support aka smart guy jobs- you should still look like a professional soldier. No need to be shredded or a PT stud but fuck don’t look like you need a Lil Rascal scooter to show up to formation.


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## Kakashi66223 (Nov 2, 2018)

So the reasoning into turning the bar into "candy" is to get a higher compliance. The military per this MilitaryTimes article states it tried pills, but 3/5ths voluntarily took it.



> Military.com | By Matthew Cox
> ...
> The Defense Department's Combat Feeding Program began issuing the Performance Readiness Bar this year to trainees in Army Basic Combat Training and Air Force Basic Military Training, according to Jeremy Whitsitt, deputy director of the Combat Feeding Program.
> 
> ...



This was published a month ago and states the Air Force is interested in a similar product.



> *Army researchers develop tasty, healthy performance bar*
> By Yolanda ArringtonAugust 31, 2018
> 
> NATICK, Mass. -- Optimizing bone health and preventing musculoskeletal injuries in service members is a complex science. The U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine consistently takes on that challenge.
> ...



I have another thought. When I write another post I might include that idea.


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## Gunz (Nov 2, 2018)

DasBoot said:


> I agree in that we need to tailor training to expectations. I don’t give a shit if the drone operator can do a 12 miler to Army standards. I do think the 11B and other combat arms training courses need to be as tough as ever- yes, proper nutrition is great. I want smart training that actually makes guys strong and healthy and able to do 20 years without being physically incapacitated after retirement. With all that said we still need guys who can suck it up when it’s cold, when they’re chaffed from heat, when they have the runs in the field, or when they roll the shit out of an ankle and still finish a Long movement in kit. Combat arms needs to train smart when appropriate, and hard when necessary.
> 
> And regarding the support aka smart guy jobs- you should still look like a professional soldier. No need to be shredded or a PT stud but fuck don’t look like you need a Lil Rascal scooter to show up to formation.




Hard agree. Future big wars may be techno, robotic and EMP-heavy, but how many big wars against near-peer powers are we expecting to fight? None of the countries we've fought in since 1945 have had any kind of industrial or military parity with us.

The future: More small wars, proxy wars, asymmetric wars, limited wars because big wars have big costs and consequences.

The bottom line: It always comes down to tough young dudes with rifles and frags.

The uniform: If you wear it, have enough respect for it to keep yourself in shape even if you're not a combat-arms MOS.


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## rhanzlikusaf (Nov 3, 2018)

AWP said:


> This statment is utter madness. You're being sarcastic, right?


Poor wording, if we only ever produced infantryman, ONLY INFANTRY, and didn't incorporate science/ scientist, then yeah wouldn't we? I must be missing something.


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## MikeDelta (Nov 3, 2018)

rhanzlikusaf said:


> Poor wording, if we only ever produced infantryman, ONLY INFANTRY, and didn't incorporate science/ scientist, then yeah wouldn't we? I must be missing something.



Whaaaa?????


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## Ooh-Rah (Nov 3, 2018)

MikeDelta said:


> Whaaaa?????


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## MikeDelta (Nov 3, 2018)

Ooh-Rah said:


> View attachment 24709



@Ooh-Rah Hole? I think he's on his way to an armpit deep machine gun fighting position...no machine gun or grenade sumps though


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## busyworks (Nov 22, 2018)

Psh, just sneak some peanut butter packets from chow like the rest of us did.

Don't get caught though...


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## DasBoot (Nov 22, 2018)

busyworks said:


> Psh, just sneak some peanut butter packets from chow like the rest of us did.
> 
> Don't get caught though...


I had to hide two of those things in my ass during a “health and wellness” inspection during OSUT... be careful with what you smuggle...


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## busyworks (Nov 22, 2018)

DasBoot said:


> I had to hide two of those things in my ass during a “health and wellness” inspection during OSUT... be careful with what you smuggle...


See? Valuable tradecraft/SERE training the new recruits will be missing out on 🤣


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## MikeDelta (Nov 22, 2018)

A contraband orange in the cargo pocket worked wonders for extra energy on the first OSUT ruck


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## SwimRunLift (Nov 23, 2018)

Just graduated from MCRD San Diego.
They gave us snack packs in boot camp which we called 'Happy Meals".
They were a sealed package that contained things like a juice box, graham crackers, craisins, etc.
We got them after every evening chow and could eat them on SDI's square away time.


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## “The Old Man” (Jan 8, 2019)

Where was this shit "back in the day". I'm glad to hear that nutritional concerns are more of a priority now. As long as that fine line between a boost up and a free ride is maintained. With the monitoring capabilities available now. There are ways to take the level of training. To points that were previously unknown. Not trying to get off topic. But, I believe that any way to supplement troops during any type of training evolution is a positive. What's that first tenet of SOF, " Humans before hardware". They monitor BUD/S candidates core temps with a transmitter in a capsule. So that they know when a hypothermic condition is imminent. We were part of a program that did T/E of biological contagion prevention through prior medical intervention. By means of exposure after having been "supplemented". Our unit motto was "Research for the Soldier".  I would like to hope that some of what we did. Is actually being applied now. Otherwise we spent a lot of time in test areas getting zapped for nothing!


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## DozerB (Jan 8, 2019)

Back in the day, 80% of my extended family died of dysentery while traversing the greater Midwest. Kids these days aren't even allow to die of dysentery; what's happening to my beloved Corps? Snowflakes, the lot of them.


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## Box (Jan 8, 2019)

Food in the barracks?
Seriously ??


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## Haldex (Jan 27, 2019)

As someone who just recently graduated out of BCT, I personally am appreciative of the calcium bar being provided to myself and my fellow recruits. Our "bar time" was a bit of an end-of-day ritual that my platoon used to relax a little with one another and our DSes occasionally used it as time for AARs. Some of my Drill Sergeants were new, so they used the bar time to get information out of us about our training, what we thought could be improved on, and generally just to make sure we were learning what we needed to. If we missed something or misinterpreted information, they used the bar time to correct us or made a note for the next day. It helped some people a lot.

The bar also helped myself with PT tests, as I never went to sleep or woke up hungry and could perform better the following morning. It wasn't a big protein bar or anything like that, and I doubt it had as much nutritional value as I think it did, but it was a mental tool I used.

Whether it helped with stress fractures and what not, I'm not a professional but I can say that only two people out of my platoon of 70 went to the Physical Trainer for them during the entire cycle. Everyone else had strained muscles or something along those lines. Other platoons had similar numbers. We had very few people on crutches or missing training events throughout the cycle.

The best part was when we started finding the things in MREs. We weren't supposed to eat more than one in 24hours apparently but we'd end up getting them in the brown happy meals for lunch or something the next day.

Chocolate is the best flavor. Apple-Cinnamon? Not so much.


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## BellRinger5984 (Jan 27, 2019)

I learned a lot about resourcefulness and starvation at basic.
During my time at basic my platoon ( specifically us "squad leaders") got caught stealing MREs from one of the other companies supply room ( they weren't properly securing the door) and distributing them within the platoon because we were starving. No one admitted who was doing the stealing. The whole company got smoked and we had to start posting sentries outside of our supply room every night too. In my mind that taught me a tremendous amount about taking care of my guys even though I may have lacked on the Integrity value.


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