"soldier" news and stories

If you've ever had to eat a Meal, Ready-to-Eat (MRE), my heart goes out to you. From what I've heard, they're not the greatest.

But the Army is trying to change that (though whether they've succeeded is up in the air). They recently offered the new meals, which will go to soldiers fighting in Afghanistan in the next few months, to guests at a Pentagon tasting. And the results? Decidedly mixed.

Not surprisingly, the Washington Post author who tried the food was less than impressed, having grown used to cushy civilian food. But several of the soldiers - some from WWII and some from Iraq and Afghanistan, and most likely used to much worse offerings - deemed it edible and, in some cases, almost decent, which is definitely an improvement .

New meals included chicken pesto pasta, beef teriyaki, and barbecued pork wrap, among others. The meals have increased in quantity and quality since the 1980s and late '90s, and definitely since WWII, where one vet interviewed said they fed the soldiers "eggs cooked in flour."

Some interesting facts I didn't know about MREs: they come in several vegetarian options; each meal is approximately 1,200 calories; and the meals must be able to withstand parachute drops of about 1,200 feet. Oh - and they have a shelf life of about 18 months.

Source

Let me start by saying that I'm in no way out to create any kind of link between alcohol and violence here. It just so happened that I read three different articles about beer and violence yesterday.

It started with this story from Springfield, Illinois, about a woman who fatally stabbed her boyfriend with a steak knife in a fight over a can of Natural Light. (This ad, from 1979, seemed appropriate.)

Next, a Bakersfield, California, man was recently sentenced to 50 years to life for suffocating his girlfriend after an argument over a bottle of beer "got out of hand."

Finally, an American soldier in South Korea may receive a 30-month sentence for attacking a Korean man with a beer bottle last summer.