Combat Rations and Battlefield Snacks

At the end of the day, we are talking about food, so there’s no need to get overly elaborate. There’s nothing stopping you from venturing off into the field with a pack full of ramen, or just a back of bagels and a jar of peanut butter. I’ve done so plenty – especially the latter. For short duration exercises that might be okay, but when it comes to long duration, intense exercise where you expect to burn a lot of calories, fueling yourself properly is essential. Additionally. Depending on your given use case and context, there’re a few other key considerations you may want to consider which we will explore below.

Preparation

At home, under normal circumstances you have access to a kitchen and full amenities. Oftentimes we don’t put much thought into how lucky we are to have our microwaves and refrigeration at our disposal…until a blackout. When the power goes out, you may not be able to use conventional means of cooking. For this reason, I like to keep both my bug-in and bug-out supplies stocked primarily with foods that are ready to eat out of the package.

Another route is propane or isobutane camping stoves which come in all sizes. I use a Soto Amicus on nearly all my long distance backpacking excursions which is great for cooking for 1-2 people. I’ve used alcohol stoves a lot in the past as well, but they are much harder to light and nowhere near as reliable. There are also larger camping stoves with multiple burners that are great for larger groups. However, when operating outdoors in contested environments, the visual and thermal signature may give away your position. This is another advantage of ready to eat foods.

There’s also the convenience factor. After a long day of rucking in full kit, do you really want to spend the precious time you could be resting cooking your food? Or would you rather tear the top off an MRE entree and get to sleep a few minutes quicker – and without the cleanup.

Water as a Resource & Scarcity

I went a long time without appreciating the value of access to potable water. I’ve spent most of my life in the American southeast in areas with decent drainage and regular rainfall. There were several hot, dry summers, but never any serious droughts in my area. And flooding contributing to contaminating drinking water was never a concern on the farm, where we had a well. Even on long duration hikes, I rarely found myself more than 10 miles away from a water source along the trails. I’d go out with one 32oz Nalgene and a water filter at most, refilling my Nalgene from streams.

But again, if operating in a contested environment, the chore of refilling your bottles must be done with security in mind. Gathering and filtering or purifying water in the field is out of scope here and deserves its own thorough analysis, but for the purposes of this conversation it should be noted that these actions will take time, effort, and planning when working under the threat of a hostile adversary.

Even in a non-hostile environment, if you use a well pump, a power outage may disrupt your access to water, and city/town water supplies aren’t immune from issues either. Water supplies can become contaminated and pipes can become damaged or degraded. In my town there are frequent boil notices (several times a year) and while I use well water, every boil notice is a reminder of the fragility of our nation’s water supply infrastructure.

All of this is to say that you should be cognizant of the water requirements for the foods you select and have a plan to operate on a reduced water supply if needed. I also highly suggest storing water long-term for emergencies, but when operating on emergency supplies for an unknown amount of time, you’ll want to make the most of what you have.

Shelf Life

Shelf life is an important, yet perhaps overemphasized consideration when it comes to food security. If your food goes bad before you need it, it is simply money wasted, but that’s where a proper inventory rotation comes into play. By integrating your stockpile into your regular food supply as items near expiration, you can always ensure your food stores are as fresh as possible. If you’ve worked in food service, FIFO (First In; First Out) is probably something you are already well aware of. For those unfamiliar, it is the concept of using the oldest items first in your rotation. A good rotation also gives you the opportunity to consistently inspect your supplies to ensure they haven’t become damaged or infested with bugs.

Commercially made emergency rations boast shelf lives for 5-20 years, but how long do you really need your supplies to be in storage for? Personally, the majority of my rations are on a 1 year rotation, so a 2-3 year shelf life is more than sufficient for my needs. I do also have sealed buckets of rice and some canned goods that are on a longer rotation, but in general, I don’t believe in the need for 20+ years of shelf life for a couple reasons. Firstly, I currently live on, and grew up on, a farm. So if for some reason my food supply was cut off long term, I have other means of feeding myself. Even if it took a year or two to build up production levels to meet my caloric needs, I wouldn’t need to sustain myself off stored rations alone for anywhere near 10-20 years. Secondly, under what circumstances would my normal food supply be cut off for such a long time? Nuclear war? If so, food may be the least of your worries.

Instead of excessively long shelf lives, I think shelf stability is a better goal. Maybe you have frozen rations that can be stored for years in your freezer, but when the power goes out they become useless. On the other hand you may have dried goods with a comparably shorter shelf life that isn’t affected by such things. For bugging in, canned goods are a good option here as they can be stored for quite a while at room temperature. There are plenty of compromises here though too which must be considered. Firstly, canned goods are quite heavy, meaning they aren’t transported easily and may require heavy duty shelving to store large quantities. Secondly, the empty can takes up more space than plastic packaging and can’t be incinerated. This may not seem like a big deal, but in the event of a long term emergency, trash and waste management are essential, mundane, functions that may be impacted by the situation at hand. Additionally

Packability

If backpacking has taught me anything, it’s that weight and space are precious commodities. While your clothing, sleep system and the like are essentially “constants” in your pack that don’t change much with longer durations, things like food and water take up exponentially more space and weight the longer you plan on being in the field. Often this will be your biggest limiting factor sustainment and logistics wise. 

So how can you maximize the time you can spend in the field with only what you can carry? The simple answer is to focus on caloric density.

Intended Caloric Requirements

Having decided what types of food to stock up, you’ll need to determine how much.

 Obviously a 3 day excursion will require less food than a week with the same workload; and long, heavy ruck marches  are more demanding than static tasks.