Marine teaches MRE class to Macedonian students

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Julius Delos Reyes
  • MEDCEUR 11 Public Affairs
CAMP PEPELISHTE, Macedonia --  It is not everyday foreign students get to experience a facet of U.S. military life but a group of Macedonian high school students received the opportunity to discover what a Meal, Ready-To-Eat is all about.

Marine Staff Sgt. Tresor Mbunker, 4th Marine Logistics Group Personnel and Retrieval Processing Company mortuary affairs staff NCO in charge, explained to the Macedonian students the various food and components in an MRE as well as the process to heat the main course June 12.

"It is neat to teach an MRE class to the Macedonian students," said Staff Sgt. Mbunker.

It is not often U.S. personnel get to share with foreign nationals things that show their military way of life, the staff sergeant said.

MRE is the standard military field ration. Each meal provides one-third of the military's recommended dietary allowance and must meet a variety of requirements, including a long shelf live, tolerance of changes in temperature and stability in varying conditions.

The students sampled different types of chicken, beef and pork dishes as well as various snacks.

"They're good, but I won't eat them on a regular basis; I like the Skittles though," said Filip Stojanovski, Macedonian second year student. "It was fun to warm it up. [Staff Sgt. Mbunker] explained it very well."

The Macedonian students were here to provide support to the 2011 Medical Training Exercise in Central and Eastern Europe as moulaged "patients" for the live medical exercise.

"I hope they experienced a small piece of what we go through everyday when deployed," Staff Sgt. Mbunker said, "and do not always have hot meals to come home while in the field."

An annual Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff-sponsored regional and multilateral exercise, MEDCEUR is designed to provide medical training and operational experience in a deployed environment for U.S. and partner nations. The countries participating in this year's MEDCEUR are Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Slovenia and Norway.