How Much Food is in an Urban US Armory?

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Witchking

My reading of this is that (as of 2015) GAO read Military MRE stockpiles to be large enough that (with 3 year shelf life) they might end up throwing away MREs not consumed within the shelf life window.

It's pretty simple: somebody needs to eat 1.667 million cases of MREs per year. The government can give them away, of course, but for PR reasons they need to avoid people becoming dependent on free MREs which will stop happening when there's a war.

[Willy]

Originally Posted by Witchking

Possible, but speaking as someone who worked in a trucking freight terminal for 2ish years, for the most part workers do not really have an idea what the freight is.
SNIP

Pretty sure that the usual personal doesn´t know what´s inside the freight or packages. Especially as new technology like fuzzy logic stores things not orderly as humans, but uses any space available. Most people in a warehouse wouldn´t find their own nose without the helpful vest or computers. that are the folks who handle the cargo, the higher echolons may know generally what is stored, but mostly not where.

We have a big warehouse in my region of a major TV shop which also stores a lot other stuff. The pallets and packages are stored in a way you couldn´t even get them without working grid, and nearly all have just a criptic barcode on the outside.

In fact the only way to find what you seek and make a inventory without computers would be to open everything and make a list on paper.

[bocephus]

Originally Posted by Willy

In fact the only way to find what you seek and make a inventory without computers would be to open everything and make a list on paper.

Ahhhh the glories of Post Apocalypse logistics gaming.

Roll 3d6. Oh Billy found something new, roll another 3d6 Sweet, its a crate of 1000 squeaky chew toys!! Amazing. Ok next PC roll 3d6 ....

hehhehheh

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by bocephus

Ahhhh the glories of Post Apocalypse logistics gaming.

It'd happen. After grocery stores and their specific warehouses and distribution centers stuff in general shipping would be the best places to start looking for pretty much anything eve if yu were reduced to random opening of boxes..

[Witchking]

Originally Posted by Willy

In fact the only way to find what you seek and make a inventory without computers would be to open everything and make a list on paper.

It is possible. My direct experience is 20ish years old. The freight bills, which were 1 copy to the office, 1 two part copy to the driver, customer signed on receipt one copy for them one copy back to the office for the files; had bare bones description usually.

One exception would be HazMat regulations (contrary to trooper opinions an MRE does not in fact count as a Hazardous Material!) not applicable here.

However freight bills DID list the shipper and the recipient, there are clues available there if the PC's know who/what they are looking for.

After all if the Armory is question was receiving MREs they should have appropriate freight bills to look at. They would then 'Just' be looking to match up to similar bills wherever they go 'hunting'.

[Willy]

Searching stuff and looting will be in the future a big problem. Not because people don´t know how to break in facilities, but the don´t know were the facilities ARE.

In a time 20 years ago nobody had a cell phone or smart phone as it´s called today, with the nice apps for finding the store, doctor whatsoever you need and the best way to get there, may it be bus, car train, plane, by foot ... . And with the grid down and your smart phones becoming useless doorstoppers?

Look around in your home, do you have a map of your area? A list on paper of shops and services in any form?

20 years ago you would go to the next telephone box look into the wristthick yellow pages and find the adress of every last one, maybe even in a wider area than just your county or city. Than you just needed to go to the next abandoned car and search for a roadmap, most car owners had a set of maps from local to nationwide inside.

Nowadays, if you need something that isn´t obviously visible to the naked eye, even companys and warehouses often look the same from outside. Dynamic tech solutions can be everything from high class military gear to clothes with LEDs, to computers and everything in between.

You MAY find a yellow pages somewhere in a old ladys home outdated by years, and a map in the same condition somewhere, but in earlier times there where millions of that stuff produced and distributed. Today it´s only for folks being a bit out of date with modern times. Reducing the chance to find it easily.

Before you can loot, getting a solid guess where and what will be a task in itself.

[WingedKagouti]

Originally Posted by Willy

Before you can loot, getting a solid guess where and what will be a task in itself.

In GURPS terms, this would be covered by Area Knowledge which is not a /TL skill. Most people in modern societies only have it at default and rely on the internet to cover what they don't know.

[ericthered]

General advice for the situation is good, but it's worth mentioning my scenario is in 1983.

[Witchking]

Originally Posted by ericthered

General advice for the situation is good, but it's worth mentioning my scenario is in 1983.

Well 1983...

The MRE went into full production in 1981. So in a National Guard or Reserve Armory there will not be any, there might be the manuals for how to order them in the future.

The plan was to restock with MRE's as the MCI's were used up. Reserve and Guard units do not use a lot of field rations in non-Wartime non-Emergency conditions. So the would likely be the last to effect the change over.

However the Guard/Reserves will likely have stocks of the prior ration that the MRE is replacing.

Welcome to...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meal,_...ividual_ration

(one of the funnier Wiki articles I have read. Current troops who describe the MRE, Meal Read to Eat as three lies for the price of one have no idea how lucky they are.)

I expect there will be cases and cases of these canned rations in storage as effectively they 'never' go bad. One officer in Vietnam kept a Pound Cake can portion of the ration in 1973 (manufactured in 1969) to eat 'when he left the army' He did so when he retired in 2009.

[thrash]

Originally Posted by Witchking

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meal,_...ividual_ration

There were many times it was easier to eat the wax paper that was stuck between together with the two chocolate-covered cookies than it was to try to separate them, especially in a hurry.

Note that many of the field craft tricks and tips that are still taught (e.g., tin cans with pebbles inside suspected from concertina wire as an anti-tampering alarm) were based on having the cans from the C-rats available.

One dodge that could be available in 1983 is Civil Defense fallout shelter supplies. Simply declare that the basement of the National Guard armory doubled as a community fallout shelter, and you can justify practically any amount of shelf-stable food by varying the size of the "community."