The Unit­ed States Gov­ern­ment, through the US Em­bassy in Port of Spain and the US South­ern Com­mand (SOUTH­COM), has do­nat­ed 8,640 meals ready-to-eat (MREs) to the Trinidad and To­ba­go De­fence Force (TTDF).

The do­na­tion con­sists of 15 pal­lets of field ra­tions val­ued at US$130,000.

Each MRE con­tains a full meal, in­clud­ing pro­tein, car­bo­hy­drates, a snack, cof­fee, tea and a sweet, and pro­vides about 1,250 calo­ries. The ra­tions have a long shelf life and are in­tend­ed for use by troops on ex­tend­ed op­er­a­tions or by first re­spon­ders dur­ing emer­gen­cies.

The do­na­tion comes as part of on­go­ing co­op­er­a­tion be­tween the Unit­ed States and Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Chief of De­fence Staff Com­modore Don Po­lo said the ra­tions would be used by TTDF per­son­nel when op­er­at­ing away from camps and bases for ex­tend­ed pe­ri­ods.

“These are field ra­tions that can be utilised by Trinidad and To­ba­go De­fence Force per­son­nel when they are on ex­tend­ed op­er­a­tions away from their camps and bases,” Po­lo said.

The TTDF and the US Em­bassy’s Mil­i­tary Group have con­tin­ued to work to­geth­er on ini­tia­tives aimed at strength­en­ing the de­fence force’s op­er­a­tional ca­pac­i­ty.