Candy Sweetens Army Rations : Military: M&Ms; and Tootsie Roll Pops are among the items supplied by Troop Support Command, which provides food, clothing, shelters and equipment used by the armed forces.

The U.S. Army Troop Support Command understands that little things like a candy bar can bring a small piece of home to the thousands of American soldiers stationed around the world.

The command, or TROSCOM, develops, purchases and maintains many of the items including food, clothing, shelters and equipment that are used by men and women in all branches of the armed forces.

Paul Powell, TROSCOM spokesman, said he often is surprised by the number of items controlled by the command.

“It’s really fascinating,” Powell said. “Every day, I learn about something else that we handle. You can’t be too quick to say, ‘We don’t handle that,’ because we might.”

The command’s headquarters are located in St. Louis, while the research, development and engineering centers are located in Natick, Mass., and Ft. Belvoir, Va.

Employees in St. Louis have to make sure everything gets to where it belongs. However, Powell said someone else soon may have to take on that responsibility.

“We’re scheduled to be closed some time during fiscal year ‘92-93,” Powell said. “It’s part of the Administration’s budget proposal. These are decisions being made well beyond where we’re sitting.”

In the meantime, TROSCOM will continue dealing with an item of major importance to soldiers--the food they eat in the field. The old C-rations gave way to Meals Ready to Eat, or MREs, in 1980.

In recent years, researchers have tried to find ways to improve the MREs. Some of the changes include the addition of new eight-ounce entrees, as well as candies like M&Ms; and Tootsie Roll Pops, small bottles of Tabasco sauce and drink mixes.

Powell said soldiers like to see something familiar in their MREs.

“They love it,” he said. “It’s a taste from home. They really like to open the MREs and see a familiar label from home.”

Greg Thomas, TROSCOM spokesman, said about 30% of the products in American supermarkets were developed by the Army.

“We came up with the technology and gave it to them to develop commercially,” Thomas said.

Items developed by the command are produced by outside contractors, who bid for about $3.5 billion in contracts each year.

One of the latest innovations by the TROSCOM research staff is bread with a shelf life of three years. The bread is baked with a sugar product that keeps it from going stale. It then is stored with preservatives that absorb oxygen and moisture.

This development would allow soldiers to receive hamburgers, hot dogs and pizza in the their MREs.

“I’ve tried the bread,” Powell said. “It’s pretty good.”

In addition to food products, TROSCOM supplies uniforms, rail equipment, electrical generators and watercraft, among other items. The command manages nearly 30,000 supply items, with an inventory worth more than $1.5 billion.

Powell said staff reductions could be made beginning this October. He said most of the job cuts would be made at command headquarters, which has a staff of 1,503 people, but research, development and engineering facilities would remain open.

“If they eliminate us, they’ll just find somebody else to do the job,” Powell said. “The work won’t go away. We just won’t be the ones who do it.”