Susana at cut on the bias posted on Army rations and got a whole mess of responses. Heh.
MREs have evolved a lot over the years. I first ate them in the summer of 1984 and they were pretty awful. But the ones I ate during Desert Storm were pretty good. They’d done away with the dehydrated meat patties and such and gone to much better food. I have been out since 1992 but understand they have continued to improve.
So, a lot of the folks that hate MREs (Meals Rejected by Ethiopians was one popular nickname) are likely talking about the early ones. The main problem with them is that there are only a dozen or so varieties (or at least that’s all there used to be). If you eat them three meals a day for a couple of weeks, they get old very fast. That would be true even if they were absolutely delicious.
I have eaten some of the old C-Rations as well, as my dad brought some home a couple times in the early 1970s. I didn’t like them, although they’re fondly remembered by some veterans of that era. And the little “P-38” can openers than were issued with them are handy for carrying around on a keychain.
