What, no nod to the T-Rats? Come on!
T-rations: Big aluminum foiled packages of food you boiled, opened up, and served up to the troops in a chow line? These were as bad as first generation MRE's. Often worse.
Then, the 1st and 2nd gen MRE's had quiet a rep:
"Corned Beef Hash"... you know, the one full of veins, cow hearts, and entrails..... yum....
"Chicken ala King" .... guaranteed to make any soldier sick due to spoiling long before it's expiration date.
"Omlette".... what the heck is it with the Army and Green Eggs?????
"Oatmeal Cookies" rock hard brick, and resembled what an MRE looked like coming back out of a human body (after much grunting and effort).
Only the best for the troops!
Oh, and as to those humanitarian meals.... they are very restricted in how many calories they can provide and what can go into them so they can be used in just about any country for any situation and not run afoul of ethnic and religious taboos toward what you can eat..... as well as have a 5 to 7 year shelf-life. No pork. No beef, IIRC. No real spices used.
So, yes, they suck worse than about anything else troops are forced to subsist on.
