Odd MRE factoids:

MREs were developed with the idea of getting one meal with about 1500+ calories in it. The average grunt needs 3k calories a day more or less, so two meals would do it. The early MREs sucked, pure plain and simple. Dehydrated meat aka hockey pucks, were never eaten. The dehydrated fruit was not much better. I mainly lived on ramen, tuna, canned chicken, jerky, slim jims, beanie weenie, snickers and raisins.

Most of us would take the MREs apart and can the stuff we didn't want. The best part, the tabasco sauce, was a good trade item.

One trick to MREs, open them length wise, instead of at the top. Easier to get all the food out without getting it all over your hand. You may need a knife, but all field guys have knives.

Allies freak until they realize one MRE is one meal. They tend to get a day's rations in one pack, we use three.

The MRE cheese is said to have plumbing plugging properties that defy modern science. The peanut butter is decent however.

I ate way too many MREs. Later on, a close friend was the SGM of the test labs and I got some sample runs of the newer stuff. The taste was better, but it was still an MRE. The newer ones have a protein bar and candy that the old ones lacked.