C-rats and MRE's and LRRP's....oh my! And usually not eaten in Kansas, were they?
Here's a story from days sitting in the heat and humidity during the lovely Haitian Vacation of '94. We worked out of the warehouse compound (across from the airfield). We had trained up a variety of forces from the Caribbean community (all the local islands), the Bangladeshi's (part of the UN forces who showed up) and a bunch of others from all over the world who acted as International Police Moniters (IPM's). Unfortunately, the Bangladeshi's and a good number of the IPM's came from muslim nations and had issues with the pork in MRE's. So the supply guys had to make sure the pork MRE's were pulled from all the boxes going to them. They then re-packed the pork only (as in ham slices, egg and ham, pork BBQ, etc) MRE's in boxes and put them at the front of the warehouse.
We had an admin Sgt who got our daily rations, who was too lazy to walk past the first pile of MRE crates. So, we went a week or two getting the same "wonderful meals" day after day. Then one day, our boss the Admiral (a SEAL who was still benching 300+ lbs during PT), "escorted" the Sgt to supply to find out what was going on. Supply was ever so kind to show the Admiral and the Sgt what the set-up was and let them in on the joke. We then had a Sgt who gladly walked the length of the warehouse to get our boxes of MRE's for the day...once he got the Admiral's size 11 boot out of his backside.
Anyone remember the little "cookbook" that was floating around? It had all the contents of each of the 12 MRE's (of that time), the nutritional list, and a variety of ways to mix parts of them to make different "meals".