Yes the applesauce was pretty good from the MREs but once it turned.....let's just say then it became a fast-acting cure for constipation in the field, if you did not get dehydrated from going on both ends after consuming a bad one BTW you never told me what your favorite MCI (c-rat) was, unless I missed it in your reply. Besides being a combat medic I was cross-trained in NBC defense. At that time the MOS's (Military Occupational Specialty) was 91A10 (medic) with an ASI (additional skills identifier) for NBC defense.
I liked most of them. But the Beef Slices and Potatoes was my favorite (as long as I could heat it up). The only one I just couldn't eat was Ham & Eggs -- too green for me.
Just about the only MCI that I could eat without heating it was the chicken loaf. Fortunately for our 3 man crew, our tracked ambulance crew chief was a caring soul and he would pack along a small back-pack type stove w/propane fuel for us to heat our rations (I preferred mine boiling hot as opposed to lukewarm which was always what we seemed to wind up with when we occasionally had to use the fuel bars). Most of the other MCIs seemed to have an inch or so of congealed grease/fat just under the lid when you'd open the can, and that was bad news for anyone with a sensitive digestive system if they tried to eat it cold. Other than the tendancy to get a thin flaky residue of green paint on the top of the grease layer when first opening the can, my experience with the MCIs was over-all ok.
Very true dirtbag! Actually the fat and grease were not really an issue unless you had no way to heat the cans, and as for the paint flakes, well I'm not sure if the 1979 and 1980 production run of MCIs still used lead paint on the cans, soooooo......
BTW you never told me what your favorite MCI (c-rat) was, unless I missed it in your reply. Besides being a combat medic I was cross-trained in NBC defense. At that time the MOS's (Military Occupational Specialty) was 91A10 (medic) with an ASI (additional skills identifier) for NBC defense.
