I remember in basic training in 1968 we had several pill stations in the barracks - they were salt pills... we had to take them whenever we came back in.
I think we called them salt peter or something like that....supposedly it took care of morning wood. lol. Could be a folk tale. I just remember that talk was going around.
You’d be right I guess if saltpeter tasted like salt, but what we had was just concentrated saline pills.