[I think they were picked through before hand and the better ones were taken.]
When I got to Desert Storm 1 and went to pick up my allotment of MREs, I found them dumped, loose, in a huge pile instead of being issued by the case. My first thought was “those supply bastages hogged all the good ones”. I didn’t know they had to open all the cases and remove the “Ham Slices” MREs to keep from offending the Islamic coalition troops. Ham slices were by far my favorite.
I have not had an MRE I thought was inedible. I have even eaten 17 year-old tuna something. I’ve never eaten alum but I imagine it dries your mouth something like 17 year-old MRE tuna something. No telling what they cost now. I’m sure they are expensive.
And, after “they” (Headquarters mininions) carefully sorted through and removed the hundreds of “Sliced Ham” MREs from pile dumped in Saudi Arabia, “they” no doubt destroyed every one of them. “Lest we offend the Muslims “ ya know.