"Rations" in the late Twilight War

[weswood]

Keeping in mind I was a REMF in the USMC Air Wing; when we would go to the field, we had a field services staff with a field kitchen. The staff was a couple guys out of the S-4 to supervise, then a couple guys from each section on mess duty. Hot food was provided breakfast and supper, lunch was an MRE.

When I was in the Reserves, an Infantry Battalion, but still in HQ Co., it was pretty much the same. The Field Services tried to truck at least one hot meal out to the line grunts once a day but it wasn't always still hot by the time they were delivered.

MRE's and other prepackaged rations would become rare, IMO. I can see patrols carrying dried meats, cheeses and hardtack.

One thing I've noticed, when I was in the Corps, MREs had freeze dried meals. This was from '85-89. I don't remember them while I was in the reserves '90-'92. I have 4 cases of MREs I aquired after Hurricane Ike last year. Three are military issue, one civilian. I haven't rooted through the military ones, but in the civilian one there are NO freeze dried menus. I'm not sure if it's because it's a civilian brand, or if they did away with the freeze dried stuff.