Vets: How old is this Army food?

Can is a little rusty.....

pre-1981 for sure. At that point MRE's showed up in the Regular Army. I know some of the C-Rats we were eating then were nearly a decade old. lol

One thing is for sure; and with the label still visiable is that they used BPA plastic to coat it. Any of you marines have swollen prostrates ? now you know why !

In 1990 we were in the field and I dug up a can of crackers dated 1967. Can was in good shape so we opened them and they were just fine.

60’s-70’s - probably too old for you to try it - I remember it being labeled chopped ham & eggs and it wasn’t too bad back in the day. Try it out on a buddy and get back to us...

We had em in 78 yet. Those eggs had a weird greenish tint to them but were OK in the dark LOL. They took the smokes out of them before then.

In 1960 we eat a lot of c-rations. C-rations go back a long ways. LOL

Had them in Nam, when you lit up cigs they burned like a fuse. These were left over fm fighting the Japs in the islands.

Green Eggs and Ham. That is what I called them
Still had them into 82, and then they had that dehydrated stuff.
The memories. Lol

The dehydrated stuff was the old LRRP rations. You could pour some water in one, tie it off and put it in your shirt in the morning - after humping a ruck all day In the boonies you had hot chow at dinner time. Not good, but hot.

Had them in 55-58 some were not to bad. Tried to feed sausage patties and gravy to a dog and he ran from it!

Stick yer tongue through that rust hole and have a taste.Did ya smoke the five pack of smokes yet?

Saw a guy on you tube eat part of a civil war hard tack. By that logic you’re still well within the edible range.

C-Rats and LRRP rations will outlast us all.
Don't open 'em unless you use a P-38 - LOL!
As far as C-rats... Ham and Limas - nasty-NASTY stuff!

Steve1989 makes some good old MRE videos. Here is the civil war one.

SOS (stuit on a shingle) it was warm some times.

Had them 76-79. Some weren't too bad, depending on how hungry I was.

There is a date of 45 on the box

Ham & limas was my favorite.

I still have a whole case of C's in the back room. Vintage 1965

My favorite was the ham and eggs. The small packs of pall malls, winstons, and chesterfield cigarettes, I remember too. The candy had a soapy taste to it. The P-38 was a handy tool to have.

This

Looks like what we had in the mid 60s.

This should bring back some memories for some. Boned chicken and the spaghetti were pretty decent.

Those packs of cigarettes were good trading material, got a pound cake or two for them in my day.

Had a P-38 on my key ring for years after I got home. Used it to open my dinty more stew I lived on for a noon meal while trapping in Wy. Don't know how many years I carried that, but the spring part that kept the point in finally broke and kept poking me in the leg, so I said farewell to it!

Still carry a P 38 along with one of my dogtags on my key ring.