>>64228904
Back when MREs were first introduced, there were only 12 varieties: Pork Pattie, Ham & Chicken Loaf, Frankfurters, and Ham Slice. There was also some Omelet with Ham in the very newest boxes.

4 of them contained some kind of pork/pig main.

Saddam invaded Kuwait in 1990. Saudis thought they were next, and screamed for Uncle Sam's help.

We told them "Okay, we're coming, but get YOUR guys out in the field in case he heads straight south."

They did, but their army/National Guard is not set up for field duty. They had no large stock of field rations. We said, no problem, we have huge dumps of the things in Europe, we'll send you a million or so. So they sent a million MREs on a ship.

Problem: Muslims can't eat Mr. Pig

So the Saudis got some of their slaves - sorry, guest workers - to start pulling the MRE boxes apart and pulling 25% of the rations out.

82nd Airborne Division was the first large American formation to arrive in-country. Field kitchens lagged behind. Somebody asked "What are we going to feed them?"

Somebody else remembered the quarter-million MREs the Saudi rejected.

So American paratroopers living in shitty camps in the middle of the desert heat spent months eating & shitting just 4-5 varieties of MRE, all pork

This was known as the "Great Pork Disaster of '90". No wonder they were so ready to rip up the Iraqis for putting them through that, when Desert Storm kicked off!

This also directly lead to:
-The ongoing quest for more variety of menu in MRE

-MREs that were vegetarian, and specialized "Humanitarian" MREs that were orientated towards those with religious taboos against certain kinds of meats, primarily Muslims.