My husband is a Marine but was well out of active duty before we met. He always tells me stories about his time overseas at the MRE’s they had to eat. There is also an added level that whenever I totally ruin dinner he says “It’s ok, babe, I ate MREs.. I can eat anything”. (Ringing endorsement for my cooking, btw.) So, we cracked open that chicken tetrazzini bag to give it a try. That’s a whole lotta NOPE packed into that little brown package. He said it tasted about like he remembered it despite the more than a decade of them sitting in a tub in the garage. I tried it all, the dry crackers with weirdly brown jelly, the pepto-pink strawberry “shake”, the oddly crunchy chicken tetrazzini, the lemon poppy seed pound cake- also oddly crunchy in ways you don’t expect and the gum that someone later told me might be laxative like. Would I advise doing it for fun? No. But do I get how these things can work if you’re super hungry and out in the field? Totally. OH- and once we were all done he looked up how long they typically last… 3 years.. not over 10…. like the ones we ate were. Dear God. -Nikki