Editing C-ration (section)

==End of the C-ration==
At its introduction, the QMC stated that the C-ration was intended for short-term use for periods not to exceed three days.<ref name="Longino, James C. 1946"/>  After the war, in light of field evaluation reports of monotony, the QMC Food Services Branch used this limitation as a defense to the largely negative response to the C-ration during the war,<ref>U. S. Army Quartermaster Museum, ''Army Operational Rations – Historical Background'',[http://qmfound.com/army_rations_historical_background.htm Article] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081025014022/http://qmfound.com/army_rations_historical_background.htm |date=October 25, 2008 }}</ref> while at the same time advocating standardization on the C-ration as the sole individual packaged ration for U.S. troops. Not only did the QMC decide not to develop or introduce new alternative lightweight individual rations, it successfully campaigned for the elimination of alternatives, including the [[K-ration]], [[Mountain ration]], [[Jungle ration]], and the [[10-in-1 food parcel|10-in-1]] group ration (which had proven somewhat useful in boosting nourishment and alleviating complaints of monotony for men living for extended periods on C-rations or K-rations).

Instead, the C-ration, still designated as a packaged ration intended for infrequent or short-term use, went through a series of largely unsuccessful minor revisions.<ref>U. S. Army Quartermaster Museum, ''Army Operational Rations – Historical Background''</ref>  This decision resulted in limiting troops in the field to a single class of packaged ration that despite meal variances was neither suited to varied field environments nor for long-term use.  Troops continued to complain of the monotony of a single class of field ration with one or more unpalatable menu items, especially where A and B rations were not available for extended periods.<ref name="Henry, Mark R 2000 pp. 20-21"/>

Primarily implemented due to cost concerns, the selection of a heavy canned wet ration resulted in a severe weight penalty for troops marching on foot and forced to carry a multi-day supply of rations.<ref name="The Doctor's Lounge 1979, p.14"/>  The overuse of the canned wet ration reached an extreme during the Vietnam War, where American troops resorted to placing stacked ration cans in socks to save bulk and reduce noise on patrol, while their enemy increased their mobility by carrying lightweight rations of dry rice.<ref name="Kearny">Kearny, Cresson H. (Maj), ''Jungle Snafus...And Remedies'', Oregon Institute (1996), pp. 286–288</ref>  The Quartermaster Branch's insistence on canned wet rations for all postwar field issue and the failure to develop a suitable lightweight dehydrated or other dry ration for jungle and other extreme environments led directly to the hurried development of the [[LRP ration]] or Long Range Patrol ration in 1966.<ref name="Kearny"/>

Starting in 1958, C-rations were slowly replaced by the nearly identical canned [[Meal, Combat, Individual ration]].
These rations were issued for most of the next two plus decades, until they were replaced by [[Meal, Ready-to-Eat|Meal Ready to Eat]] or MREs in the Mid 1980s.