There are few foodstuffs more American than the good old-fashioned MRE, that bland, tasteless swill meticulously engineered by the eggheads at the Natick Soldier Systems Center to keep soldiers fit, fed, and ready to perforate ass downrange. But some 45 years ago, the Army felt a wee bit concerned that combat troops probably didn’t have a lot of free space in their brainpans for eating intelligently, after being trained for complicated functions like killing, marching, and standing by.