Over at the always excellent 7th Fleet-centric Navy blog FEWL.NET, one of the commenters, claiming to be the wife of a "submarine rider", mentioned that her husband had told her that he'd personally seen food loaded onboard his boat that was stamped "Rejected by Illinois State Prison". (Her original comment is here; scroll down from there for the rest of the thread.) The owner of the website wondered if I'd ever seen such a thing; I hadn't, so I'm opening it up to you guys.
All of us know the Submariners are told that we get the best food in the Navy; we also know that there's almost nothing we like better than bitching about the food. (The "Beef Yak" and "Fried Rabbit" are among the foods I specifically remember with less than fondness.) Still, it sounds to me like an Urban Legend that any prison would have a specific stamp that says "Rejected by Prison" -- why not just stamp it "Rejected" like everyone else? Why would they feel the need to be so specific? It sounds to me like either the commenter's husband was maybe telling his wife an embellished "sea story", passing on something he'd heard during a shoot-the-sh*t as something he'd actually done, or was the victim of a humorous SK prank from someone in Supply.
Have any of you seen or heard about submarines getting really bad food? What are some of your favorite complaints about submarine chow? (Mine mostly involve the food running out during the Great Topeka Food Depression of 1992.)