Navy SEALS Tougher Than a Rat Sandwich

My 1991 US Army Survival Manual states under the heading Personal Hygiene: Fleas and lice live and feed on warm-blooded animals and are carriers of dangerous diseases. Rodents, for instance, are likely to have fleas or lice. So if you kill a rodent to eat, let it become completely cold before cleaning it so that the lice and fleas will be gone. [emphasis added]

... and under Dangers in the Tropics: In many parts of the tropics, especially Malaya and Indonesia, rats carry other parasites that cause jaundice and other fevers.

Then, in recent news Rat: It's what's for dinner - A rat merchant tells China News Service that business is good because people in Guangzhou people are rich and like to eat exotic things. Chinese media in Guangdong reported rats, imported from Henan province, where they are running rampant, are sold in restaurants in the provincial capital as “heavenly dragon meat”

Remember G. Gordon Liddy? We know he is pretty tough. Why did he eat rat? If you really need to know, you can more read about it. Most times it's intentional, sometimes it's even based on grounds of religion (Staten Island), but there have also been some accidental cases, of course.

Submarines have excellent chow and almost never a stray rodent. I have eaten roof hare aboard a nuclear submarine, however. So why would some SEALS use the expression tougher than a rat sandwich? Sounds like they may have tried it. Besides tough, it is described in one link as stringy.

I know what you are thinking ... does rat taste like chicken (fried roof hare only looks like chicken)? Apparently rat does not taste like chicken. Those in Paris who should know liken the taste to both partridges and pork, and even provided some nice recipes for frying, roasting, grilling and Mice in Cream (Souris à la crème).

Rats may be a gourmet's survival meal for our special forces. Thank goodness we still have fighting men that tough and smart.