> Aren't they restricted to using issued rations on an exercise?
That and what you can manage to bring with you.
Back when I was in the infantry you carried whatever you took to the field so we tended to pack light(ish). I used to take a little camp stove so I could have hot coffee in the morning and other people would pack stuff like ramen or whatever.
Even when we were living in holes ~1km off the Iraqi border they managed to get us cigarettes though that's not one of the "issued rations"...also pretty sure that's when I got that camp stove so other things were possible. Before that, when we were staying is some dilapidated warehouse in Saudi, they had pallets of Pepsi get delivered on a regular basis for the chow hall.
On my last trip to Iraq they had pretty much whatever you wanted at the PXs and we (civilian contractor types) used to smuggle a bunch of canned drinks out of the chow halls instead of buying them but don't really remember if they had energy drinks in the coolers since that's not my thing.
Red Bull cans fit in 37/40mm round ammo pouches/elastic loops, something I learned in Iraq (I never had a 40mm, but there are a lot of molle pouches for 40mm which were useful for other stuff).
Also Amazon or reship-stuff-from-Amazon to APO/FPO addresses was great.
What like as a replen demand? Aren't they restricted to using issued rations on an exercise? And how are they getting them deployed?