Good discussion. My thanks to everyone in the thread who served this great republic.
A funny Army rations story: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2009/07/25/2009-07-25_army_colonel_henry_a_moak_samples_40yearold_pound_cake_ration.html
I showed this thread to my dad, who served with the 8th Infantry Division near Munich in the mid-Fifties, and he wrote:
*I have no recollection of ever getting cigs in our field rations - but if I did, I gave them to other GI friends. I didn’t smoke then, nor since. I do remember that we hired Germans to do KP duty for us, and they were always grateful to get a cig from a cook or other soldier.
We did have guys who would swap 5-gallon gas cans for cases of beer, when we were on maneuvers - strictly forbidden, but sometimes done.*
My mom added:
*I was a small girl, under ten years old, when Mother and I would be camp followers to Father, a Capt. in the Army [during WWII]…and he smoked…My strongest memory is that each time he finsihed a cigarette, he would “field strip” it…there were NO filters then, so he would put the embers out, and then split open the rest of the white paper sleeve, scatter the rest of the tobacco, and roll the white paper into a tiny ball, and toss it…Have no idea why this is so vivid in my mind, but it is. Early “living green” I guess.
Another thought; during WWII, if Mother bought a pack of cigarettes out of a machine, for a quarter, there were always two or three pennies inside the cellophane wrap, and that was how you got your “change” for a 23 cent pack of cigarettes!*
Most likely he wasn’t “field stripping” the cigarette butt for environmental reasons: There are very few animals in the wild who leave behind cigarette butts. It’s typically presented as an excellent way for an enemy to discover where you have recently been, especially if your smokes are branded in some distinct way (I don’t know if any cigarette companies do or ever did this on cigarettes though).
I’m in Afghanistan right now.
I can tell you any major FOB with a PX sells tobacco products.
We ran out a few months ago due to customs issue at the Pakistan Border…was a pretty shitty two weeks.
Also: Tank tread tracks, tire marks, boot prints, spent shells, used rations. I don’t think armies in those days (nor now) moved with much subtlety.
If my FOB ran out of dip, I’m pretty sure we’d start stabbing each other.
To answer someone’s questions of where do we put packs of cigs? On the Army issued ACUs there’s a pocket on the bottom of the trouser legs that’s a perfect side. I don’t like putting anything heavy down there, so my dip is perfect. I’ve seen smokers do the same.
When I was in the Marine Corps, I would keep my smokes in one of my shoulder pockets. My Gunny kept them inside his pants, down by the boots. When you’d blouse them it would keep the pack from falling out.
Well the tank treads could be a really obese sidewinder snake. The cigarette butt would just be a giveaway. 
I just got a mental image of a German officer commenting on the uncanny size of this year’s snakes (amongst burning M4s, strewn Garands and shell casings galore) and then finding a cigarette butt and exclaiming: “Aha, Amerikaner!”
Dammit, I have to write a film script in to fit this scene in now.