First Strike Rations

[gschultz9]

That's very interesting what you said about the FSRs travelowl. It's pretty amazing to think that there's someone with a steady supply of them selling them for four bucks a pop (and 25 bucks a case)! Obviously there's no real premium on them by themselves, it's all what the market will bear (and of course there's not even SUPPOSED to be a "market" for MREs and FSRs because of the warnings on them--but that just makes them more desirable and probably raises the price in the end). I believe that the only reason FSRs tend to be so expensive on places like eBay is because they're "different", somewhat new and seen as rare. I remember when I first saw videos about FSRs on eBay. People were so excited about getting their hands on one (and usually at great expense) that they'd make a video about them and not even open them up to review them! They just wanted to show them off and then put them in their collection. MREs had been around for decades and everyone into rations knew about them and how to get them, but FSRs were the new kid on the block. The fact that they were kind of hard to find at first made them that much more interesting and desirable. I think that recently people have started to realize that the stuff in FSRs isn't really ALL that interesting--mostly just a bunch of snacks and small easy-to-eat sandwiches (like BlackDogBob mentioned). It's perfect for what they're designed for, but not really ALL that exciting in general. Of course people on eBay are looking to make money, so they're not going to just slice their prices unless people stop buying their product. It seems like they've come down a bit, but they're still pretty pricey from what I've seen. If you can grab some $25 cases I'd say do it! If nothing else you'll have some nice trade bait! ...At least as long as that guy selling them doesn't catch on to how popular they are in some circles.

[FREMONT]

Holy smokes, those prices are insane!

What particular details could possibly make First Strikes worth so much? What should I look for? We have tons of them at work, in fact they have entirely replaced MREs following a lengthy mission we had last year where we depleted all of our MREs. I can't obtain any that aren't given to me, but there is someone nearby who always sells them. Over in Jericho (VT), a gentleman has frequent yard sales where he sells the First Strikes, that's where I bought one. I think he gets $4 for a meal and $25 for a case, but a case was some strange number of meals, not 12 like MREs, I want to say 10 or 14...? He told me that nobody knows what the First Strike is, so they don't sell like the MREs that he has do. He sold a bunch of MREs over one weekend where I stopped by twice, but only sold one First Strike besides the one I bought. If I knew what I was looking for, I could check with him and see if he has any desirable First Strikes.

I never would have thought of yard sales would be a place to go. I would buy a whole bunch and resell them for a premium.

[Travelowl]

Thanks for the replies.

Truth be told, the person selling the First Strikes is, I am fairly certain, cadre at the Army Mountain Warfare School, based on my conversations with him. That is probably where he gets them. He won't entirely admit to anything, just tells me to "keep checking back for more stuff." I am not motivated to profit from anything, mainly because I do not live in that area and the logistics of transporting my family home along with cases of meals would not lend itself to a happy wife and children, and I am quite financially-stable. I only go to Jericho for church events as my church is partnered with a church there, so perhaps monthly, and I always stop by when the gentleman in question has a yard sale. Other items he sells make me believe he works at AMWS as well, such as high-end GI cold weather gear being sold for dirt cheap, which my wife loves as we are four-season backpackers and she is always colder than I am.

As far as my familiarity with First Strikes, I work in federal law enforcement and last year we had a long-term mission of a manhunt in mixed terrain where it wasn't always practical to get back to a TOC for a real meal, thus all of our MREs were brought along and eaten fairly quickly. Since then we have been replenished only with First Strikes. I asked the supply people (well, the two people who take turns opening up the supply room!) and they said they didn't know why that was the situation, that the First Strikes just arrived instead of MREs. This curiosity is actually what drove me to these forums, as I started to wonder if the MRE as we know it was being phased out or something.

[FREMONT]

Thanks for the replies.

Truth be told, the person selling the First Strikes is, I am fairly certain, cadre at the Army Mountain Warfare School, based on my conversations with him. That is probably where he gets them. He won't entirely admit to anything, just tells me to "keep checking back for more stuff." I am not motivated to profit from anything, mainly because I do not live in that area and the logistics of transporting my family home along with cases of meals would not lend itself to a happy wife and children, and I am quite financially-stable. I only go to Jericho for church events as my church is partnered with a church there, so perhaps monthly, and I always stop by when the gentleman in question has a yard sale. Other items he sells make me believe he works at AMWS as well, such as high-end GI cold weather gear being sold for dirt cheap, which my wife loves as we are four-season backpackers and she is always colder than I am.

As far as my familiarity with First Strikes, I work in federal law enforcement and last year we had a long-term mission of a manhunt in mixed terrain where it wasn't always practical to get back to a TOC for a real meal, thus all of our MREs were brought along and eaten fairly quickly. Since then we have been replenished only with First Strikes. I asked the supply people (well, the two people who take turns opening up the supply room!) and they said they didn't know why that was the situation, that the First Strikes just arrived instead of MREs. This curiosity is actually what drove me to these forums, as I started to wonder if the MRE as we know it was being phased out or something.

Wow, that's quite interesting! I never knew the feds were supplied with MREs and FSRs.

[Travelowl]

Wow, that's quite interesting! I never knew the feds were supplied with MREs and FSRs.

Ha, well glad to share that. At least my office and one other major office I was assigned to. Not sure how widespread the practice is. Ours (now First Strike) sit in a locked supply room and seem to rarely get acknowledged unless something smells odd in there-- for the record, it has never been the stored food items that smelled. At the other office, they had them (MREs) stuffed into every nook and cranny of available space in the break rooms cabinets (mini kitchens) and people occasionally would "test" one for lunch.

[parafireboy]

When I was still in the fire service we would get military MREs from the state to use on forest fires or to feed personnel on prolonged incidents. We carried them on many of the fire trucks, and on the ambulances as well. There were several times that on back-to-back ambulance calls where we wouldn't get back to the station for 8-12 hours that I cracked open an MRE for a meal on the road. I always referred to them in these situations as "Meals, Road Emergency". There was one time we got a big blizzard and I was stuck there at the station for a few days, and the MRE stash came in really handy!

[kwiklot]

yeah maybe at the local or state government mre's are just getting replaced by FSR's to rotate stock you know but i dont see any shortage of mre's

[FREMONT]

I wonder if these federal, state and local government bodies are getting these MREs and FSRs as surplus from the military the same way many local police departments are getting MRAPs.