Gear

Just a few observations on gear I have, gear I wish I had and gear I shouldn't have messed with...:

Body Armor: ...weights way too much with all the stuff we have to have strapped on it (ammo, first aid kit, 4 different armor plates, the vest itself and all those collar, groin, rib-cage add-ons...). How the expect us to fight in that rig is beyond me. Simply put, we must have the ammo and first aid kit, but the rest of that junk is simply over weight. Further, I have read about tests that it doesn't stop 7.62mm rounds... the rounds fired out of an AK-47. In other words, the weapon our enemy uses will penetrate the vest that in itself will prevent us from fighting effectively. I know there is technology out there that would allow us to build a lightweight, 7.62mm round stopping vest.

Boots: The boots we wear out here MUST be comfortable or your feet are never going to heal. If they are not comfortable, they will rub sores in your feet and wearing them 7 days a week, 12-20 hours a day and you are going to be hurting. I am wearing a pair of boots issued to me by MARSOC. They are made by Oakley and they work great! They feel like sneakers.

Camel-Back: This is a great tool if you are going on a walk or going to put it in your pack...BUT if you are going to be jumping in and out of vehicles or if you are going to lean up against something, beware! I have now seen three different Marines soaked from the back of their lower body armor to the back of their boots because they were sitting in a HMMWV and burst their camel-back bladder. Then they had to patrol around doing their mission soaked from the butt down. I am sticking with the canteen/canteen cup/canteen stove for now, but will revisit this later on, on different missions.

Cotton: If you are planning on wearing cotton socks or cotton t-shirts or cotton... re-consider. Compared to some of the other materials out there, it is heavy, doesn't wick moisture well and bunches/chafes unforgivably. XGO makes a poly-spandex blend t-shirt that is really effective and is flame retardant.

Toilet paper: 1 or 2 rolls of the good stuff. Let the Port-a-John be out of paper one time and you will know exactly what I mean.

Lap-top computer: Have one with a DVD player and make sure you bring a universal power converter kit. It makes a great journal, even if you don't blog it; you can watch movies on it; play video games on it... it is just a good piece of gear. Oh, and I almost forgot, get the warrentee when you buy it, so if it happens to go tumbling out of the back of the truck, you can get it fixed by the company who made it... not that this happened to me.

Stay tuned for more on this later....

Semper Fi,
m