I’m sure that all the high speed guys I know have a lot of things in common. However, the one thing I have conversed with every one of my friends and acquaintances (that get paid or have been paid to do cool things at night) about is their abhorrence of excess and heavy gear, and/or their desire to use it only when absolutely necessary.
These men are also some of the most fit people on the planet, who do things on a regular basis that the average person could not hope to do once. Despite being physically capable of carrying more, they willingly go into the field with lightweight, minimalist, and essential gear only. They don’t take light things that don’t work and they don’t take heavy things that do work if there is a lighter alternative.
This goes for all aspects of their equipment – body armor and 782 gear, weapons, etc. As much as one piece of gear might help one aspect of their mission, arriving at their destination with as much physical stamina remaining as possible is very high on their list of priorities.
This is why I laugh when I see people (especially on the internet) making fun of those who dislike heavy gear. For the most part, they have never been anywhere or done anything. Those I’ve seen in person make such comments could certainly not run the length of a football field with their preferred heavy gear and hope to do anything useful when they made it to the end zone.
When I came to the same conclusions on my own after months of carrying too much gear in the field, I thought I was doing something wrong. As time went by and I met more and more such men, their opinions made me decide that I wasn’t exactly wrong in the loadout I had at the end of my deployment (although if any more time had passed, I probably would have ended up wearing only a kevlar groin protector and carrying only one frag grenade).
In the spirit of this post, I’ll keep its overall length “light.” I do hope, however, that the point has been made.
Optimizing ones loadout is a logical way to enhance performance ratios beyond the doubt. It goes for hunting, too… and no one’s typically getting shot at in that sport. I feel it’s very important for even civilians to understand the concept for sure. I also feel it fosters an appreciation for our men and women in uniform.
I can’t help but think they’re our super heroes when I lug an AR and all my equipment around the desert as I track a deer. I’m not carrying even half as much as some of them are required.
The Marine Corps Times put out a relevant article on the subject matter a few days ago. You can check it out here http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2012/05/marine-body-armor-weight-george-solhan-research-office-naval-research-050712/
I wish the higher ups in charge of contracting gear had the same mindset. That and making sure all the gear works together as functional system (MTV + A2 length stock + ACOG isn’t exactly an ideal combination.)
I completely agree. I was a mechanic for an artillery unit during OIF. And I was never more than 100 feet from my wrecker with all my tools and when we weren’t uploading weapon and ammo caches I would wear only coveralls, flak jacket, M-4 (with a confiscated SAW sling) and gas mask (reluctantly). Less is more.
I’ve deployed four times now, so I think I’m fairly justified to post about this.
It depends on what you’re doing. I was an RTO for a fair portion of my third deployment, and avoiding weight there really isn’t feasible; I typically had a COM201 antenna, ASIP radio, and 4 to 5 batteries for the ASIP as mandatory to bring along. That’s about 70-80 pounds of gear not counting armor/rifle equipment. If you’re just a rifleman or something then yeah it’s easy to shed weight, but specialized jobs frequently don’t have that luxury; I graduated to being a team leader after being the RTO, and my shit was HEAVY. Had a LAW, a damn claymore mine I carried around, extra batteries for my radio, water for several days, etc. If you’re a high-speed, low-drag SF or SEAL type who specializes in raids that last a few hours at best then yeah, you can drop weight considerably, but alot of us don’t necessarily have that luxury.
But isn’t that his point? If you had lighter alternatives, you’d use them, right?
Every ounce is something you have to carry. If the end user continues to push for something lighter, that’s as effective or more effective, then that’s a good thing. Otherwise, we’d all still be wearing canvas and cotton duck gear with stamped-steel buckles as uniforms and carrying extra transistor tubes for the radios.
The other piece is figuring out over time what you actually need. Throughout each deployment, your gear starts to get tailored down to what you NEED and what you might actually use versus everything you think what you might need in any situation. Maybe your AO has you only doing dismounted patrols that keep you within easy reach of a vehicle, so you end up leaving the LAW and mines there. Yes, there’s a risk with not having it directly in hand, but you determine what level of risk is acceptable to you…
The main point is that heavy gear sucks. If you’re a Fobbit and only put it on for that ride to and from the airfield, it’s not that bad. They become the “internet idiots” that say things like “I don’t know what your problem is, I wore that stuff too and it wasn’t that bad.”
When you’re humping it every day and see the restrictions it puts on your actual usefulness, you have a right to hate it and push for better, lighter or less gear, based on your actual threats and mission…
Sure, but sometimes “lighter” doesn’t equal “more effective”. Radios are a hangup here; sure, you COULD swap an ASIP for a Harris handheld..but you’d be losing a pile of effective mobile transmit range. As for your gear getting tailored down-that’s not necessarily up to you (except, of course, for high-speed types). Your average infantryman doesn’t especially get to pick what his bare minimum is; I certainly never did. I agree that heavy gear sucks, but sometimes there’s not a feasible option.
I’ve never been in the military but it sounds a lot like the same lesson Dad taught me when deer hunting. Don’t carry things you don’t need. He taught us to hunt with a rifle, spare mags, water bottle, compass, a folding 2in pocket knife (its all you really need to gut out a deer), and a drag rope.
It was always a treat to see someone arrive for a hunt with a backpack full of stuff (Food for three days, gallon of water, 7in survival knife, 40x binoculars, dozen doughnuts, Thermos full of coffee, walking staff, spare clothes, 50rds of ammo, sidearm with another 50rds of ammo etc etc). Packing that stuff across several miles of swamp, forest and hills usually caused them to rethink their needs or quit hunting.
To KISS, add KILS
AMEN!
I learned from my first backpacking trip that lighter is better. We ended up taking about three extra liters of cooking fuel and pounds of extra food. If it had been mine, I would have gotten rid of it at the nearest trash can. Water was also plentiful along the trail (Appalachian Trail) and we had filters, so we probably could have started with only a liter or two. 26 miles with a pack that’s a third my weight was no easy task for me.
By the way, I love the blog. You seem to have a very logical thought process, which is increasingly rare on the internet. Keep it coming.
As a former Infantryman in 2/327 101st…. We had to carry WAY to much shit. Usually we would only carry assault packs along with team equipment, armor, weapons, etc…. If we had to take a ruck anywhere, OMFG at the amount of weight. Not only was the ruck over 100lbs, you then strapped a fully loaded assault pack to the ruck as well.. Never mind ammo, water, etc, etc…
My damn back ended up getting compression fractures and 3 bulges in it from all the weight we had to carry.
Being an assistant gunner and an ammo barrier at the same time…. absolutely sucks.
Something needs to be done about all the weight being put on us.
I’m out now and i have 100% disability, but I still like to play around some..
I have an MTV carrier with plates and the only thing on it is 7 mag pouches and a camelback. If i could have carried just that, I would probably never broke my back…
Rant/
From a civilian perspective, if you’re not required by your job description to carry a loadout 18 hours a day, extra gadgets are just cool with little downside. If you get tired, you just throw them in your car or sit in the shade. Nobody is requiring you to carry anything, and if you lose it or just don’t carry it, no big deal.
Professionally, gear selection is a huge hairy issue. I think all unit commanders struggle with the fear that the tool that they don’t give their soldiers will be the one that’s needed, like NODs famously left behind in the Blackhawk down incident.
This seemed to be changing when I left the Army, due to some hard lessons on the ground, but apparently it will be an eternal struggle.
The weapon I wanted most in the army was the one carried by our unit cook; a simple M4 with plastic hand guards. My own was bogged down with quad rail, PEQ, a VG that I never used, a visible light, comp m4, etc. I swore that when I bought my own it’d come in under 7lbs, and by golly it does.
Ounces is pounds, and pounds is pain.
And now that I think about it, civilians tend to be more self contained by necessity. In a military unit you can spread various unit level equipment over a larger group, so the comms guy carries the comms, the team leader carries the 203, etc.
A civilian is generally not networked to do this, and I think a lot of civilians tend to try to fill all “positions” themselves, leading to some very tacticool loadouts. Unit level thinking points to a level of commitment that some find impossible, socially unavailable, or even legally dangerous.
never let your contingency plan inhibit your ability to complete your primary one. As a civilian presumably the only legal reason to be in a gun fight is one of a defensive nature. If you are using your “go to war” heavy kit this is presumably some type of social breakdown or something people are always worried about. If that is the case you are most likely out numbered (hence the no team or unit comment). Where I am going with this is that it is always better for a smaller weaker force to use speed and mobility to defeat a larger one, not try to beat them at having more gear and bullets…..history proves this…..the math just doesn’t work.
Stick to the basics and be flexible…..the rest you can adjust on the fly 😉
of course this is just an opinion
I’m not a service member, but the first time I ever went backpacking I brought three sets of clothes, mostly consisting of cargo shorts and BDU trousers. By the end of the trip I was just wearing my basketball shorts. Heavy-ass 50/50 NYCO TAD pants might look cool walking from my car to the coffee shop, but I’ve found things like that lose some of their value after a few days of carry. Hell, I use my trail running shoes for flatter trips because no matter how Gucci my Lowa Zephyrs are, they’ll never be lighter than a pair of tennis shoes.
Agreed. I wouldn’t even say that more gear is good for non-combat guys. I was a bit of a fobbit, though I spent quite a bit of time in ranger school and doing other infantry training stuff. If you are not a combat MOS and it came down to it, chances are you’d probably have trouble using all the extra doodads anyway because you’re not experienced with the ACOG, PEQ stuff,. A noncombat MOS in a combat situation, is still going to have to move around, and is likely less physically fit and inexperienced enough to use all the heavy stuff anyway. Speaking of moving around, I’ve never really understood why boots are so darn heavy, one would think that with all of our technology we could get lighter shoes that people can actually run in. Anybody know if the army has fixed the ridiculously heavy and overcomplicated tripods for the M240 yet? That thing was just ridiculous.
It’s hard to believe a whole war was fought with the pedestrian “slick” M-16, with it’s svelte 7lb heft. Every time I pick up my stock Colt SP1 (CAR15A1) I don’t miss my railed, M4 barreled, flashlight having, EOTECH wearing carbine that weighs as much (maybe more) as a loaded AK.
Leif-we have a new tripod that’s about half the weight, but it breaks a whole lot faster.
So pack light as possible without leaving out the part you will need…tall order but I think, idk, I think I may be able to do something.
I was the same way on two deployments, started out with two of everything I could ever need and after a month cut it down to the basics. I was an engineer sweeping for IEDs with a heavy pack of ammo, flares, demo etc and never more that a couple hundred meters from the trucks. Being a “gear queer” can be detrimental quick.
Musculoskelatal injuries are becoming more and more common just like Nick said. All this gear that is supposed to protect us and it is just cumbersome. I ended up taking out my side sapis for the last few months of deployment.
First thing I learn was to get rid of the extra weight, food packaging, and the food not wanted, then the gear. In the reserves I purposely lost my helmet my times to the joy of my sergeant who got to cause me a lot of pain. (Supply company does not need stinking helmets. 🙂 ) I marvel at the weight carried by our current service personal. I have yet to figure out how they do their job. At one time the weight carried, as current load out, was only carried by the SAS in the Falkens. This is crazy stuff asking our people to carry so much weight. They now have come out with a new backpack to take the weight of the shoulder to the hips, oh joy. Does any one in command actually lift all that gear before coming up with these dumb ideas?
This has been a hot topic for 75 years. I was in the Airborne Bn in Italy back in the ’80s reading infantry magazine article about “The Soldiers Load”. And not much has changed since. I think part of the problem has been if you give a guy a large Alice, he’s gonna fill it(?). One of my other CSM buddies and I were discussing this mess a few years ago as we were trying to figure out what was really needed, and ‘eh what was nice to have.
I remember being the weapons squad leader, packing extra ammo, T&E’s and Dragon missile sights so my guys could keep up.
I think the cat who talked about backpacking, (backpacking is probably the least romantic hobby any infantry man will ever have) and wearing sneakers. More than one time I’ve worn my Salomon’s on a raid/mission, but I had the levity to do that. The 101/82/10th Mtn guys are really feeling it now a days.
Hold hard boys, hopefully we’ll get better in the future.
War makes people cut the fat. Pre-war we were still doing ship boardings with 13 rifle mags and 7 pistol mags, ala…..”you remember what happened with Blackhawk Down”?
Now every unit that is the “cool guys” with color designators instead of unit names has cut down to 2-3 rifle mags and maybe a pistol with 1 additional mag…..a lot have abandon a pistol all together. Everyone was wearing thigh rigs, nobody wears those anymore except range guys and cops. You can move on foot well, and they are a pain in the ass getting in and out vehicles etc. Most of our guys were running them on the vest when i got out in 05′.
Now I see a lot of guys rolling “bat-belts” and super low-profile plate hangers with nothing on the chest, staying as slick as possible.
Sometimes you need to ask yourself, not what can I add to this rail space, but what can i take away, or if you ask me, why do i even need a rail there in the first place?
Same goes for gear, cut the fat, and be mobile…..i think this is even more important when you get down to individual level gear. if you can’t boogie with it, then you most likely will end up leaving it behind when you need it anyway…..
Guys that pack their “go bags” to big, statistically leave them in the car when the bullets start flying. I am a big fan of fighting from a go bag, but you have to be able to put in on your body before you open your car door, or it is not coming with you. Train with you kit, prove it works……like the saying goes “you will not rise to the occasion, you will default to your level of training”.
sorry for the novel…..but this is something i preach all the time