Mission-Essential Kit

[Sand Man]

Someone posted this as a reply to a guy who was overloading himself with non-mission-essential stuff. Kinda like "Just coz it's issued to you doesn't mean you have to take it with you everytime you go out.." :)


My Kit -- For general patrolling (combined mounted and dismounted) use was wearing a plate carrier with SOF III+ plates.

No loadbearing gear, puches on the carrier.

2nd line:
3 5.56 magazines
1 17rd Glock-19 mag
1 M-67 frag
1 "banger"
1 PRC 148 MBITR
1 first aid "blowout kit" (no IV fluids)
Flex cuffs

In my pockets or on my rigger belt: NO-sub belt, NO drop leg ANYTHING.
pistol with 17rd mag
leatherman
"superknife" untility box cutter
copenhagen
extra batteries for NODS, light, and laser
extra pressure switch for laser
extra eye pro lens (tinted at night, clear during the day)
strip of VS-17 panel
pens
storm safe notepad
digital camera
2 craveats (ACU ankle pockets)
small Militec bottle
curlex (ACU ankle pockets)
4X Power Gels

3rd line:
Camel back HAWG:
2X 5.56 magazines
1 M-67 frag
Nods
extra curlex
extra 148 battery(s)
Lieca 1200 LRF
Pocket thermal monocular.
3X powerbar harvest

Total weight: less than 20 lbs.

If you cannot scale a wall, conduct a foot chase after a 140lb man for 3 blocks, or carry your buddy down a flight of stairs and out to the vehicle, then you are most likely overloaded for our current phase of the war.

Certain places are more dangerous than others of course, but 14 rifle mags and 4-5 hi cap pistol mags is a ****ing joke. Whoever said "better to have and not need" did not plan to get support if they found themselves in the ****.

Am I light on ammo? Hell yes but its hard to find a stand up fight these days... If I find one, my truck with LOTs of loaded mags is just a short jog away.

Notable deletions from my kit...

Breaching charges- why? I can kick anything open inside a house and all outside doors are metal. Those are planned for. With my kit I can jump the wall and open the ****ing gate anyway.

GPS- I know where the hummer is at. E&E? ok whatever. If I stay put and keep shooting, the CF will find me. I might consider a wrist mounted model in the future to go with the evasion map in my plate carrier.

AMMO-aim more, shoot less. Supressive fire is overrated, if I have to shoot more than my 5 mags on my 2nd line and rifle, then somebody is wounded or dead and I'll top off. secondary mags? I have 34 chances to shoot some punk bitch and take his rifle, those shots will occur at less than 25 meters, I'll crawl 25 meters up upgrade from 9mm to 7.62mmX39.

Survival radio: learn to program in those freqs to the MBITR and dump the green brick.

I'm not dogging you, I had the same unrealistic loads the first time I went to war too. (Fully loaded Rav W/ 10 mags and 4 radios! plus demo, etc etc) I had to learn in the mountains of the Ghan that my load was bull****.

Don't get defensive, just take what we are trying to tell you and learn from our mistakes.

So what do you guys think?

Personally, I find it pretty amazing reading stuff like this -- every little detail is planned gear-wise (short of how to tie your shoe laces) in relation to the mission at hand.


And for those who might be wondering -- yes, I am a civilian, non-US government employee.

[Ngati Tumatauenga]

Note to all. Post relevant information and/or ask rational questions.

If you don't understand that then don't post.

NO airsoft comments.

Failure to comply will earn you an automatic suspension.



(short of how to tie your shoe laces)

Actually, when I joined the NZ Army the type of boot used at the time was laced in a ladder system so it could be cut off easily.

[Bro Jangles]

Sandman, What country is the person you posted about from? he talks of Glock mags.

[orange]

Sandman, What country is the person you posted about from? he talks of Glock mags.
Somewhere in that list he wrote of the CF so that would be a Canadian, right?

Other than that it seems that this guy actually put some sense into his kit. Especially considering the ammo. Why hump lots and lots of ammo if his Hummer is close by at most times..

[crazyman]

Only 3 mags of 5.56? Makes me wonder what he was actually doing while deployed. Certain missions allow you to go as light as he did, but if you're a grunt, I'd argue that you need a fair bit more than just 3 magazines for your weapon. As a MiTT guy I carried anywhere from 7-10 on my vest, because we were always on our own, less than a dozen men including vehicle crews. All this being said, the man has the principle of "less is more" thought out well. Lots of young soldiers go way overboard, and end up just weighing themselves down and getting hurt (usually dehydration sickness).

As a MiTT advisor, here was my load:

on my IOTV:
7ea 5.56 mags
2 ea 9mm mags
PRC 148 radio
PVS 14
first aid kit (tourniquet, israeli bandage, gauze, NPA, latex gloves, med tape)
DBT camelbak pouch (not always used, but I left it on)
personal locator beacon (requirement for MiTT advisors)
eye pro, gloves, knee pads.
my M4 had an ACOG, surefire flashlight, and a PEQ-15. Instead of buying my own grips and such, I liberally used athletic tape, and it worked great, after 3 missions it would be a nice dark brown/grey.
I kept a firefly strobe in the back of my helmet, and a VS-17 in a pocket of my vest. usually a gerber too.

on specific missions I might have added some small things like a petzl headlamp or a football QB-style armband that could fit a couple 3x5 cards, with critical mission info on it.

My logic on the ammo was that MiTTs operate in such small numbers, we'd have to break contact on our own if dismounted..usually only 4 or so of us. The guys who dismounted a lot carried more ammo than normal so we could respond to contact with more force than anyone would expect from a "fire team"

[DnA]

Somewhere in that list he wrote of the CF so that would be a Canadian, right?



Yea CF could be Canadian Forces. But we use Browning Hi Powers and Sig P225/6s not Glocks.


The kitlist above looks good, but I'd go with another 1-2 mags on the 2nd line, and a smoke grenade aswell. If you're going dismounted an with no vehicles I'd be packing more ammo an grenades.

Overseas I did some patrolling with the OMLT(same as the MiTT) and I went out with 10 mags(8 in my chest rig, 2 in my backpack), 2 frag an 2 smoke(1 in chest rig, 1 in backpack). Aswell I was the lucky guy who got to hump a manpack radio aswell.

[William J. Lepetomane]

Somewhere in that list he wrote of the CF so that would be a Canadian, right?


I would have thought CF = Coalition Forces. My guess is that he's Dutch.. They use the C7/C8 (5.56mm) and the Glock 17.

[TehSuig]

His kit works great for mounted work, but if he stepped into the purely dismounted world he'd be in a world of hurt. Only three magazines? **** that'll be gone in about 5 minutes in a good firefight.

Here's generally what I carried on my "2nd line" for the 15 months I spent in Afghanistan. I was an Infantry Squad Leader. Rifleman and Team Leaders generally carried more ammo.

8 M4 magazines with 2 in my rifle
MBITR
GPS
Camelbak
PVS14s
2 frags
1 HC smoke
2 8 strand breaching charges
3 initiators
3 chemlights
IFAK
Compass and map markers
Gerber
2 pair flex cuffs
Dump pouch for water bottles or magazines if the SHTF
An extra set of batteries for everything I had that took batteries.

My ruck packing list(3rd line for you cool guys) depended on the time of year and mission, but it always had atleast:

12-18 .5 liter bottles of water (depends on the heat)
4-6 MREs
2 extra MBITR batteries (the kind that take 3 volts) and about 24 3 volt batteries
Block of C4 with double initiation system
1 or 2 mortar rounds for the mortar teams
100 rounds of link 7.62
Poncho liner and Bivi cover
3 or 4 pairs of socks, depending on how long it was going to be until we got our resupply
Toothbrush with paste and babywipes

As you can see, not much in the way of comfort items, but when you're walking 14 kilometers through the mountains every ounce of weight equals pain. All my crap normally weighed about 90-100 pounds all loaded up, but some carried more. One of our 240 gunners weighed in at 120 pounds of stuff, and that was after he ditched everything non-essential. You gotta carry it though, there is no other option.



AMMO-aim more, shoot less. Supressive fire is overrated,

That's an ignorant statement. If my ass is bounding or flanking the enemy you BETTER be shooting or I'm going to put my foot up your ass when the fight is over - if I'm still alive.


Breaching charges- why? I can kick anything open inside a house and all outside doors are metal.

Great, so while you're spending 5 minutes kicking a wooden door with a padlock on it, the Taliban inside has plenty of time to build himself a nice fighting position in the corner of his compound. Speed and suprise go a long way.


If you cannot scale a wall, conduct a foot chase after a 140lb man for 3 blocks, or carry your buddy down a flight of stairs and out to the vehicle, then you are most likely overloaded for our current phase of the war.

Whoever said "better to have and not need" did not plan to get support if they found themselves in the ****.

Exactly, because in my world there is no Humvee with a .50 and plenty of extra ammo to come bail my ass out. If your ****'s heavy, don't be lazy and carry less stuff so your precious shoulders won't hurt. Workout harder when not on mission so that you can "scale a wall, conduct a foot chase after a 140lb man for 3 blocks, or carry your buddy down a flight of stairs" with your stuff on.

[kinney_bmx]

He does mention the hi-power when hes talking about his mags being low.
And he also mentions Hummer? Who else in the coalition uses humvees

[TehSuig]

He talks of wearing ACU's, so my guess is that Sandman pulled that quote from the Lightfighter.net forums and the poster is US SOF in some form.

[The Evil Doctor Faustus]

i beg someone to destroy this thread

[MikeSierra151]

That's an ignorant statement. If my ass is bounding or flanking the enemy you BETTER be shooting or I'm going to put my foot up your ass when the fight is over - if I'm still alive.



I was thinking the same thing, but Infantrymen and SOf types have similar but different mind sets.

[Marsuitor]

It sounds like the guy OP quotes might have something of the same type of mission and mindset we have here. I've had my deployment where i had such outrageous amounts of bull on me, even when inside the vehicle. I've found a nice balance to it all now and i'm continually trying out new ways of humping my stuff in the most effective way. I don't agree 100% with him saying no loadbearing gear, as i like to be able to walk around just wearing plain body armor and minimal other stuff and sometimes vice versa too, but as long as it works for him and he's happy about it who am i to judge... I couldn't agree more with him saying the less crap fastened to the legs the better. I detest leg-rigs and those huge Safariland holsters. The only thing i have dangling is a (for the most) rolled up dropbag, apart from that my legs are free of stuff.

Most of the work we've done in Afgh has been mounted and/or very close proximity to the trucks, and the way our loads have looked generally reflects this. Especially my last two deployments have been on-truck for the very most, and for this last deployment i used MOLLE for the first time in my life (i'm so old fashioned...p-)). Most of the guys just went for the quick version of fastening everything to the body armor, but TBH i'm not really the biggest fan of having everything on my body at all times, so i cooked up a way to have my gear assembled in three easy access and ready-to-go call it "modules", where distance from our vehicle decided what i kit i would have on. Nothing groundbreaking or revolutionary, but it worked great for me.

Basic "always on"-stuff has been my armor with three mags on the chest, my PRR, IR and VIS-strobe, bayonet and compass. Also tied a bungee across my chest to secure my binoculars when i carried them. This way i would always have 120 rounds on myself, my bayonet for prodding etc., binos with MILS-reticle and my compass with MILS+degrees. I use ACOG on my gun, the "proper" 4x version with crosshairs, no illuminated chevron/ring and no fibre-cable on top. I also had the option of putting a bigger MBITR-sized radio on myself if needed.
This was the setup i used for the very most, good for the casual dismount, route clearance and to secure perimeter/truck during stops. This was also standard LUP and defensive position kit, when static i don't really see the need to have absolutely everything i own fastened on myself, as long as it's within easy reach.
Dismounted route clearance and VP-checks for our part involved alot of walking, stopping, laying down, crawling, prodding and the less piss we're wearing when doing this the better, especially when we carried our metal detectors in addition.

Those times i went for walks i used a selfmade beltkit made from various surplus and scraps with 2xmags, various types of grenades, a bigger firstaid-type kit, one of my NOD-monocles and a small pouch with small essentials and near weightless snivelkit (a pair of socks, an Arktis windstopper shirt and wool undergarment pants).
Here i also had my weapon cleaning kit and a Boresnake.

For longer walks i used the toplid from one of my rucks that i modified into a small ruck of it's own. On this i had 4xmags, more grenades, 2 litres of water, an extra pair of socks, emergency food for 24 hours/power bars. In addition i had my other NOD-monocle and an EoTech there, both which i put on my gun as part of daylight/night transition routine. I prefer my weapon to have the least amount of stuff on it, so the other extras was also kept in this small ruck and only put on when needed. This included the light+IR filter and an Oerlikon LLM with visible and IR laser on it. I removed the flashlight from the LLM and taped over the hole with electrical tape.
My gun was ACOG and a TPOD (foregrip and bipod combined), nothing more.

I also kept my pistol on the truck most of the time and didn't bother to carry it with me. Reason being where we worked for the most and the ranges our fights were bound to take place at, the pistol was deadweight most of the time except for stopchecks, topcover work in very crowded areas and if doing searches in confined spaces.

To recount kit and weight;
- 10xmags
- Body armor + helmet
- Various stuff (batteries etc)
- Grenades (frag, blast, smokebox)
- Water+food

My stuff weighed in at about 25-35kg when i wore full walks-setup, and this was designed to keep me going for up to 24 hours away from vehicle if needed. The amount of water i carried this time around was lower, as i wasn't deployed during the f..k-off hot part of the year.
The low'ish weight of my kit is as said due to the fact that we lived off our trucks, and mission- and personal kit for the most was kept there. I can easily see myself clocking 50-60kg of equipment if the mission for the most was a dismounted one.

On the trucks we each had a bag with personal kit and clothing, a bag full of food, crates of water, dems/breaching bag + X amount of explosives, metal detectors, other weapons + ammo for these and various gadgets. We literally had stuff stacked to the roof, including one of the passenger spots.

[Sand Man]

Thanks for sharing your insights, guys.


He talks of wearing ACU's, so my guess is that Sandman pulled that quote from the Lightfighter.net forums and the poster is US SOF in some form.

Spot on. BasicLoad.


i beg someone to destroy this thread

Why?


I couldn't agree more with him saying the less crap fastened to the legs the better. I detest leg-rigs and those huge Safariland holsters. The only thing i have dangling is a (for the most) rolled up dropbag, apart from that my legs are free of stuff...

The guy showed a modification he did with his SafariLand. He shortened the strap that attached to the belt by about 2 inches (just enough so the pistol clears the armor) and he cut the shroud off. The result is it's situated higher up the thigh.

Something like this:

http://i40.tinypic.com/2uyfxh4.jpg

[Seraphim]

Nothing new with that mod. It has been very popular and now Safarilan actually produces it.

http://www.safariland.com/DutyGear/product.aspx?pid=6004-10

[crazyman]

I did something VERY similar with my safariland holster. On mine I cut down the belt piece so that the grip of my M9 sat where my hand naturally lay when standing, and I used the leg straps/mag pouch on the holster to hold a gerber and a folding knife. It was much more comfortable than normal, but when we switched over to the IOTV I ended up going with a SERPA situated high-center on my chest...it was just simpler when working around humvees and MRAPS. For extended dismounted stuff where we were on our own for a day or more I went back to the safariland. Ive always been somewhat wishy washy on how to wear my sidearm

[Britboy]

Hmmm this thread is making me feel I should ditch the intrenchment tool I carry in my daysack!

[Sand Man]

Exactly, because in my world there is no Humvee with a .50 and plenty of extra ammo to come bail my ass out. If your ****'s heavy, don't be lazy and carry less stuff so your precious shoulders won't hurt. Workout harder when not on mission so that you can "scale a wall, conduct a foot chase after a 140lb man for 3 blocks, or carry your buddy down a flight of stairs" with your stuff on.

Strangely, that statement reminds me of Lone Survivor... only that they had to scale an almost-vertical mountain with all their gear.

Also reminds me of this pic of a SEAL working out in Afg during downtime.
http://i43.tinypic.com/2qlfuqg.jpg (http://www.wargameyau.net/viewthread.php?tid=24870&extra=page%3D1&page=35)

[TehSuig]

Strangely, that statement reminds me of Lone Survivor... only that they had to scale an almost-vertical mountain with all their gear.

Also reminds me of this pic of a SEAL working out in Afg during downtime.
http://i43.tinypic.com/2qlfuqg.jpg (http://www.wargameyau.net/viewthread.php?tid=24870&extra=page%3D1&page=35)

I actually figured it was Basicload making that statement.

The guys who took part in Lone Survivor (OP Red Wing, was it?) were all avid CrossFitter's. There's a CrossFit workout named after Lt. Murphy because it was his favorite. It goes:

Murph
1 mile run
100 pullups
200 pushups
300 squats
1 mile run
wearing 20 pound body armor

[crazyman]

crossfit is some nasty stuff, I love it.

Something we do once in awhile

20 burpees (aka 8 count pushups)
40 situps
10 pullups or chinups
400-600m hard run

repeat 3-4x

[mateona06]

Just a little FYI, the standard Navy Riverine load out for leaving the wire is pretty similar to a couple of the above:

7 Mags 5.56
3 Mags 9mm
ESAPI plates
IR Strobe and IR buzzsaw
NVG's
kevlar
h2o
VS-17
PRC-152's for the leadership
PRR for the ground guys
fixed blade knife
multitool
flashlight
CAT
Spare batteries for everything
Eyepro
IFAK with all the standard TCCC equipment

We Load out our boats with chow and extra water and our Riverine Security Team (think GCE for you Marines out there) carries sometimes double the load out for 5.56mm and our MK-43 Gunners will carry 600rnds of 7.62 each with a couple Agunners carring another 200 apiece. It's a pretty small element we put ashore for sweeps or securing a site so if **** hits the fan, we put suppressive fire down range like it's our job. That is the first step in TCCC, self aid, and killing the threat or at least keeping his head down is mission first. The RST carries that much ammo because if they have to bound back to the boats or center peel, they're blowing through alot of ammo. We use our boats as the primary fire support platforms though and with mini-guns, twin 50 mounts and mk-19's, rightfully so.

In addition, I ALWAYS carry a hand held GPS with me on ops as an O. I never rely on my vic/boat gps's only. Plus I can mark waypoints in my own GPS for AAR's later down the road. Two is one, one is none.

[crazyman]

I've always wondered, how are those PRRs? I've used PRC 148s and 152s to no end, never a PRR. Also, I get the idea behind the whole "2nd line, 3rd line" deal, but can someone actually lay out for me the no-kidding meaning, I'm feeling very much like a dumb 2LT at the moment.

For a GPS I've switched between a DAGR (mostly on multi-day operations) using a TPE issued garmin wrist GPS, and just not bothing in some places. In my opinion in a city, with vehicles (and their FBCB2) nearby, having a GPS on me wasn't vital. Missions where we were moving out of sight of vehicles I generally carried one, or at least made sure a couple guys in our dismounted element had 'em. METT-TC, always the right answer

[TehSuig]

Also, I get the idea behind the whole "2nd line, 3rd line" deal, but can someone actually lay out for me the no-kidding meaning, I'm feeling very much like a dumb 2LT at the moment.

The 1st Line is basically everything you carry on your person at all times. This includes the stuff you have in your pockets or attached to your belt.

2nd line would be your warfighting gear. Your body armor, load bearing gear, helmet, etc.

3rd line is your ruck and anything you need to sustain yourself for longer than 24 hours.

[Britboy]

The 1st Line is basically everything you carry on your person at all times. This includes the stuff you have in your pockets or attached to your belt.

2nd line would be your warfighting gear. Your body armor, load bearing gear, helmet, etc.

3rd line is your ruck and anything you need to sustain yourself for longer than 24 hours.

See I do not get this now. As your '2nd line' would be your webbing/chest rig/vest, and your 3rd line would be your bergen. So where does your daysack come in? Your daysack won't last you indefinitely in the same way your bergen would, and you can do without it and just go with beltkit for some things, but it is required for a lot of attacks and patrols and such. If you are out for a full day and only returning to your bergen cache or getting them dropped off by truck in the evening, you are going to need more than just beltkit - spare ammo, water, batteries, team equipment, entrenching tool, warm and wet kit, night vision, a bit of rations is all going to come into it.

Also what is the point of denoting 1st line kit? Unless you are doing some pretty mad FIBUA and squeezing through holes you are not really going to be looking at ditching your beltkit. Even if you do do that you are then going to be taking your magazines and grenades with you in any case.

So are these lines 2.5 and 1.5 respectively then? :p



Oh and crazyman, PRRs are good kit for rapidly passing information between you all in a more silent, less confusing/chinese whispers way. You just need to make sure that people dont get too focused on talking into the mic and still remember to shout and exert personal presence when it all goes noisy anyway. I have only used them on exercise though, not 'for real'.

[Marsuitor]

I've always wondered, how are those PRRs? I've used PRC 148s and 152s to no end, never a PRR.
To add some of my experiences to what BB said above, i find range is sort of an issue with the PRR, especially when there is no LOS or built-up areas. I'm no signals guy, and i can see that range might have issues LOS vs. no LOS, atleast on such a small set with such a small antenna. Also, there is no encryption on it, meaning whatever **** in the world can get hold of a set and eavesdrop with the greatest ease. And as pointed out over, a team-/section-level radio is not a substitute for voice when things go loud, but a supplement and a nice-to-have thing for longer range commo.
Take the PRR for what it is/this, it's a good piece of kit and about as KISS as it can be; Just turn it on, choose channel on a twist-switch (and/or band if needed, requires a screw-driver in that case) and start talking. Also the coupling process of getting the wireless PTT to work with the radio set is dead simple.

We're getting these things shortly;
http://www.rfcomm.harris.com/spr/

Range is apparently alot better with them, as well as having a data interface and built-in GPS-receiver on it, so we can hook them up to a personal PDA or something and have our own and the rest of the guys positions show up + tracklogs + some other really nice features i'm told. I'm looking forward to trying it out.

[Britboy]

The thing about the range and the thing about encryption are kind of counter-points though, surely?

I mean its not as if some enemy ELINT people are really going to get much out of listening in because A) the range is too low for them to be able to pick up unless they are relatively close and B) the sort of information you are passing is intra-section stuff which would otherwise be done with talking or hand signals, which is going to be out of date info soon - not really top secret stuff. Although I get what you're saying, it would be a bugger to have the enemy prewarned on any level.

That said, I've also heard about an encrypted PRR coming out, and the SPR seems like it could be a good piece of kit from that linky

[Marsuitor]

I mean its not as if some enemy ELINT people are really going to get much out of listening in because...
Lets just say the encryption issue has caused some bigger ails previously, and i'm happy the primary language on the net i work on isn't english. I'll have to leave it at that i'm afraid, your CoC will fill you in if/when you deploy, or should have given you the details if you already have deployed. If not, ask your S-2 or S-6 about this.
This is quite sensitive stuff i'm sure you understand.

[crazyman]

Thats about what I figured for the 2nd/3rd line thing, but thanks for the no-**** answer. I always thought of it in the same terms (daily fighting load vs stuff kept in a pack in my truck) but I've never heard the proper term until now

I've had the same problem with the MBITR, insofar as LOS and clarity in built up areas. one solution is to use a flexible HF antenna (we called them "mantennas", basically a 5 foot flexible antenna) and work it through the front of your vest so you have a lot of built in directionality. Cant hear someone? face them and you just oriented your antenna right onto their signal. If anyone needs it, I'm sure I have a picture of my kit with the antenna wound through the front of my mag pouches. Anyways I found it a great solution to the signal problems

[gilgoul]

My typical but too heavy for my old bones (maybe time to retire) is as follow:

M16 a1 with foregrip holding a surefire (no pressure switch to break around, all out of the box)
5X 29 5.56 NATO (plus a double stack on weapon)
2Xflash bang (never was issued a frag in the last 7 years)
Glock 19 in drop leg
3X15 9mm luger
First aid kit 1: Israeli bandage (we call it american bandage here)/ CAT/ CPR kit/gloves)
aid kit (for the bobo's) alcohol pads, smal plasters, twizers, etc)
Head lamp (petzl taktikka plus)
goggles (bolle)
mechanic nomex gloves
3 liters hydration pouch + a few purifications pills lost at the bottom
1 personal camo net (small one from French army, works wonders)
a 100gr of dried fruits and nuts (much better than those power bars)
1 small P&S camera
1 stick light
1 triangular bandage (kept separately)
1 carabiner
1airway (kept separately)
1 set of batteries for the surefire and the head lamp.
2 sets of plastic handcuffs and some "flanelit" (cotton band to clean weapons)
About 4 meters of paracord (weights nothing and mighty usefull)
About a meter of 100mph sticky band rolled on itself.
one or two spare 30 rounds packages down in the vest.
That with the all ballistic protection deal makes me definitely unfit for many stuffs (never been strong at climbing walls anyway), but I can hold my own more or less.

Now, I'm looking on a simple chest rig that I would wear above my vest, with an independent hydration bag to lighten the **** up.

[Britboy]

Lets just say the encryption issue has caused some bigger ails previously, and i'm happy the primary language on the net i work on isn't english. I'll have to leave it at that i'm afraid, your CoC will fill you in if/when you deploy, or should have given you the details if you already have deployed. If not, ask your S-2 or S-6 about this.
This is quite sensitive stuff i'm sure you understand.

Cheers for the heads-up mate, have not deployed - yet! - and as you say, I expect this probably isn't for a public forum.

[BrianT]

I use a similar loadout except get rid of the sidearm and replace it with more 5.56 mags and probably come out to a similar weight. Probably another banger on the kit as well.