ARCHIVE THREAD 11- Need equipment advice for Iraq

[AUDIEM249]

my troop just got a sh1t load of money for equipment to get for iraq and they asked for ideas from us for what we would like. i was wondering if those who have deployed/operated in the SW Asia region had any advice for what worked for you or what you would have liked to have.

thank you, SCOUTS OUT!

[melon]

I sell a ton of hydraulic jacks to units rotating into Iraq and A-Stan. Big orders of bottle jacks, floor jacks, hydraulic rams, engine stands, transmission jacks. US Spec Ops must have lots of blank checks, they buy the most, but we see a decent business with conventional units and USMC battalions.


But I imagine this is not quite the equipment you are looking for. :-) If it is though, feel free to email me. I always give an additional 10% to ANY unit heading into harms way for me and my family.

Melon

[Andreas]

*Optics for .50 cal
See the Norwegian set up, you can actually hit ****.

*Also if Humvee mounted, gunner "sitting slings"

Saw a link to a decent site selling those her on MP.net somewhere..

And if your unit is not thinking about it already... ARMOUR

Bodyarmour
Vehicle armour Always a good thing.. But this is basic stuf...

Cheers
Andreas

[tumbler]

warm kit - i never realised how bloody cold it gets!

[ABNINF]

Get tow bars, YOU WILL USE THEM. Some units don't have enough. Every truck should have a set, or at the very least each section. Keep the .50's immaculet and check the headspace and timing constantly. Camelbacks, multitools, and Oakley M-frames are all things that the Army can provide through supply. The Oakley's are great for impact protection, just ask Jizzmonkey. And like Tumbler said, bring some cold weather kit, 40-50 degrees feels cold as h*** when you're used to 150.

[C3F]

ZIP LOC BAGS!!!!!! All sizes! You're going to need them! Put your lap top and other personal electronic stuff in!! This BY FAR will be the best advise you get!

Other than that, pack light! The more you bring the more you carry!!! I see guys with more gadgets on their weapons that adds at least 5-10 lbs.... WHY????

Mail system here is not that bad. If you forget something, have it mailed (including equipment).

[signatory]

ear plugs suitable for sleeping

[Marsuitor]

Re. the .50,
I don't know the dust situation in Iraq, but i suppose it's about the same as Afgh, which is extreme. As someone said, keep the .50 immaculate, i did a thourough cleaning twice a week or after a particulary gruelling dust-session, and i also wiped it after every mission. It will simply stop functioning if left dusted down. Dismantle it completely and use oil-in-a-spraycan to spray every single part and then wipe off with toilet paper for best results, a full cleaning should take around 1.5-2hours for a well-trained gunner. I don't know how the gunner is trained in the US with regards to how far down you pluck it apart, but i took the lid completely apart, as well as the bolt, feeding mechanism, buffer and trigger, which amazingly isn't taught in Norway. Don't want to come across as some bragging hotshot, but i had my gun down very well, and the team's safety comes before the gunners need for watching DVD's after a long day out.
I heard tons of stories about .50's failing during contact in Afgh due to poor gunners from various nations. The worst i heard was a US HMMV convoy that was ambushed. Four vehicles, two mk19's and two .50's IIRC, all weapons except one mk19 jammed.

As for what to buy, if your supply permits it, get a proper cradle mount and optics for the gun. I've tried firing the thing in a standard US-type configuration, and it truly sucks. No accuracy due to insane recoil and archaic iron sights. In addition, the method of holding and firing the weapon is not practical or comfortable. With proper kit you can provide accurate area fire out to 6000ft/2000m and point fire out to 3000ft/1000m. Just saying...

Take care,
Marcus

[griffin1]

Have done tours both officialy and privately. I would suggest you take the following;warm clothing, eye protection, tow bars and as many packs of smokes and sweets as you can carry. Ideal currency to help keep Joe Public on side. Oh yeah, your brain mate. Its the most important bit of kit you have! Use it and good luck to you. I have numerous friends out in iraq and afganistan at moment, including my elder brother, hopefully you will all come back in one piece. My thoughts are with you fella. Stay safe.

[James]

Get high end first aid kits for every single soldier. It might just be getting a large utility pouch and filling it with medical stuff from supply. Learn to use all of the stuff too. Learn how to do the gnarly stuff so if something bad happens your medic isn't the only one treating casualties while everyone stands around wondering what happened.
I've got this as my blowout kit, on my vest: http://www.tacticaltailor.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=57

[Deuterium]

All the above I would agree on and....

If you got the money get good ear-pro for everyone. A good set of sound amp Peltors with the right cables to attach to whatever radios you use are invaluable especially for vehicle ops. Get an intercom and outlets for everyone in the vehicle. Good and fashionable eyepro will go a long way ensuring not only safety but the troops will want to wear them. A GPS for everyone. Comms for everyone. Breaching kits per vehicle. LARGE fire ext per vehicle and fire blankets. LARGE medbag per vehicle. Spotlights (Handheld) and large wattage driving lights for emergencies. If you really have some money think about getting some civilian schools like defensive driving, cross country driving/vehicle extraction, send some guys to AMC for their vehicle courses, shooting schools like Gunsite, send your medics to go work in a civilian emergency room for a month or ride in a meat wagon, Arabic language course for everyone, buy extra parts for your repair guys to have on hand instead of having to wait for the stuff to go to Ballad, MWR stuff for the unit like some PS2 XBOX 360 DVD and some plasmas and board games. Get a batting cage, golf setup, basketball hoop, for those away from the large bases. For your OPS setup get a couple of BIG plasmas or one-eyes and a couple of laptops to run C2PC/FBCB2 and Powerpoint for briefings before a mish. ALso get the hardened deployment box for the plasmas. Get some radio bitch boxes(speakers) extra handmikes and some commercial-power power supplies for your PSC-5 and SINCGARS. Get the biggest color printer/plotter that you can buy to print out imagery and maps. This is invaluable but expensive. Get Arcview and Falconview for your imagery. If you don't have any S-2 weenies get one of your geeks to become an expert. The ability to have up to date imagery and maps should be at the squad level in my opinion.

[Andreas]

Too bad the forum now only saves the last 4 weeks of threads. Or so it looks to me..
Im saying this because, this thread has some sound advice without to much static inbetween usefull posts that will be usefull for someone else at a later time. especialy Deutorium`s post is rock solid.

**"especialy"? that cant be right?, sounds mexican***

2cents...

[Ballistic.]

Shouldn't this be made into a Sticky ? There is some great advice here for those deploying.

[GLax]

if you get gloves, dont get those honky ass nomex flight gloves, they'll last all of 5 minutes over there. ESS makes some pretty sweet eyepro tht dont fog up as bad as wiley x brand. another cool thing to have is extra surefires, not the standard army crap, cuz they break when you are kicking doors and stuff, the cheap little surefires that wont break anyones heart to replace are good enough. extra buglights are always good to have too, you know the little IR blinkers i'm talking about rite? d rings are good to have too, use those damn things for anything. it just dawned on me that your company asked you for ideas of what to buy, thats crazy, wish mine would of do that... tape! ah yes tape, get the brigade quartermaster stuff, way stickier than whatever the army buys...

[kayaker]

From civilian hiking experience: head torches. The very best:

http://veter.in.ua/images/tactikka-xp.jpg

Useful for looking in bags, inside drawers, etc where you cant poke your weapon light, during house to house searches...

... A name would be useful. Called the TacTikka XP ( a civilian coloured version also available named the Tikka XP) and can be purchased for around £35.

[James]

^^^ That is a good piece of gear.

[AUDIEM249]

guess i can try making a contribution to this
1. neck gaiter- IMO buy two, one for your face while on gun and another around your neck for brass falling into body armor (more common then i thought)
http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/3491/untitled50me8.png (http://imageshack.us)

2. under armor skull cap, comfortable and keeps sweat out of the eyes. ghetto substitute is cut off the sleeve of a compressive under armor t-shirt and your ready. IMO buy as much under armor shirts, socks and shorts as you can.
http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/4264/skull2blkxlru6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

3.ir capable strobe light, very useful on SKT's and OP's and i can say possibly saved my life. along with this, carry a few IR chem sticks on you.
http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/5895/stobedistressmarkerwc4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

4. recommend a personal GPS with external antenna capibility, if you cant afford that try this. good to quickly give direction for spot report (Its easy to lose directional awareness in cities)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v733/audiem249/untitled-1.jpg
5. ESS goggles, the ones that are issued by the Army during RFI are flimsy and come apart quick. the old ones you can use for detanies (just put tape over the lenses)
these ones worked well for me
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v733/audiem249/hgf.jpg
6. HK mags never had to worry about S.P.O.R.T.S when had these guys.
http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/7151/highresimageuf4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

i will try to update later!

[zonk]

that mag is the one i used on the convoys i did in iraq..they should name it never jam

[Lifeinasmallbox]

Spear guns and a snorkling kit...:)

[CantGetRight]

crazy reading this now

almost everything mentioned is issued now

also, back when underarmor was the **** and we didnt know it melted and whatnot

all hail ninja gear