Old Stuff

[chilidog]

I was poking around in one of my old computers and found some stuff I saved a couple years ago. Some of you may enjoy revisiting.

Chilidog

[chilidog]

Subject Re: What did you carry? Posted on 11/15/99 9:24 PM

Lets see if I can remember it all.

I carried an M16. and 30 magazines, in two bandoleers and two ammo pouches. I didn't wear underwear. It was two confining. I also carried about four grenades and two smokes. Sometimes a claymore, depending on what we were doing. I kept an addition couple of hundreds rounds in my pack. Also about four bars od C-4 explosive. I always gave the blasting caps to one of the FNG's. Also in the pack were all the light stuff from the c-ration case.We might go four or five days without resupply. I preferred extra ammo over heavy food. My poncho and liner were tied on the pack straps above the pack to keep it dry. Most streams and water we crossed was about waist deep and a wet poncho liner was like a ton of weight. I carried two canteens, and a couple of bottles of iodine tablets. And at lease three bottles of bug juice. I kept my cigarettes in a sock tied high on my pack strap. I smoked Luckies so I had all the cigs I wanted. I also carried a machette and a 45. And occasionally a bangalor torpedo when we were seriously looking for tunnels.

New guys were looked after. They were told what was best not to take cause it would weigh you down. And also how to use the things we had. Basic training is just that. It doesn't really prepare you the real thing. AIT Advanced Infantry Training was better at preparing you. But again its just the basics. Your real training came when you arrived. If there was an extra load to be carried you can bet the new guys got to carry it. You learn real quick not to take a lot of extrenious stuff with you.

As for personal stuff. We could have it at the base camp but it never went out to the field with us.

You can get more with a kind word and a two by four than you can with just a kind word.

[chilidog]

Subject Re: What did you carry? Posted on 11/15/99 3:46 PM

In my hands, 1 M16A1 w/ 6X Weaver Scope or a CAR-15 depending on where we were working.

On my LBE Belt--2 M14 Mag Pouches with 5 20rd 16 mags
1 canteen
1 canten pouch w/ 6 M26 frags, pins bent and spoons taped.
1 Puma Bowie Knife
1 Walther P38 w/ 3 mags
2 smoke grenades 1 on each m14 pouch
2 two field bandages 1 cliped to m14 pouch
1 can of Albumin(blood expander)taped to
H of my suspenders.
across my chest I wore two bandaliers of 16 mags, 6 mags to each bandalier, with the center mag pouch sewn together.

rucksack-- two claymores, at least siz quarts of water, claymore bag of M16 mags, two more bandliers of 16 mags(sometimes 4 bandaliers), 2 two pound blocks of C-4, det cord, primers, detnators, 2 poncho liners, two bottles of Albumin and 1 or 2 bottles of normal Saline, a jungle sweater in a plastic bag, sometimes a PRC 25 radio, extra radio batteries, in mid tour I captured a M79 (that was taken from the ARVINS by the VC) and I cut the barrel off at the end of the front grip and cut the stock to a pistol grip, I then carried twenty 40 mm HE rounds and 5 rds buckshot, wouldn't carry a PRC25 when I carried the Cut M79

I generally carried a signal mirror, code book, URC10 survival radio, maps, compass, redlens penlight, camo paint sticks, and pen flare kit in the pockets of my jacket and pants.

If we were in the mountains I carried a few meals of LRRP rations and if we were in the low lands I carried a few cans of fruit for C-Rations.

There were other odds and ends I carried and the ammount of food and ammunition would change depending upon the mission requirements.
This equipment was an ass kicker, but I wouldn't leave home without it.

Don't Forget Nothin,
Come and Take It,
Jungle Work

[chilidog]

Subject Medic's load Posted on 11/15/99 7:31 PM

Weapon: M16A1, with eight magazines, 18 rounds each. One was always in the weapon, the others were tied around my waist in the cloth bandolier sling the rounds came in. The magazines then (we did not have the 30-round banana-clip at our unit at that time), were designed for 20 rounds, but we were instructed that the magazine spring was more likely to jam if fully compressed, so we only put 18 rounds in it. Many of us also adopted the technique of loading two tracer rounds into the magazine first, then 16 regular rounds on top. That way, if you get in a fire-fight, the two tracers will signal you that its time to change mags. The basic load for grunts in our unit was 15 M16 magazines apiece (2 bandoliers, plus one in the weapon. One was worn like a brazierre y using a safety pin, to pin the strap in the middle to make two shoulder straps, the other was worn like a belt. So I, as medic, was carrying half a load, this was because medics were not expected to lay down any fire unless he or his patients were directly threatened. On the hump, most of us carried the weapon in our dominant hand at the point mid-weapon where the spring-loaded ring was that held on the hand guards, The weapon semed to balance naturally there.

Basic Pack.
Standard army aluminum ruckframe of the day, with nylon ruck sack, one air mattress, one poncho, one poncho liner, one waterproof sack, two 2-quart canteens, two one-quart canteens, one canteen cup, one rain gear top, one OD long underwear top (it could get comparatively cold at night) one OD towel (I and many grunts wore it around our shoulders under our rucksack straps as extra padding. 3-4 complete C-Rat Meals, sometimes mixed in with 2 or 3 LRP rations, E-tool, usually got "Care" packages mailed from home which might contain commercial canned food like sardines (a personal favorite) kool-aide, small cans of pork n' beans, Beanie Weenie, etc.

Medics gear:

The standard field aid bag of the day was a bit cumbersome. Most of us didn't carry it, but improvised with other equipment. For the pharmacy supplies and stuff I didn't need immediate access to (for things that could wait until we got into a day patrol base or night position), I used an airbone medic bag. This rectangular bag that zipped all the way around the top to open up like a suitcase, was secured to the ruck frame, with my rucksack going over the top of it. For the stuff I would need in a hurry, I used two cloth bags made for Claymore Mines. These had two compartments, one a little larger than the other. I slung two around each side of my neck and shoulder. They carried the pressure bandages and cravats, plus vaseline guaze (for sucking chest wounds) heavy duty boot-cutting shears (for quickly stripping away any clothing that is in the way) morphine surettes, butterfly suture strips, elastic wraps, tape, tincture of benzine (for reinforcing adhesiveness of tape to secure bandages over chest wounds) Thermometer, Salt tablets (turned out they didn't work to allieviate heat injury, but that was the philosphy of the time)

Personal gear

Most of us smoked and cigarettes were free in the field, we got fresh cigs by the carton in the Sundries package that came with resupply every 3-4 days(Usually one per platoon), plus a little pack of four cigarettes came in the C-rats these were usually old and dry and were saved for spares to sustain our nicotine fix until the next sundries package arrived, so I would have a plastic cigarette case that would hold one pack, plus the zippo lighter (kept those handy in a pocket), extras were with the rest of the gear I tried to keep dry in my waterproof bag (the bag was usually used like an inside liner for the rucksack)

I personally had a small, hand-size transitor radio with a single earphone that looked like a hearing aid. I had a Bible (we cussed like, well, ... grunts, but most of us packed a Bible) Writing paper and envelopes (I wrote a short note home almost every day) postage from Vietnam was free. Mail would go out with each resupply helicopter that came in. We would also get a Class 6 package of pop, so most guys would have two or three pop cans on us.

Clothing. One pair jungle fatigue pants, OD in color, with cargo pockets on the wide, one OD T-shirt, one OD jungle fatigue jacket, army cushion sole socks (with three or four pairs to change) and nylon/canvas top jungle boots, we wore the T-shirts a lot, but never wore underwear, the issue boxers crawled up your hind end so almost no one wore them and there were no army issue briefs at that time.

My load was smaller that the average grunts. I carried half the basic load for the M-16, didn't have to carry squad-shared arms, like M-60 rounds, claymores, etc, or hand grenades, and I bunked in at night usually with one of the Radio operators who had to hump the heavy PRC-25 radio, so I didn't DARE complain about the load I was humping!

Hope that gives you an Idea of what the typical grunt medic might carry.

Montanakid