The 5 Most Important Pieces of Combat Equipment

[Duane Thomas]

I have an assignment from Tactical Guns & Gear to do an article titled "The 5 Most Important Pieces of Combat Equipment" in which those who have done at least one tour in the Sandbox rate the five pieces of gear they found the most useful, the most important. Would anyone here like to chime in? I'd need your name, rank, the unit you were assigned to over there, and a list, from 1 to 5, of what you consider the five most useful pieces of equipment based on your experience using them in a real combat zone, and an explanation of why each one rated a place on your list.

Also, any digital imagery you might be able to supply of you - or anyone else, for that matter - using these pieces of equipment in the Sandbox would be greatly appreciated. Can't promise I'll use everything I'm sent, but I'll sure as hell use some of it.

[uscbigdawg]

Well above the obvious (rifle, pistol, mags, ammo, body armor, kevlar/flight helmet, ALSE vest, flight/Nomex gloves and my 2 aid bags: As a flight medic, I kept a Blackhawk Stomp 2 on the helicopter that held EVERYTHING. My "jump" bag is a Blackhawk SF bag (courtesy of my BE family) that I left the helicopter with along with my SKED, M-4 and M-9):

1 - Poncho & Poncho liner (a.k.a. Whoobie!). Definitely not "tactical", but whether it's going to the field, going to war or going on a weekend trip, this is #1 on the packing list.

2 - Leatherman Multi-tool. Self explanatory.

3 - Good knife. I have a Buck folding knife that I picked up at the PX for like $15. It's strong as hell and stayed sharp through a 13 month deployment. If it broke, oh well...it's a "deployment knife" and therefore expendable, but still necessary.

4 - AA Batteries. Good for my ANVS's, PVS's and #5 on this list.

5 - MP3 player (that takes AA batteries). Gotta have entertainment. Mine was loaded with music as well as Matt Burkett's radio show.

You could get in to the extra boots, laces, etc. but frankly, the boots I went in with were only ones I was going to leave with 'til I had to swap them out as they had reached a point where I could no longer bleach the blood stains off.

Richard A. White

SPC, USA

Flight Medic

Task Force Talon

82nd Combat Aviation Brigade

82nd Airborne Division

Most recent deployment: OEF VII-VIII, Bagram Afghanistan

[Duane Thomas]

Richard,

Don't feel that you have to factor out the obvious. Could you give me a revised list with the most impotant stuff, from 1 to 5, and why, not a list that omits the REALLY most important stuff?

[outerlimits]

probably depends on the TOO, but back in my day socks, lots of them.

[Duane Thomas]

I was very big on socks any time I had to go into the field, myself. Of course, that doesn't give me a list of the five most important pieces of combat equipment, ranked 1 thru 5, and why.

[hitman]

In my day it was.

1 rifle

2 ammo

3 friends with 1 & 2

4 radio

5 friends with bidder guns and more ammo.

[uscbigdawg]

Duane - Okay, version 2.0.

Essential equipment:

1 - Rifle, mags & ammo.

2 - "jump" aid bag - Packed with the minimum I need to do my job. IMHO it's equal in importance as my rifle.

3 - ALSE vest & flight gear (if pulling flight duty; otherwise, just what's in my vest would be great)

4 - Body armor - 'cause I'm told I have to wear it (yes I never like wearing body armor and yes I know it's not totally smart)

5 - Whoobie. What can I say...I love my whoobie.

Rich

[Shawn Knight]

I understand that this article might be for frontline troops but there are other military branches that go into some inhospitable regions.

I am an E-6 in the USAF and have been in for 14 years. I have been to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Iraq, Qatar, and Kuwait.

I always take the folowing items with me if they say I can or not.

1. A flashlight. It doesn't have to be fancy just needs to work.

2. A multi-tool, leatherman, gerber, one of those.

3. Sunglasses. Mostly for the desert locations. Protect against wind, dust, sand, and most off all sun. working in the sun on the flightline concrete all day long can cause temporary blindness if you don't have some decent sunglasses. They are usually cheap but still have some kind of safety glass. Mine are issued Wiley-X goggle style.

4. Underarmor t-shirts. Cotton will make you feel like you are walking around in a wet bag of socks all day long.

5. Camelback. Gotta stay hydrated.

Most of these items are issued but I bring my own knife, flashlight, and sunglasses.

[Neomet]

This is an interesting read to compare with what the list used to be. My dad (WWII and Korea vet) used to say the most important things to him were:

Thompson SMG

Grenades. Lots of grenades.

Artillery

People on either side of you with the balls to stick their heads out of their holes and shoot at the enemy.

Water

[John Heiter]

Just thinking, might be easier to come up with two lists. The top five Issued pieces of equipment and the top five personal.

[dvc40jim]

WOW!!!

That is going to be a hefty assigment! Subjective as well to say the very least. I can't even imagine how I would break that one down. As was already pointed out each and every functional job area would be able to list 5 varying things and I would bet even why they were important to them or their job.

1. PPE as applicable to the time and place. Boots number 1 and Body Armor number 2. I only wore a helmet while we were in vehicles.

2. Weapon and ammo (but only a few are employing them on a regular basis, most guys are just carrying them around... you should see all of the cool toys on the rifles that never leave the FOB). I'm not saying anything bad about the jobs that don't require guys to get out of the FOB... just saying that weapons and ammo might not always rate high on the list these days. Varied from mission set to mission set what long gun but I always had my Hi-Power with me.

3. You pick-it radio equipment, sometimes cell or sat phone but someway to stay in touch with supporting and subordinate units.

4. Serviceable "go-bag" to carry everything I thought I might need any given day that wouldn't rip or fall apart. The list of things that might go in would change from day to day (sometimes) but I always had the bag.

5. Would be a toss up between a multi-tool and signalling pyro like smoke or flares. I kinda think that my knife is just part of getting dressed so it doesnt count.

[SA Friday]

I'm with Jim and the others, quite a heafty task. I'm thinking a top 10 might be more appropriate. I know my list changed from tour to tour based on my location and job. When I was in Desert Storm, I was working the flightline behind the fighting. My list was very different than my last two tours in OIF. In OIF, I was conducting counterintelligence/counterterrorism and was off base and exposed regularly, sometimes daily.

My list based on two tours in OIF:

1. M-4 / M-11 / mags / ammo . I see these as one item. Without any one of them, the rest are just weight.

2. Water. Without water, you're screwed. Carry it howevery you like, but you better fricken carry it.

3. My kit. I had a Paraclete with Molle intergrated pouches and holster. Without it, you are screwed.

4. My Issued First Aid Kit (IFAK). You get messed up without it, you are screwed. (I still have mine in my truck, BTW.)

5. MBITR/Harris radio. You can't communicate, you are screwed.

Quality sunglasses would be #6, and I was very torn between the sunglasses and the radio, very torn. The sun is brutal.

A multi-tool would be #7.

An "Oh sh!#" bag would be #8.

A quality combat knife would be #9. I was issued and carried a Gerber LMF II ASEK on my kit.

A good shemagh would be #10.

SA Sean Myhre (E-6) (Retired)

Air Force Office of Investigations (1999-2009)

Air Trans (1988-1999)

[Duane Thomas]

1 - Rifle, mags & ammo.

2 - "jump" aid bag - Packed with the minimum I need to do my job. IMHO it's equal in importance as my rifle.

3 - ALSE vest & flight gear (if pulling flight duty; otherwise, just what's in my vest would be great)

4 - Body armor - 'cause I'm told I have to wear it (yes I never like wearing body armor and yes I know it's not totally smart)

5 - Whoobie. What can I say...I love my whoobie.

"Whoobie"?

Could you expound a bit on why you made each of these choices?

Could I get your actually unit in the Sandbox, i.e. B/3/1st Infantry Division or whatnot?

[Duane Thomas]

1. PPE as applicable to the time and place. Boots number 1 and Body Armor number 2. I only wore a helmet while we were in vehicles.

2. Weapon and ammo (but only a few are employing them on a regular basis, most guys are just carrying them around... you should see all of the cool toys on the rifles that never leave the FOB). I'm not saying anything bad about the jobs that don't require guys to get out of the FOB... just saying that weapons and ammo might not always rate high on the list these days. Varied from mission set to mission set what long gun but I always had my Hi-Power with me.

3. You pick-it radio equipment, sometimes cell or sat phone but someway to stay in touch with supporting and subordinate units.

4. Serviceable "go-bag" to carry everything I thought I might need any given day that wouldn't rip or fall apart. The list of things that might go in would change from day to day (sometimes) but I always had the bag.

5. Would be a toss up between a multi-tool and signalling pyro like smoke or flares. I kinda think that my knife is just part of getting dressed so it doesnt count.

So let's say you can't make your first choice two things. Your list would go:

1. Boots.

2. Body armor.

3. Rifle.

4. Communications gear.

5. Go bag. Does the Army issue such or is this a private purchase?

Could I get your name, rank, unit you were assigned to?

[Duane Thomas]

Sean,

What unit(s) were you assigned to? What rank in an E-6 in the Air Force? How did you like the M4 and M11 in the Sandbox? How did you carry water - Camelbak? How did you like the equipment vest? What do you think of the FAK? What does MBITR stand for? Could you give examples of types of communication, specific instances in which you found this useful/invaluable?

[Duane Thomas]

Anyone out there have any photos they wouldn't mind seeing in a nationally published magazine?

[mdstihl]

SA Friday, every time I see a picture of combat troops over there, I'm struck by 2 things: first, the amount of clothing you all wear even though it's so stinking hot, and secondly, the fact that wars have always been waged on and over that God forsaken piece of hell. Thanks for all you do.

[davidwiz]

"Whoobie"?

Poncho liner, i.e. their "woobie", like a security blanket when you were a kid.

[Shawn Knight]

Sean,

What unit(s) were you assigned to? What rank in an E-6 in the Air Force? How did you like the M4 and M11 in the Sandbox? How did you carry water - Camelbak? How did you like the equipment vest? What do you think of the FAK? What does MBITR stand for? Could you give examples of types of communication, specific instances in which you found this useful/invaluable?

379 Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Squadron and the 774th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron. E-6 is a Technical Sergeant. I do not carry weapons, I put them into the air. I carry water in a Camelback and in my own backpack in bottles. I only wear the Interceptor if I go to Iraq to recover an aircraft that is broke. Aircraft maintainers don't need vests we need a whole new set of gear but I think that would fill it's own article. I think the new IFAK with Quick-clot and the Israeli bandage are the best thing that has happened to the front line units for immediate medical care. I am not sure what the Multi Band Intra Team radios are but i know we use secure radios that are very similar. We use the Motorola XTS 3000 and XTS 5000 series.

We use these systems on the flightline and we also have wireless internet capable computers now that let us get more aircraft tracking documentation completed in a shorter amount of time.

[uscbigdawg]

HHC-3/82nd GSAB, 82nd CAB, 82nd ABN DIV

Task Force Talon

[SA Friday]

Sean,

What unit(s) were you assigned to? What rank in an E-6 in the Air Force? How did you like the M4 and M11 in the Sandbox? How did you carry water - Camelbak? How did you like the equipment vest? What do you think of the FAK? What does MBITR stand for? Could you give examples of types of communication, specific instances in which you found this useful/invaluable?

October 1991-Jan 1992, Operation Desert Shield; 1682nd Aerial Port Squadron (I think, I could have the #'s wrong), Dharan AB, Kingdom of Saudia Arabia.

June 2004-December 2004, Operation Iraqi Freedom, 24th Expeditionary Field Investigations Squadron, Al Udeid AB, Qatar (I flew in and out of country regularly. I spent almost two months in Iraq during this tour doing evals of *stuff*.)

July 2008-Jan 2009, Operation Iraqi Freedom, AFOSI Det 2409, Ali AB, Iraq.

An E-6 is a Technical Sergeant. Because of my job, I was a Special Agent (yep, a Fed for the AF).

The M-4 and the M-11 worked fine in the desert. You just have to clean and oil them regularly. We fired regularly and a few had failures. They were the same that didn't take care of their weapons. It happened once, then they got babysat. There's nothing wrong with the M-4, but it has to be taken care of. I put a Leupold Mark 4 CQT on my M-4. There's nothing wrong with the current M-2 Aimpoint being issued, but I wanted some magnification. The biggest issue I had was the black gun getting so fricken hot from the sun that you couldn't touch it with your bare hands.

I carried water in a camelback that MOLLE'd to the back of my Paraclete. It was emergency water. We also carried 5 cases in each vehicle, and an extra 10 cases to give to the locals we talked with. The cases of water was the regularly consumed water.

The Paraclete is an integrated Level IV body armor system with 4 plates and pouches attached to the MOLLE straps around the carrier. It works well. The newer body armor kits the US Army is coming out with are very similar. Fliers still use a two-piece system (armor and vest separate), but the vast majority of ground troops have gone to a single piece system. The Interceptor Vest system is the current standard. The command I worked for had some serious losses in comparison to the other AF career fields because of our job. We started going a different route in our gear because of this. The Paraclete, at the time the AFOSI adopted it, was cutting edge stuff. It's still better than the Interceptor IMO. The new Army and Marine kits coming out are absolutely phenomenal; lighter, adaptive, more manuverability... Stuff designed by users.

When I was there in 2004, we were using Second Chance Level III soft body armor and Second Chance Level IV plates in a combined carrier with no capability to add pouches. So, we were wearing Blackhawk Omega vests over the top of the body armor. It had some advantages, and I can see why this system is still being used by fliers, but for ground pounding I'll take my Paraclete, thank you. Once it's set up... Dawn it, strap it, run. Good stuff. I ran the 9/11 5K at Ali AB in my kit, fully loaded. I trusted my life to it, I might as well be able to run like hell in it.

The IFAK is one of the best advancements in modern warefare, period. The old first aid kit they issued previously was Viet Nam era technology in a computer age. Israeli bandages, modern day battlefield tourniquets, clotting agents capable of stopping arterial bleeding, stuff that keeps you or your buddy alive.

MBITR: It's a Multi Band Inter/Intra Team Radio, also known as an AN/PRC-148. OK, some of this stuff I can't discuss. What I can talk about is communication is vital. Without it, I couldn't call for a casualty evac (CasEvac), or EOD, or someone to come save my sorry ass if we got ambushed and pinned down. Without it, there is no vehicle to vehicle communication, no ability for gunners/spotters to call out threats and the convoy/team to immediately react. Without it, you have no way to talk to those trying to find you if you get left behind. I carried extra MBITR batteries in my "oh sh!#" bag right next to the extra ammo and Sat phone. With the right training, pre-op planning, and an MBITR, you have the power to save yours and your team's ass.

In the pic I attached earlier, you can see just about everything I listed (the leatherman is in one of the upper green pouches).

BTW, you see so much clothes because it's the best way to stop getting sunburned. Light fabric clothing fully covering is better than sunscreen. In the pic I attached, the shirt is an XGO long sleeved flame resistant shirt. Underarmor turns into skin fitted napalm in a burning up-armored HMV or MRAP.

[Duane Thomas]

Looking...not seeing the photo. Attached where?

[SA Friday]

Looking...not seeing the photo. Attached where?

post #12

[Duane Thomas]

Ah. Got it. Thanks.

[tripwire]

I’ll agree with most of combat items mentioned above, however there should also be a mention of “Important Survival Gear”, meaning how to get by day to day. I can’t speak for anybody else, but my unit was tasked with convoy security and we were only out on missions about 60% of the time. The remaining time was spent doing pmcs, training, eating, or downtime. The downtime was generally miserable because activities on our small FOB were limited/nonexistent. My favorite pc of “survival” gear was my personal DVD player, you could pop in a movie and for a few hours forget where you were.

I would also have to second the Whoobie, much more versatile than the GI wool blanket. Sunglasses (issued Wiley X’s) were invaluable. I also like the Under Armor underwear we were issued as RFI (rapid fielding initiative).

For water we used to have a case per man per truck as backup, and then we would also freeze 1 or 2 cases per truck to drink. The 1-liter bottles would stay cool for half a day, and you could drink them as the thawed. Worked for us. We also had issued camelbaks, but didn’t use them since we were mounted and didn’t need to carry our water on us.

SGT Berowski

202 ADA attached to 1stID

FOB KMTB OIF II Iraq 2004