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Terry:
I understand your concern, but when I am betting my life on a piece of gear, I want the best I can afford. If I can find a gas mask carrier that lets me concentrate on the mission, instead of it flopping around, and get it out and on three seconds faster than with the issue, what is not to like?
When you were serving, choices in gear were pretty limited. Now, I can get ammo pouches from at least six different sources, each with some special feature that would make it better than the issued. The Army takes 30 years to buy new gear, and the same piece is issued for the infantryman, the truck driver, and the MP. As far as the Army is concerned, one size fits all, and it all comes from the lowest bidder.
As far as weapons go, there is a lot less of that than there was in VN. No one can bring a privately owned weapon with them, get an antique out of the Arms Room, or have Dad mail them one. On an ODA, there is one (possibly two) types of pistols, the M-4/M-16/M-203/SPR, the M-249 SAW, the M-240 MG, and possibly the M-24 Sniper system. 9mm, 5.56, or 7.62. There may be a shotgun or suppressed SMG for special purposes.
Hope that helps.
TR
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"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." - President Theodore Roosevelt, 1910
De Oppresso Liber 01/20/2025
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