Breaking the ice here

[Pete]

Ok;
I'll throw this out to start things off.

I've found that no matter how many times we went to the field our loads were always just a bit different. It took about 3 days for everything to re-settle into a comfortable place for each individual.

The first night things are just not quite right or in the right place or order. By the third day everything is placed just right and you could unpack and repack your ruck in the darkest of night getting just the right item when you needed it.

That was also the time everybodies sleep patterns evened out and somebody moving quietly around would wake you up.

After a week it felt like you were on auto pilot and could go forever. That was also the time your concentration could start to wander.

And then we got vehicles and more stuff to cart around.

Pete

[504PIR]

Never got vehicles, but always more "lightweight" crap to stuff in there.

Ever read I believe it was "A Soldiers Load" by General Marshal?

[lksteve]

Originally Posted by 504PIR

Never got vehicles, but always more "lightweight" crap to stuff in there.

Ever read I believe it was "A Soldiers Load" by General Marshal?

went from carrying 100 pounds of heavy stuff to carrying 100 pounds of lightweight stuff...for every pound of weight saved by new technology, we added another pound of bullets....

i've read A Soldier's Load...when i was a company commander in Alaska, it was a big issue...when we jumped into JRTC at Chaffee, the average load, including parachute kit, rucksack, load bearing junk, weapons and container, etc., was somewhere north of 135 pounds per trooper...

[Jack Moroney (RIP)]

Originally Posted by Pete

Ok;

And then we got vehicles and more stuff to cart around.

Pete

It wasn't vehicles that threw stuff off, it was going from that good old mountain ruck through the various iterations of everyones good new idea of what we needed for a ruck. The rucks got bigger and supposedly the stuff got lighter. The end result was that when it was all over we could now carry more items of light weight shit that in total added up to more weight because we carried more of it. Then it got even better. Used to be a simple H-Harness, two quick release straps and a lowering line was all you needed to jump the old rucks. When they got larger rucks we wound up having to deal with a web assembly and quick release that looked like an pile of occtupi (sp?) in heat.

Jack Moroney-wiser but shorter

[Trip_Wire (RIP)]

Originally Posted by Jack Moroney

It wasn't vehicles that threw stuff off, it was going from that good old mountain ruck through the various iterations of everyones good new idea of what we needed for a ruck. The rucks got bigger and supposedly the stuff got lighter. The end result was that when it was all over we could now carry more items of light weight shit that in total added up to more weight because we carried more of it. Then it got even better. Used to be a simple H-Harness, two quick release straps and a lowering line was all you needed to jump the old rucks. When they got larger rucks we wound up having to deal with a web assembly and quick release that looked like an pile of occtupi (sp?) in heat.

Jack Moroney-wiser but shorter

I always liked the WW II Mountain Ruck. It was the first one I was issued when I joined SF. In those days, we were still jumping M-1 rifles and all team members were also issued a 1911 .45.