Such forays are grueling for 5th Brigade soldiers. They pack their bags with ammunition and extra batteries for radios and other electronic gear, and sling on wraparound armor with ceramic plates. Then, under an often-scorching sun, they carry loads of up to 100 pounds through arduous terrain.The weight of combat gear is not a new problem, as Bill Mauldin showed:
Soldiers say that the gear's weight sometimes forces them to reduce the food and water they pack into the field. In one mission in early September, some platoons got marooned in an orchard for several days. Supplies ran so low that they turned to juice-filled pomegranates and other fruit to maintain their strength.
"The weight has been the biggest issue for us, tactically," said Sgt. 1st Class Anthony Dimico of Yakima, Wash. "You can't always carry enough water because you have to carry all the extra stuff."
”I see Comp’ny E got th’ new style gas masks, Joe.”The 1949 movie "Battleground" had a scene which showed soldiers throwing away extra gear. There was another Willie & Joe cartoon in which one soldier advised another that he was carrying too much weight and to throw away the joker from his deck of cards.
Unlike in World War II, however, the brass nowadays probably hammers the shit out of any soldier who leaves any extra crap behind. Our soldiers are carrying 100 pounds of equipment (and more) and they are running up and down mountains while being shot at?
Half of that weight is armor, maybe 50lbs or so. I've tried to find out what the average weight of an infantryman's equipment was in wars past; for everyone other than machine gunners, it seemed to be 50lbs or less. That was when packs were made of heavy canvas (not lightweight nylon), canteens were metal, C-rats came in cans, and they were carrying rifles that had serious knockdown power. Bill Mauldin was meticulous in his accuracy when it came to his cartoons, look at what Willie and Joe were carrying. When they had a small pack, they probably weren't carrying more than 40lbs., total.
They have to figure out how to lighten the load for those guys. It isn't rational to think that anyone can be mobile and effective with 100+ pounds of shit loaded onto their bodies. I'll bet that most of those guys are going to have crippling back problems when they are older.
Maybe they need to get the REMFs who plan this shit out to walk around a base with a 100lb pack while someone takes pot shots at them.
(Damn, it is at times like this that I really miss ol' Lurch.)
I saw some history program a while back that said the Greeks had standardized on 70-75 pounds as the ideal load. This show also said that this has remained about the size of gear that men were supposed to carry since then. My guess is that there's a sort of selection process that goes on - when the loads get too big, bad things happen, and people reconsider.
ReplyDeleteWhile I suspect that you're right about how the brass now views deliberately discarding some of that valuable gear, it probably happens anyway.
Cujo, they got computers to track gear nowdays, and the gear all has serial numbers. You toss gear nowdays, and they come after your ass at paycheck time and dock your paychecks pretty much into infinity since that shit is all military procurement and thus way more expensive than if you just bought it on the open market. Joe could toss gear because it was impractical to track gear back in the days before computers. That's not true anymore.
ReplyDeleteRegarding 100 pounds, that's just crazy. But at least half the weight, the armor, is carried close to the body. I'm around 150. When I carry a 50 pound pack, I'm bent over to keep my center of gravity over my feet but I'm capable of moving reasonably well if not comfortably. 100 pounds would be doable if only 50 pounds was in the pack, but I'd definitely be way uncomfortable and moving slow. I presume the average grunt is a bit larger than me, but I can't see that he'd be much more comfortable with that weight either.
Note that I have since ditched all my heavy weight gear in favor of ultralight gear that is ridiculously light compared to the stuff our soldiers carry. For example, my backpack weighs 16 ounces, vs. 5 pounds for a military backpack. I carry freeze-dried foods that are much lighter than MRE's. I carry lightweight water bags that are much lighter than military canteens while holding much more water. And so on and so forth. I never -- ever -- carry more than 35 pounds today (only when I have to carry a second water bag because I'm hiking in the desert, and it doesn't stay 35 pounds for long because I'm sucking down water), and exceed 30 pounds extremely rarely, because my mobility starts taking a hit around 30 pounds. A 25 pound pack -- what I usually haul when not in bear canister country (those friggin' bear canisters are *heavy*) -- might as well not exist on my back for all the effect it has on my mobility. Of course, being a middle-aged penguin with flat feet and bad knees might have something to do with that too, but 100 pounds? Just crazy!
When I was in the Army, the working figure was that a soldier could carry 30 to 35 percent of his body weight in gear without compromising his abilities. 100 pounds is way too much, especially in a hot climate.
ReplyDeleteScharnhorst: "In attacking a town, the infantryman should carry along an axe in case he may have to break down a door."
http://www.asianmilitaryreview.com/CurrentIssue/dl.php?filename=200805032215531.pdf
Enjoying reading your blog very much.