On 30Jul2020 0458, xxxxxx@gmail.com wrote:
> Now, on the march, and in-contact vary a bit. My pack had strapping  > that allowed an 'emergency breakaway' manouver - unclip a belt buckle
 > then pull two breakaway straps, pack drops, you are suddenly 35-60 >
lbs lighter. All your ammo and key survival stuff is on your LBE so >
you can move and fight (you might lose some extra Carl Gustav or >
belted MG ammo if you didn't fish that out of your backpack). (Funny >
story about that: There is an order you undo the straps. I watched > one
guy forget to undo the belt buckle and he pulled the breakaway >
strips.... the pack dropped away from the shoulders but was still >
solidly anchored around his waist... the pack jerked him off his feet >
to the rear and he was lying there on the pack stunned, like a > flipped
over turtle...)
We had those too, but they tended to come loose on their own once they
got a bit worn, so we'd end up wrapping them in electrical tape and
having to take the packs off the old fashioned way. Our packs were heavy
enough that you really didn't want to have to get up from a kneel with
them on if you could avoid it, and you certainly didn't want to be prone
with them on (and that's another reason to not wear a helmet - if you
had a pack on and a helmet if you were prone the pack and helmet stopped
you raising your head enough to see more than a few metres). The usual
method of putting a pack on was to sit it on something (or have a friend
hold it) and back into it. Alternatively, you placed it on the ground
facing away from you, bent over and slipped your hands through the
straps, and then stood up flipping the pack up and over your head - this
was easier than controlling such a heavy weigh while slipping into it
the normal way, one strap at a time.

Days of food, 1-2 days of water, wet and cold weather gear, spare socks,
and then all the 'real' military kit (like dry socks aren't a military
essential) - spare ammo, spare claymores, M72 LAWs, etc. A radio if you
were the Sig. - and we had the AN/PRC-77, which was an awful heavy
thing, with heavy spare batteries, and so on.

> Certainly, in the winter, burdens go up. Layered clothing, a parka,  > sungoggles, scarf, two layers of mits and spare inserts, overboots >
(mukluks), heat packs, heavier tents and inserts for your sleeping >
bag, insulated canteens, etc.
We didn't have that much cold weather kit, but had to carry it and wet
weather gear at all times.

> In Canada, we worry about polar bears, black bears, grizzly bears  > (see a theme here), mountain lions, moose if it is mating season, >
one or two rarer poisonous snakes, and one or two toxic spiders. >
That's most of it - it is mostly the environment that will kill you. >
In Oz, depending where you were, you had to worry about clear >
poisonous jelly fish, sharks, poisonous frogs/toads, poisonous > snakes,
poisonous spiders, and other small stuff that would kill > you. They
didn't seem to have to worry too much (except for sharks) > about any
apex predators, but the range of small and horribly > poisonous things
in Oz scared the heebie-jeebies out of us. For us, > not much that was
small and dangerous, but the apex predators were a > concern, esp polar
bear in the North.
Yeah, exercises in Aus were exciting (and hot). Lighter packs were nice,
though (if we'd actually been deployed there they wouldn't have stayed
light, of course). I remember some very colourful spiders, and some very
large and aggressive ants.

> He explained that in jungle warfare, you had to plow down 1 L of  > water per hour, you had to regularly air out your feet and get fresh
 > socks and use foot powder, and you had to use additives in every >
canteen to avoid it going off from jungle microbiota in a very short >
period (or when you got it in the first place). For us, it was all >
that insulated gear (he found the idea of an insulated canteen >
interesting...) and our bush would only really require high % DEET >
repellents and a tennis racket to swat the deer flies. If you are up >
North or on winter ex, you need to know when you can and can't walk > on
ice over water, you have to know to not sweat (because then > getting
sick is very likely) - you have to work in a very measured > way, and if
you go far enough North, you need to know a lot about > building igloos
or other shelters and how to deal with someone who > is wet (get them in
a tent, get them out of their wet gear, get > someone else in their
skivvies in the same sleeping bag to avoid > hypo-thermia).
Our bush was a bit different - not as hot, but you still wet through
water like mad. Very changeable weather, hence needing wet weather and
(moderate cold weather) gear and weatherproof sleeping kit always - it's
just cool enough a climate that getting wet and not having a way of
getting warm will kill you. The NZ bushes kills people every year
because they think a moderate climate means getting a bit wet won't
matter, or they just don't realise how fast bad weather can come up on you.

> Co-worker of mine that was a Corporal in the GGFGs (God's Gift for...  > aka The Governor-General's Foot Guard). He got assigned to a unit >
from Georgia up for Winter ex. They came to a river and wanted to > walk
along it (easier than slogging through drifts). He warned them > that
the ice near the edges was very likely thin but the light > Colonel from
the Georgia NG said "Boah, if I want your advice, I'll > ask you for
it.". So, my friend got on the 25 set, called the base > and told them
to have the medevac chopper spun up. The inevitable > happened - someone
went in. They got him out, my friend said 'He's > going hypothermic, you
need to get someone to get into a sleeping bag > with him.' The Georgia
NG folk refused (homophobia?). The guy died > despite air evac. When our
Colonel blew a gasket about a training > death, the US Lt. Col. said
'Acceptable losses'. Here, the officer > responsible for that action
would have been cashiered out of the > service plus would probably have
been charged with manslaughter.
Same here. When I was in there was a huge scandal because six guys had
to be evacced from an alpine exercise with hypothermia because they'd
been inadequately instructed on how to build snow caves (but had only
survived because they'd managed to anyway) and hadn't been taken off the
mountain when the bad weather was forecast. Over that same few days I
was out on exercise (at a lower altitude) experiencing the joys of
piss-poor leadership - my forward OP was forgotten about because of some
command SANFU and three of us were out on our own for 48 hours with no
food or proper shelter in continual rain in a position that was ankle
deep in cold water. Then we got to march all day, and then 'rest'
overnight in the open and even in all our gear it was too cold to sleep.
30 hours of no sleep and all this was interesting, to say the least. By
the end we weren't sleepy, but had no endurance at all - 5 minutes march
would wipe us out and it'd take 10 minutes to recover.

I have a feeling that the officers in command during that exercise
(which was part of a Captains-to-Major qualification course) would've
been required to redo that course.

--
Rupert Boleyn <xxxxxx@gmail.com>