Gear

Gear

There are two places that a soldier must go to draw his gear. One place is CIF (central issue facility) and RFI (rapid fielding initiative). Both places give you oodles of supplies that the every day combat warrior needs to do his or her job. All said and done, I came out with 3 Army duffle bags of equipment. As the pictures will show you, I’ve got a LOT of stuff! The thing that surprised me was the number of boots they gave me; total count was 5 pair. Does Uncle Sam think that he is outfitting an army of octopi? I was issued 3 sets of hot weather boots, one pair of Gore-Tex waterproof boots and even a set of artic winter boots, complete with insulated booties. Counting the pair I already have, that makes it a total of 6 sets of footwear that I’m going to war with. Sounds pretty excessive, doesn’t it?

As for the rest of the stuff, I think I hit the highlights of it yesterday. Most all of it, with the exception of the canteens and large rucksack, is brand new stuff that I’ve never seen or wore in my time in the Army. I think the piece of gear with the most “cool” points is the new helmet. The ACH (advanced combat helmet) replaced the old K-pot (Kevlar) and is very comfortable. The clunky and heavy shell with the nasty sweatband on the inside was replaced with lighter (and stronger) material, a sensible harness system and molded inserts that are almost like a football helmet. If you have to wear something on your head for a long period of time to protect you from rocks, debris, and the occasional bomb fragment, then this helmet should be pretty bearable.

The overall best piece of clothing that came in my duffle bag of fun was the fleece, cold weather, black, 1 each. This is the best thing the Army ever allowed it’s soldiers to wear! I was jealous of everyone who had already bought one prior to coming here because they look very warm. And, after wearing mine today, I will attest that they are all that and a bowl of grits!

Still have lots to do to in-process with the unit. More poking and prodding at medical and admin SRP (soldier readiness packets), I have to draw more uniforms from the issue points (4 more sets), and then there is the whole weapons issue. I should be able to take care of most of it tomorrow if the weather holds out. It’s sleeting now and rumor has it that there will be snow. It’s hard to know what to expect since we are void of TV, internet and radio here. The little bits I can catch on the radio in the truck on our short drives to various issue points have to suffice as the only real intel I get from the outside world. I hope to get internet soon, but we’ll see.