2014 top NHL draft pick can't do one pull-up
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The Overloaded Soldier: Why U.S. Infantry Now Carry More Weight Than Ever
71–80 of 148 posts
Re: The Overloaded Soldier: Why U.S. Infantry Now Carry More Weight Than Ever
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
There has been an order of magnitude less casualties in both Iraq(4,424) and Afghanistan(1,856), than in Vietnam (58,220).
I agree with the overall point of your post but one should count contractor deaths. My understanding is that the U.S. military is much more reliant on contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan than in Vietnam.
Even including contractors there was still an order of magnitude more casualties in Vietnam.
Re: The Overloaded Soldier: Why U.S. Infantry Now Carry More Weight Than Ever
#73soldiers are murderers
Re: The Overloaded Soldier: Why U.S. Infantry Now Carry More Weight Than Ever
#74Interesting to note: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yomp The most famous yomp of recent times was during the 1982 Falklands War. After disembarking from ships at San Carlos on East Falkland, on 21 May 1982, Royal Marines and members of the Parachute Regiment yomped (and tabbed) with their equipment across the islands, covering 56 miles (90 km) in three days carrying 80-pound (36 kg) loads. Wonder what their kit was in…
I don’t think any of them had body armour. The weight would have been mainly ammo, food and batteries. But it was over soft marshy ground.
Re: The Overloaded Soldier: Why U.S. Infantry Now Carry More Weight Than Ever
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
According to "FM 3-05.213 (FM 31-27) Special Forces Use of Pack Animals" from 2004 [1] "Today and throughout the operational continuum, SF may find themselves involved in operations in rural or remote environments, such as Operations UPHOLD DEMOCRACY or ENDURING FREEDOM, using pack animals." [1] https://fas.org/irp/doddir/army/fm3-05-213.pdf
Wow, this document is fascinating.
The USMC Small Wars Manual - has some fascinating info on how pre mechanisation troops used hoses mules oxen ect.
https://archive.org/details/UsmcSmallWarsManual1940Reprinted...
Re: The Overloaded Soldier: Why U.S. Infantry Now Carry More Weight Than Ever
#76This sounds insane. My hobby is medium distance hiking in (say, 250 km/155 mi na week) in the Scandinavian Arctic, so I have to carry all my food. I'm a fan of ultralight hiking, so my whole summer baggage weights around 10 kg/20 lbs excluding water. I invested some money in lighter equipment, yes, but most of my weight savings is stuff I simply do not take with me, or things that serve in multiple roles (eg. my hiki…
A lot of the weight is armor and ammo, 2 things directly keeping soldiers alive. How is that interfering with the goal?
Re: The Overloaded Soldier: Why U.S. Infantry Now Carry More Weight Than Ever
#77Ah, an article I can comment on. I was an Infantry officer for 6 years and did all the normal schooling and a deployment. This is a pretty well done article. Here's some general ideas to keep in mind. - Most dismounted missions are run from trucks or an established forward operating base, so you don't carry a huge rucksack most of the time because you can just go back to your base. - Like the article states, even a d…
Yeah, if electronic mules are so great, I would expect to see some actual mules still in service.
Funny story. I was listening to an interview with Chinese historian Carl Zha. According to Zha the CIA ran a breeding program for mules in the 1980s for use in Afghanistan to supply the mujahadeen. The breeding program was in Tennessee and used Tennessee mules. All the mules died after about a year because for whatever reason they couldn't deal with the conditions in Afghanistan. So the CIA went looking for a mule provider in the region and ended up sourcing mules from Uyghur tribesmen in western China. These mules didn't die. And thus began the CIA's relationship with the Uyghur.
I'm not vouching for the authenticity of this story, but it is a good story none the less.
Re: The Overloaded Soldier: Why U.S. Infantry Now Carry More Weight Than Ever
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree with the overall point of your post but one should count contractor deaths. My understanding is that the U.S. military is much more reliant on contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan than in Vietnam.
Even including contractors there was still an order of magnitude more casualties in Vietnam.
Do you have numbers on contractor deaths? I’ve not seen them. I’m not disputing that Vietnam involved many times more deaths for Americans. Just stating that one should include contractor deaths since the U.S. military decided to contract out so much of its war effort.
Re: The Overloaded Soldier: Why U.S. Infantry Now Carry More Weight Than Ever
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is so interesting. Any thought on the cultural norms driving so much gear to be individual? Personal gear could be common gear instead, with perhaps a cost to hygiene and individual sensitivities. Combat gear (partially) as well, especially for non-combat roles. And being the designated carrier in a two-man team, that's cultural for sure.
"one man one kit" you own your gear and are responsible for maintaining it, knowing exactly where it is at any moment, and if it fails because you didn't take care of it, it's your fault. Plus, reduces cognitive load when you know your kit like the back of your hand, in stressful situations. It's your kit and you don't lend it to others, also. Otherwise you compromise your safety.
Which is back in the day cavalry had assigned mounts - you looked after your personal mount a lot better that way.
Re: The Overloaded Soldier: Why U.S. Infantry Now Carry More Weight Than Ever
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
1. Being OK to lose doesn't fix the problem of it being noisy. 2. There aren't many truly "It's OK to lose it" items, as they'd all have been lost by overburdened soldiers already.
The wheeled mules I'm talking about are not noisy though. From the article: > Although quadruped robots like BigDog from Boston Dynamics is no longer in the running (it turned out to be a bit too noisy), there are numerous wheeled alternatives. Regarding your second point the article seems to come to a different conclusion: > A British army study, called Project Payne, found that far too much of what is carried is “j…
Ah yes the cant trust the squaddie with to much ammunition line from the Quartermaster - no such thing as to much Daka Daka