There was a list published in Sunday's Washington Post of things soldiers take with them on deployment. It was a long list and generally corresponded with the things my son took with him and later on asked us to send him. I have already managed to loose the list but I remember most of the gun and weapon related items. I thought it would be of general interest here.
The writer said he didn't know what some of the items were (same here), including Uncle Mike's. Uncle Mike's shoulder holster was on the list and, sure enough, they show up a lot in photos. Oddly enough, a drop holster was also on the list and my son is wearing one of those in one photo I have of him.
You might think that handguns are widely issued based on that. But also, it listed something like eight pistol magazines, to be rotated every three weeks or so. Likewise it had sixteen M4 magazines, also to be rotated. Seems like those would be difficult to scrounge up.
Also, a gun lubricant that doesn't attract sand.
Leatherman tool.
Batteries. Everything uses batteries.
It also recommended some sort of load carrying harness to replace the issue one. That was actually about all the weapon related stuff but the list was the length of the newspaper page. I thought the comments about the magazines was particularly interesting in light of posts that show up from time to time.
At least they aren't required to furnish their own ammo (yet).
The writer said he didn't know what some of the items were (same here), including Uncle Mike's. Uncle Mike's shoulder holster was on the list and, sure enough, they show up a lot in photos. Oddly enough, a drop holster was also on the list and my son is wearing one of those in one photo I have of him.
You might think that handguns are widely issued based on that. But also, it listed something like eight pistol magazines, to be rotated every three weeks or so. Likewise it had sixteen M4 magazines, also to be rotated. Seems like those would be difficult to scrounge up.
Also, a gun lubricant that doesn't attract sand.
Leatherman tool.
Batteries. Everything uses batteries.
It also recommended some sort of load carrying harness to replace the issue one. That was actually about all the weapon related stuff but the list was the length of the newspaper page. I thought the comments about the magazines was particularly interesting in light of posts that show up from time to time.
At least they aren't required to furnish their own ammo (yet).