Quoted:
whats the sop on bringing stuff back?
I know firearms are a no-go
but mags and optics and other misc parts would be sweet (I could use some for my AK and SVD)
Official policy is FUCK YOU SOLDIER YOU GODDAMN PIECE OF HUMAN SHIT.
You can't take back anything. People no shit got the bullets they were shot with taken from them. No brass, no bullets, NO LIVE AMMO, if they find 1 round of 5.56 in your gear somewhere when they xray it you will go to jail (saw it happen to a guy in our cav squadron at customs). No maps (even if it's just a normal military map with nothing special marked on it). No pictures of dead guys some of the guys said they were searching computers but I was at the end of the line and they had to search 20 people in 5 minutes to get on the plane. They do a full body scan of your person (the high tech kind where they can look at your pee pee), they Xray your duffel bags, rucksack, and assualt pack. Then they make you empty your pockets, and dump your duffel bags, ruck and assault pack and verify that your bag is empty, and sift through everything setting it in a "cleared" pile. No pieces of shrapnel, no dirt, no rocks, not pieces of wood at all (they are strict on no wood, not even something carved) because of some timber trading treaty lol...
Going through customs left me more offended than anything I've done in the army. Pornography is banned to, no bringing in country or leaving with it (on computers too...) Our guys at COPs and Firebases live like animals half the time (i got 4 or 5 showers in afghanistan the whole time...and this is 08-09) but there is millions of dollars being spent to make sure I don't take the 7.62 bullet that nearly took off my dome piece home with me. FUCK ME.
ETA: so yeah, no weapons parts, you can get creative and hide them i'm sure but its not worth going to jail...they give less of a shit about finding guns in afghan houses (they are NOT allowed to have them btw) than shrapnel in a GIs pocket they was taken from his chest. THe only guy I know that smuggled back a round that the army didn't know about was the 7.62 in his spine...yeah you heard me right, the army didn't know about it. I guess that's army medical for you, They saw an exit wound and didnt bother to check if he got shot also in the belly button (to be fair to the army he didn't know at the time either but he almost died.