User Panel
Quoted: Alex, your point is well taken. I should have said that mag dumps with no purpose are a waste. The only practical value the 30 rd mags have is to lengthen the time between mag changes. Holding down the go switch until empty negates that advantage in most cases. View Quote In semi-auto fire the extra 10 (8 for USGI) rounds helps. They've been proven over a long period. I did like and use the 20s for qualification when I could, as it was easier to go prone with them. |
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View Quote What's the coil? Antenna? |
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DetCord and washers, I think I read somewhere before. Makeshift snakey claymore things
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Quoted: What's the coil? Antenna? Det cord with washers for frag. |
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Those fiberglass stocks for the M14 were a very expensive development for the time.
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View Quote Ah yes, the main stream media taking care of the heavy lift in the propaganda war for the Communists - since 1962! Fucking unreal. |
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Quoted: Our infantry was only poorly served by the politicians who put them in a war that we could not win based on a naive ROE and a desire to fight a proxy war against commies while failing to root out commies in the USA. The failed experiment that was Vietnam led to the anti war movement, hippies, modern liberals, and the corruption we have today. View Quote I always believed this, but in retrospect I am positive that the failure to actually pursue victory in the war, the media's constant drumming on the enemy's human side, and the domestic hippy anti-war movement, were all coordinated parallel unit movements in the enemy's overall pro-communist campaign. The Commies infiltrated our government and JFK was killed in order to install the first of many Communists into our government to start hacking away at the Constitution and our national personality. |
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Quoted: In semi-auto fire the extra 10 (8 for USGI) rounds helps. They've been proven over a long period. I did like and use the 20s for qualification when I could, as it was easier to go prone with them. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Alex, your point is well taken. I should have said that mag dumps with no purpose are a waste. The only practical value the 30 rd mags have is to lengthen the time between mag changes. Holding down the go switch until empty negates that advantage in most cases. In semi-auto fire the extra 10 (8 for USGI) rounds helps. They've been proven over a long period. I did like and use the 20s for qualification when I could, as it was easier to go prone with them. Completely agree with this. |
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Quoted: Watching We Were Soldiers and got to thinking... -20 round M16 mags when they were in an environment that called for 30s or 40s -Awful magazine pouches so guys would often resort to canteen pouches or claymore bags -A 7 lb flak vest that doesn't stop any bullets -Slings that rattle where they attach at the rear swivel, plus way too short and attaching only at the bottom -Just giving guys green uniforms but not actual patterned camo for the most part -Crappy web gear that you can't carry enough water on because you have the belt and that's it -Slow flap holsters for pistols -Being four years late to issue synthetic stocks for M14s View Quote |
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If you watch footage you'll notice some people shirtless and didn't even have gear.
A lot of times before the first contact with actual NVA regulars they thought they were up against Vietcong so they'd just drop their gear and leave it behind in the jungle because of how hot and humid it was. |
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I think a lot of '80s and '90s vets in this thread think the ALICE load-bearing gear and woodland camo flak vest were the same thing issued in Vietnam, they were not.
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Quoted: We could have paid every man woman and child in Vietnam $10,000 to quite being communists and probably saved half of what we spent and saved all our own kid's lives and limbs... View Quote We gave out micro grants to business owners in Sadr to win hearts and minds and all we got was more EFPs. |
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We had the same gear in the early 80's, OP.
The cotton fatigues were getting harder to find but I had a couple of pairs I kept starched for guard mount. |
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Quoted: I always believed this, but in retrospect I am positive that the failure to actually pursue victory in the war, the media's constant drumming on the enemy's human side, and the domestic hippy anti-war movement, were all coordinated parallel unit movements in the enemy's overall pro-communist campaign. The Commies infiltrated our government and JFK was killed in order to install the first of many Communists into our government to start hacking away at the Constitution and our national personality. View Quote FDR was around long before JFK was killed. |
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Quoted: If you watch footage you'll notice some people shirtless and didn't even have gear. A lot of times before the first contact with actual NVA regulars they thought they were up against Vietcong so they'd just drop their gear and leave it behind in the jungle because of how hot and humid it was. View Quote There was not much of a "grooming standard" over there. We wore what we wanted. During the day we may have gone shirtless in the heat but at night in the field we wore long sleeves because of the goddamn bugs. By the way, I was raised in Florida without AC. I was use to heat and humidity. When I got over there I thought I could take the heat OK. I was wrong. It was a whole new level. |
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Everyone thinks the military uses the latest and greatest. Rarely, if ever, that is true on a large scale.
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Infantry load bearing equipment didn’t change a lot till after 2001 when the war started.
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Quoted: There was no much of a "grooming standard" over there. We wore what we wanted. During the day we may have gone shirtless in the heat but at night in the field we wore long sleeves because of the goddamn bugs. By the way, I was raised in Florida without AC. I was use to heat and humidity. When I got over there I thought I could take the heat OK. I was wrong. It was a whole new level. View Quote My family member told the crazy shit people would do to stay cool and shit. He said it was also crazy when they first encountered NVA regulars no one really had masks anymore because they just dropped them but then they saw a cloud of tear gas and saw nva charging with masks on. |
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Quoted: What's really shocking is we didn't have an aggressive policy toward taking the war to the north. We should have leveled every city in the north with perpetual carpet bombing. Their ports and cities should have looked like an atomic weapon hit them. It's my personal belief that no war can be won on defense. View Quote I'm genuinely curious what the Soviet/Chinese response would have been had we gone all out... |
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Quoted: Early Desert Shield, I had nylon web gear instead of canvas, 30 round magazines instead of 20s for my M16A1, I was still rocking a steel piss pot, Vietnam era flack vest, a 1911A1 in a leather flap holster and OG utilities. We didn't get the PASGT Vest, Helmet, BDUs M9s, M16A2E3s and nylon holsters until after Desert Storm. So yeah you could have time warped me back to 1969 Republic of Vietnam and I would have fit right in. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Change the material of the web gear slightly, change the magazines to 30 rounders - and it was standard infantry gear well into the 1990s. So yeah you could have time warped me back to 1969 Republic of Vietnam and I would have fit right in. Yep. And nylon web gear issue to replace the canvas started in 1967. And the PASGT flak vest was conceived as cutting edge in the early 70s, then designed, then tested, and started issue in the 1980s. With a fairly similar timeline on the helmet. On the good side, our .mil procurement for good stuff has become much faster for development, existence, and fielding. On the bad side it’s mainly due to massive influx of taxpayer dollars with a fortune skimmed off the top politically and a disgusting amount of jobs for retired FO/GOs that made selection decisions at these same companies when they retired. So like 87% of the money ends up at various levels of graft. |
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Quoted: We gave out micro grants to business owners in Sadr to win hearts and minds and all we got was more EFPs. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: We could have paid every man woman and child in Vietnam $10,000 to quite being communists and probably saved half of what we spent and saved all our own kid's lives and limbs... We gave out micro grants to business owners in Sadr to win hearts and minds and all we got was more EFPs. Kind of like handing out EBT and welfare checks here - all we get are more violent commie hood rats. |
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Quoted: What's really shocking is we didn't have an aggressive policy toward taking the war to the north. We should have leveled every city in the north with perpetual carpet bombing. Their ports and cities should have looked like an atomic weapon hit them. It's my personal belief that no war can be won on defense. View Quote And here we have the answer. |
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I like the 20-rounders- easier to go prone, less apt to get snagged on straps, limbs, etc.
All my reloads are 30s, and I could see some situations where a 40 as a contact mag would be nice. In heat and humidity the LBE outperforms chest rigs and vests *when not wearing armor* if circumstances dictate armor than no reason not to have a chest rig IMO. And IDK where the notion of "you can't carry enough on a belt" came from... my LBE hauls 8 .308 mags or a dozen AR mags, plus 2 quarts of water, compass, 2 pistol mags, knife, and a buttpack. |
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The ironic things is...none of it really mattered. The entire war was lost in a place that the infantry never saw. It was truly an air war that could have been won from the air and proven the USAF dream of dominant airpower. All they had to do was bomb the North into absolute destruction, target their leadership, mine the harbor and coastline, and blockade them via mines and interdiction strike missions.
Instead they pretended CAS would win if they did it enough. It had virtually no impact on the outcome. |
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Quoted: It kinda makes sense, considering the Chosin Reservoir / Yalu River crossing had occurred ~15 years prior. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: I used to think the same thing. But they were terrified of the Chinese getting involved It kinda makes sense, considering the Chosin Reservoir / Yalu River crossing had occurred ~15 years prior. The Chinese were a paper tiger as the Vietnamese kicked their ass after we pulled out. |
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Quoted: I like the 20-rounders- easier to go prone, less apt to get snagged on straps, limbs, etc. All my reloads are 30s, and I could see some situations where a 40 as a contact mag would be nice. In heat and humidity the LBE outperforms chest rigs and vests *when not wearing armor* if circumstances dictate armor than no reason not to have a chest rig IMO. And IDK where the notion of "you can't carry enough on a belt" came from... my LBE hauls 8 .308 mags or a dozen AR mags, plus 2 quarts of water, compass, 2 pistol mags, knife, and a buttpack. View Quote |
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Quoted: Quoted: The Chinese were a paper tiger as the Vietnamese kicked their ass after we pulled out. I bet they knew that. We could have ended that in less than a year if we wanted to. We were far more advanced at that time than they were. |
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Quoted: Two quarts of water is JACK SQUAT View Quote Two quarts is what I drink if I want to feel like shit the next day. When it’s cold and I’m stationary. I was doing 2 quarts a hour sitting in my Brad in Iraq. I can’t imagine how much I’d need humping the jungle in a high humidity environment. |
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Quoted: Two quarts is what I drink if I want to feel like shit the next day. When it’s cold and I’m stationary. I was doing 2 quarts a hour sitting in my Brad in Iraq. I can’t imagine how much I’d need humping the jungle in a high humidity environment. View Quote They refilled from local sources while on patrol. Lots of iodine. You can't hump enough water to stay hydrated. The enemy did the same thing. |
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Quoted: Lets not forget that Ordinance's fuckery made sure that not only did a lot of guys get killed for Ordinance's fetishes, but the average grunt lost the ability to trust his weapon. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Watching We Were Soldiers and got to thinking... -20 round M16 mags when they were in an environment that called for 30s or 40s -Awful magazine pouches so guys would often resort to canteen pouches or claymore bags -A 7 lb flak vest that doesn't stop any bullets -Slings that rattle where they attach at the rear swivel, plus way too short and attaching only at the bottom -Just giving guys green uniforms but not actual patterned camo for the most part -Crappy web gear that you can't carry enough water on because you have the belt and that's it -Slow flap holsters for pistols -Being four years late to issue synthetic stocks for M14s Lets not forget that Ordinance's fuckery made sure that not only did a lot of guys get killed for Ordinance's fetishes, but the average grunt lost the ability to trust his weapon. That should’ve resulted in firing squads for every cocksucker involved in sabotaging the M16. The ALICE honestly isn’t bad, especially for the time. The concept of a belt with suspenders still works well today, with modern materials/designs, though these days, chest rigs are more common since infantry has become mechanized. For foot patrols, it still works great, and balances the weight of equipment between hips and shoulders. |
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from my research:
ham and motherfuckers > cold rice and rat meat |
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<not a combat vet>
the LBE that we wore in the 80s was good enough. The Bradley carried the rest of what we needed; and we loaded it up good. |
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Quoted: I like the 20-rounders- easier to go prone, less apt to get snagged on straps, limbs, etc. All my reloads are 30s, and I could see some situations where a 40 as a contact mag would be nice. In heat and humidity the LBE outperforms chest rigs and vests *when not wearing armor* if circumstances dictate armor than no reason not to have a chest rig IMO. And IDK where the notion of "you can't carry enough on a belt" came from... my LBE hauls 8 .308 mags or a dozen AR mags, plus 2 quarts of water, compass, 2 pistol mags, knife, and a buttpack. View Quote I would have hated to wear all that chest shit I see on the soldiers nowadays. In that heat and humidity it would have been hell. It would have been like baking in an oven. I don't how my son put up with it in Iraq. Dry heat? LOL! I mostly served in II Corps but one time I went down to the Delta on a little mission. It was like being in a sauna and that was in December. When I first got there in 67 I was issued a M-14. A couple of months later they replaced the M-14s with M-16s-A1s. Much better to carry. |
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Quoted: Watching We Were Soldiers and got to thinking... -20 round M16 mags when they were in an environment that called for 30s or 40s -Awful magazine pouches so guys would often resort to canteen pouches or claymore bags -A 7 lb flak vest that doesn't stop any bullets -Slings that rattle where they attach at the rear swivel, plus way too short and attaching only at the bottom -Just giving guys green uniforms but not actual patterned camo for the most part -Crappy web gear that you can't carry enough water on because you have the belt and that's it -Slow flap holsters for pistols -Being four years late to issue synthetic stocks for M14s View Quote I was in the Army during the early 80's and we had some of the same gear. OD clothing? No worries. Camouflage is a concept not a pattern. 20 round magazines? I would have no problem going to war with 20's. Dumb mag dumps are dumb. Crappy web gear? It IS pretty amazing we had cotton web gear. I still have my "butt pack". It was old when it was issued to me. And I still use it all the time...just used it yesterday squirrel hunting. Flap holsters? Meeeh....the average grunt isn't carrying a pistol anyway. Heck, we carried them in the flap holster, mag in, empty chamber. |
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Quoted: They refilled from local sources while on patrol. Lots of iodine. You can't hump enough water to stay hydrated. The enemy did the same thing. View Quote Yeah, my pops had some stories. Sounds like it sucked. Like, idk if that’s my kind of suck, sucked. Happy for the desert and no leaches and fewer snakes, and less rain. But he got beer occasionally, so… A wash? |
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