Lots of memories!!!!

Is it setup correctly for a infantry/cav mount?  How would a medic/corpsman be set up?  I've been wearing it around thr house, it feels nice compared to a plate carrier(with the obvious drawback)

You’re pretty close with it

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Only changes I have made from how it was set up when I was in is the pistol holster on the right. I had another mag pouch there I used as a GP pouch but could also flex up to 9 mags carried if I needed to. Some guys had them on both side to be able to carry up to 12.

I love seeing these rigs. It's a perfectly functional solution to the problem.

There is nothing wrong with a well set up set of ALICE gear if that's what you got.  It's what I started playing with as a kid.  Sure, there are (alot) of things that can be improved on it, but if you can get them dialed in, they work fine.

The two biggest improvements would be swap in a 6 point surplus PLCE harness and do a mod with a padded inner belt pad, either an older surplus one - US or British surplus, which are out there still - or a simple DIY version.  These can be done cheap and easy.

My biggest beef currently with the ALICE gear is that it's getting expensive to piece together a full set in good condition unless you run across someone selling or giving a set away cheap.  And alot of the pouches are pretty worn out - even the 'NIB' ammo pouches, the plastic tabs are starting to get brittle on alot of them, being 40 or so years old and old-tech plastic.  For the money you will spend on a full set of ALICE gear, you can get a full set of PLCE that just does it better.  If you could still find them super cheap - I pieced mine together as a kid, rummaging through bins of pouches and such at our local military surplus store over a few months every time I got some cash - I'd be far more inclined to suggest ALICE to people.  Heck I've still got a couple sets sitting around.

I'd like to see some hybrid ALICE / British PLCE gear setups.  I wonder if you can make the British utility pouches work on the USGI belts, or the ALICE ammo / buttpack work on the British belts?

I've rebuilt all my gear with ALICE Y suspenders and molle for the rest. I never had an issue with the Y ones.. I actually just bought two new ones. The first new ones I've ever seen.

I don't know if we can be friends any longer wsix.  

Seriously though, I've got a few Y harnesses and an older H harness sitting around, trying to figure out what I'm going to do with them.

Some people still carry 1911's.

I have so much gear laying around. Should I sell some...?

BUT IT'S AN EARLY GWOT EAGLE DROP LEG BERETTA 92 NYLON THIGH HOLSTER.

I am not one of the collector crowd. I don't understand their motivations. Most of my stuff is just leftovers from my quest to get usable cheap gear. The fact I've spent enough over the years to buy a DZ rig seems irrelevant to my subconscious.

I don't get collectors either.

I mean, I KINDA do?  But not the expense and such they go to.

Most of my extra gear is stuff I've upgraded from over the years, or stuff I tried out and didn't like as much and it wasn't worth selling.  I give some of it away on occasion to guys getting into guns who don't have any gear to get them up and running.  Occasionally trade off something to a bro.  I do OCCASIONALLY pick up something interesting - got a new FLC for like $8 a few year ago.  I had a bunch of extra mag pouches, figured put them to use and it is an interesting piece.  Stuff like that.

I'm a collector.  I collect (buy) stuff so I can try it, then once every few years I get a table at a gun show, or flea market, to sell all the stuff I either didn't like, or no longer have a use for.  In fact, I'm doing it again this weekend.  I'll probably spend more buying even more shit that I probably won't like/use, than what I sell of shit I don't like/use.    

I probably could be getting this shit for free by doing gear videos and reviews all these years, well, yeah, call me a boomer, an idiot...hell I eat crayons.  It's not that I don't have the tech skills, hell, I'm one of the guys who helped AlGore invent the internet.   I'm just not photogenic, not well-spoken verbally, and can't take a picture to save my ass, let alone shoot video.  The biggest reason tho, is that I just don't have the time.  I like to spend my precious "spare" time doing shit with the stuff I "collect".

It doesn't sound like you are the kind of collector I was referring to.

Some folks collect very specific gear that represents an exact battle or some shit. They will pay $400 for a small pouch if it was the same pouch that was issued at a certain time and carried on a specific operation.

If it has SeAL blood on it, that doubles the value to these folks. I only know about it from searching for surplus gear on Ebay.

You sound like you are just one of us that has too much gear.

Collections are on display. Gear hoarders have closets filled with shit.

I was trying to be non-self-loathing and not call myself a gear ho.

The one thing I do actively collect is camouflage patterns.  While I prefer actual uniforms, I'll settle for even a simple sample swatch of an interesting camo.  That's probably the easiest way to collect them actually.

Next question for the Old Heads:

How are the Medium Alice pack w/frame and the deuce gear/LBE worn together?  Are they even meant to be used together?

Also, the holster fits a G17.3 nicely and the pouches hold Glock mags and snap closed without stretching.

Pic of current layout(added the med kit and swapped my M7 for a LanCay M9 because I probably wont be using it as a bayonet anyway):

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Med Kit still sealed, dated 06AUG98

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They work together great and are intended to, but not with the IFAK there like that.

I respectfully disagree

That IFAK won't work as intended with an ALICE.

Maybe you can get enough space between the frame and your back to slide it in there, but that's not how it's supposed to go.

Ok Joe. Explain what you mean so we can all learn. Many of us Yanks carried med/lg ALICE with with our ALICE LBE/LBV.

My current Franken LBE.

I think he's saying that it (pack with belt) works with the IFAK there.

At least that's how I read it.

It won't though. The kidney pad sits right there.

I think he's just hating on ALICE. She's an old gal and did what she could.

"How are the Medium Alice pack w/frame and the deuce gear/LBE worn together?"

Most of us just dealt with it for field problems.   Some would drop the back of the LBE down a little for ruck marches and such which is a little easier with the Y harness over the H.
The kidney belt was wrapped around the back of the square part of the frame and clipped together, usually taped.   It has to be that way for airborne ops and is usually left that way since it's use is not practical for infantry stuff.

I only think that Alice rig and rucksack doesn't match well together. That is unless you wear those as per manual in their original incarnation that didn't include a buttpack (and that is to me already a sub optimal solution as i don't like canteens on the sides).
Dropping the lbe down is again another sub optimal solution.

Don't get me wrong, i love alice Rigs and i love the alice Pack. Both of them i extensively used in the army for training (to be honest i did basic with british 1937 webbing, OD uniforms and a 308 Garand, and it was when US was starting to field MOLLE ).
And yes, i too was taught to wear alice unbuckled, dropped down under the pack.

This is the latest incarnation of the Alice rig i use sometimes (not much. more of a nostalgia factor).


This was a test trying to solve the pack/LBE interface by dropping pouches down as British SAS did since the 60s


This is some collectors eye candy, my ALICE pack, Italian Army contract for paratroopers.

I wore my ALICE belt tight around my waist and used the buttpack as a shelf to rest the kidney pad on

this too is an alice rig assembled from scraps i had laying around, it was maybe worn a couple of times on the range and if i recall correctly for a simple "brutality" type shooting match made with friends years ago. As cool as it looks i am not a fan of the Enhanced TLBV.

Wild. I never had an issue. I was issued that LBV and I wore it with a butttpack, 2 canteens and 4 3mag mag pouches, On that I had an absurdly heavy LG ALICE pack.

It carried like this?



More or less like we did. Nobody it's going to die doing that, but as of today i think there are pack/rigs configurations that interface better. It's Just my experience, I May be biased.

Are their any decent LBV's that work well with belt kit?  

I've been throwing around the idea of doing a single, double rifle mag pouch on a panel just above where the regular mag pouches are on British style belt kit.  Haven't drawn anything out, but have been putting some thought into it.

I can't see the picture very well but the kidney pad sat right above the belt line and kind of locked it all in place.

I may be biased as well because I never did it another way.  I like those suspenders you got posted up but I need to stop acquiring gear.

Agreed

Those wide shoulder pads did not interface well with the ruck

I got in on the deal with Sportsmans Guide having the danish M96 suspenders and British Hips pads recently to upgrade some old ALICE rigs i keep as backup gear. I have been toying with the idea of securing the pouches to the bottom of the British pad to prevent the pouch flop when running.

Good upgrades for the money.