- Joined
- Nov 24, 2006
- Messages
- 43
After having read this forum and several similar ones for a few weeks now, I felt compelled to open my big mouth and give an opinion that nobody really wants and may actually offend people.
Fortunately for me, this is the internet, and so I can say virtually anything I want with little or no fear of repercussion.
So, here is the gist of this long post:
People bring and carry a lot of stupid stuff in Iraq.
Im not a SOCOM Ninja or a Blackwater Opperator or any other cool job title type guy. I was, however, Airborne Infantry and deployed twice to Iraq. In the 18 months total that I spent in that country I wasted a lot of money on gear I didnt need. I hope to help someone avoid my fate. Ive complied a list of things I conceder useful information when it comes to gear selection, and Id like to post them here. This is 100% my opinion, and as such, your mileage may vary.
1. Unless you have a job that regularly takes you off of the FOB you probably arent going to need any blade other than a multi-tool. $500 combat knives are cool, but if you are a mail clerk you just spent $500 on an item that sits on your belt and occasionally pokes you in the side when you sit down. Dont be like the girl I saw guarding (and I use that term loosely) the phone trailer at Camp Victory. She had on a pressed uniform and 5 knives that I could see. She looked stupid and you will too.
2. If you do go off the FOB, you probably wont need more than 3 knives, and even 3 are stretching it. Get a multi tool, a small folder you can clip on to a belt loop or something similar, and one fixed blade. There is no need to look like a walking cutlery drawer. Extra knives on your person just weigh you down, make you look like a poser, and provide a number of weapons for someone to grab off of you in the extremely rare event you get into hand to hand or melee combat. Extra crap on your belt also tends to snag on things like Humvee doors and house door frames when you are trying to move around in a hurry. I carried a fixed blade on my belt and a leg rig on my thigh till one day I got out of my truck, somthing snagged, and I ended up face down in the mud. I looked like an idiot, my unit looked like a bunch of idiots, and I had to deal with crap from my fellow soldiers for about a month over it.
3. You probably wont need a knife with a blade longer than 6 inches. Im willing to bet there are a few hardcore knife fighters on this forum who will disagree with me, but I have already stated this post is 100% my opinion. I am not a trained knife fighter. The overwhelming majority of people in the military are not knife fighters. There is no need to carry around a blade so big it looks like an agricultural implement if all we are going to use it for is scaring Iraqi children, opening the occasional MRE, and impressing Fobbits.
4. Simple rule: If you insist on carrying a sword with you, be prepared to look like, and be treated as, a complete and total tool box. We are the US Military for Petes sake. If you are that worried about getting into a truly nasty combat situation where you run out of ammo, leave the sword at home so you can run away faster to go and get more ammo. Bullets are cheap and we have a lot of them.
5. Repeat after me:
I am not a ninja.
6. Just because the military gave you a piece of equipment, or you bought a piece of equipment, doesnt mean you need to constantly wear that piece of equipment. In my unit we used to call that Looking like the CIF mannequin. No one looks cool going to the shower with tactical eye wear and a leg rig on.
7. You look like an idiot if you mount an optic that most people would use for deer hunting on your M4 or M16. Im not talking about a reflex site or a red dot, but rather a 20x Leopold or Tasco. You look like even more of an idiot, and are actually a liability to your unit and mission, if the optic in question hasnt been sighted in.
8. Guard duty is guard duty. It sucks and its boring. That being said: PUT THE BOOK/MAGAZINE/LETTER FROM HOME/DVD PLAYER DOWN AND PAY ATTENTION!
I could go on, but this post is long enough. As always, this post is my opinion, and you mileage may vary. I am interested to hear other opinions on this subject, so please chime in, veteran or not.
Fortunately for me, this is the internet, and so I can say virtually anything I want with little or no fear of repercussion.
So, here is the gist of this long post:
People bring and carry a lot of stupid stuff in Iraq.
Im not a SOCOM Ninja or a Blackwater Opperator or any other cool job title type guy. I was, however, Airborne Infantry and deployed twice to Iraq. In the 18 months total that I spent in that country I wasted a lot of money on gear I didnt need. I hope to help someone avoid my fate. Ive complied a list of things I conceder useful information when it comes to gear selection, and Id like to post them here. This is 100% my opinion, and as such, your mileage may vary.
1. Unless you have a job that regularly takes you off of the FOB you probably arent going to need any blade other than a multi-tool. $500 combat knives are cool, but if you are a mail clerk you just spent $500 on an item that sits on your belt and occasionally pokes you in the side when you sit down. Dont be like the girl I saw guarding (and I use that term loosely) the phone trailer at Camp Victory. She had on a pressed uniform and 5 knives that I could see. She looked stupid and you will too.
2. If you do go off the FOB, you probably wont need more than 3 knives, and even 3 are stretching it. Get a multi tool, a small folder you can clip on to a belt loop or something similar, and one fixed blade. There is no need to look like a walking cutlery drawer. Extra knives on your person just weigh you down, make you look like a poser, and provide a number of weapons for someone to grab off of you in the extremely rare event you get into hand to hand or melee combat. Extra crap on your belt also tends to snag on things like Humvee doors and house door frames when you are trying to move around in a hurry. I carried a fixed blade on my belt and a leg rig on my thigh till one day I got out of my truck, somthing snagged, and I ended up face down in the mud. I looked like an idiot, my unit looked like a bunch of idiots, and I had to deal with crap from my fellow soldiers for about a month over it.
3. You probably wont need a knife with a blade longer than 6 inches. Im willing to bet there are a few hardcore knife fighters on this forum who will disagree with me, but I have already stated this post is 100% my opinion. I am not a trained knife fighter. The overwhelming majority of people in the military are not knife fighters. There is no need to carry around a blade so big it looks like an agricultural implement if all we are going to use it for is scaring Iraqi children, opening the occasional MRE, and impressing Fobbits.
4. Simple rule: If you insist on carrying a sword with you, be prepared to look like, and be treated as, a complete and total tool box. We are the US Military for Petes sake. If you are that worried about getting into a truly nasty combat situation where you run out of ammo, leave the sword at home so you can run away faster to go and get more ammo. Bullets are cheap and we have a lot of them.
5. Repeat after me:
I am not a ninja.
6. Just because the military gave you a piece of equipment, or you bought a piece of equipment, doesnt mean you need to constantly wear that piece of equipment. In my unit we used to call that Looking like the CIF mannequin. No one looks cool going to the shower with tactical eye wear and a leg rig on.
7. You look like an idiot if you mount an optic that most people would use for deer hunting on your M4 or M16. Im not talking about a reflex site or a red dot, but rather a 20x Leopold or Tasco. You look like even more of an idiot, and are actually a liability to your unit and mission, if the optic in question hasnt been sighted in.
8. Guard duty is guard duty. It sucks and its boring. That being said: PUT THE BOOK/MAGAZINE/LETTER FROM HOME/DVD PLAYER DOWN AND PAY ATTENTION!
I could go on, but this post is long enough. As always, this post is my opinion, and you mileage may vary. I am interested to hear other opinions on this subject, so please chime in, veteran or not.
