Greenjacket...

Kampfjaeger

Kampfjaeger

Joined
May 21, 2001
Messages
1,668
Hi, I remember that in a post a while back you mentioned that when you pack your ruck, you stow your gear in 4 separate bags inside. I've heard of that idea before and I thought that it was great.

How do you divide up the contents between the bags?
 
Kampfjaeger, hi there.

Bag one: sleeping items; usually bivi bag and sleeping bag.
Bag two: eating and personal hygene kit; cooker, set of mess tins, KFS, main meals, salt pepper and oxo cubes, washing shaving kit etc, and often an extra canteen of water.
Bag three: dry clothes and trainers.
Bag four: gash bag for all the rubbish.
Bags need to be fairly robust and not just bin liners. My bag one was an oversized compression sack.

Items are packed individually as you like but always go into their respective big bag. The four bags go into the bergen main compartment. If the weather is foul then first into a water proof bergen liner. Its rare to have more than one bag out at any one time. A bag always goes back in the bergan even if its going to be used in a minute or two.

The only other items I attach to the ouside or in a pocket are those items that are always being used. Maps, compass and bog paper, waterproofs, snugpack thermal jacket, sleeping mat, and basha (axe and digging tool). If not actually being used then back on the bergen.

Its bags into bags really. The best part is at night when you need to leave in a hurry ;) It also means you don't have your camp area covered in kit that is not being used that moment and waiting to get lost or get wet. A disciplined camp area makes life easier. When well practiced you can find things by touch alone.

Now with bog paper in hand, where has that digging tool gone? :D
 
Thanks GREENJACKET... I really appreciate your help on this. I'm definitely going to incorporate this into my gear configuration.

David
 
knife fork spoon! That is an easy one.

Greenjacket: My old Tae Kwon Do instructor was a para and in the SAS. He used to lend me all of these books, like Bravo Two Zero and a book by General Sir Peter De La Billier. I would make up lists of words and take them to him for translation!

Eppie Skoppie, on your chin strap, binned, bergen, quid, get your diggers out, and so on. KFS brought back those memories.
 
As I'm arm chairing it at present, here are a couple of other carry tips.

I like to pack air,ie: big bergen filled out by packing loosely. You don't carry more stuff other than the essentials but you don't have to pack tight and small. It also means that if you are given a stupidly huge piece of heavy kit all of a sudden you can make room for it. I find small dense packs move about more violently which throws your balance when on the move. However, climbers seem to pack tight, long and slim; where as my bergen seemed fat and wide.

Its surprising how little kit you realy do need. Infact once in the field the less stuff you have the easier it is as there is just less cleaning and washing to do. The less kit the fewer decisions you have to make and solutions come more quickly. Stop doubling up on stuff; the exception being socks.

The first few days are the worse until you are gunked in and into your routine. The lighter you carry the more enjoyable the experience, THOUGH NEVER SKIMP ON COLD WEATHER KIT AND WATER.

A KFS is a luxury item. When hauling for your country one "racing spoon" is all that is required and that goes into your smock top pocket, mine was a big blue plastic one borrowed from Winchester :cool: Para's seem to like the wooden ones but they just remind me of Goldilocks and the three bears "who stole my porridge" :D
 
I'm too slow to understand how a spoon is a luxury item, or how you get bag two into your smock top pocket.

Take care,
bug
 
You need a racing spoon the bigger the better, as Greenjacket say's have it in your smock pocket so that it is always at hand. Then when people are scoffing up and you have a taste you take half a mess tin full in one foul swoop, magic!!!:D
 
That is of course unless the mess tin is filled with Gurkha Curry...Then you use extreme caution unless you are a natural born fire eater like myself....Cheers
 
Is that the Brit army ration curry? I had some of that in Iraq with the enterprising British army. They had hooked up a cooler on wheels and would tow it behind a jeep to our positions, charging a generous 1.00 a can for lukewarm Coke. Ah the free market....

Love those boiled candy rolls though.
 
Actually Gurkha curry is better than in the ration packs because the Gurkhas tend (where practical) to serve curry fresh in the field or in the cook house.
1:00$ for hot cokes? Water is fine with me mate.
 
It wasn't hot, they had access to ice. They would get it by sacking the houses of Iraqi officails in the area. I always envied the Brit rules of engagment.
 
I never ate curry until I served in Bosnia and worked with the Gurkas there. Every thursday night was curry night, awesome! Although you sometimes had to ask what the meat was and of course look out for the bones in the curry.

:D
 
lyon504: Excellent! Would'nt you agree that Gurkhas are some of the nicest people you have ever met?
Good point about the meat mystery curries. I have tried variations of Gurkha curry with out bones but they do keep the bones in to provide extra flavor I'm told. Cheers!
 
Gurkha fresh curry is excellent and the rice is always perfect. Compo in the tin stuff (boil in the bag was just coming in when I went) still taste great when one is hungry, but not for weeks on end. However, the tin stuff is molecularly similar to PE and has the strength of "Aliens" blood the following day if not neutralised by Biscuit Brown :D

Company C/Sgts sort out the rations. Chocky bars, cigs and coke are sold at exorbitant rates to supplement Company funds. When Company funds permit then out of the blue the C/Sgt delivers a feast: steak, beers, the full monty. Usually served at the top of the mountain, on ENDEX, or when you might have earned it(lost half a stone in sweat and blood) :)
 
GreenJacket: I think we have had a forum post on Gurkhas and curry before,but I cant remember for sure. I always look foward to what you will post in next. That rice you were mentioning, Was it seasoned with cardamon and cloves? I had that type of rice and it was as you said excellent!
 
Used to travel to Nepal on Trek expeditions that my Dad arranged and ate 'Gurhka' curry AMAP(as much as possible)!. Then I mixed with the Gurkhas soldiers in Hong Kong and got to work with the son of the Gurkha Transport Reg Major, and got invited to their mess and festivals to enjoy the curries...Hummm Yum! Got a rare issued Kukhri with serial number and all! Oh Yes, I learnt to speak their language too!

Then my brother who took over those trek expeditions from me married a lovely Nepalese girl so I now get a regular dose of Gurkha curry at their palce ! :)

Greenjacket ,long time been of touch, What bivi gear do you use? I got some older issued OD goretex covers and lately seen some in DPM. I thought that you cant surely exit fast from those issued stuff if in emergency. What is your opinion?

Warmest wishes,

Oliver
 
Chindit,

I use a hooped civilian bivi bag which works best set up fully. When I first joined up the bivi bag system was just catching on big time. We had to buy our own. Goretex allowed some breathability, and the best had break out horizontal zips. However, leaking, condensation build up and a real lack of understanding how the system works made many a very soggy night for many. Even in the days of sleeping bags and bashas, infiltrating a hide with sleeping maggots (soldier sleeping in his bag) made easy work, but this was brovado in training. For real it would be another whole ball game.

The shout is manoeuver warfare were troops have to move fast and focus firepower. This is high energy fighting which takes its toll on man and machines. The sleeping system is there to give the modern soldier a good rest, or rather snatch some sleep, anywhere; gone are days when you made camp, now you just stop, sort your life out and once resupplied be ready to go again. Britain also has a temperate climate which means wet and cold. Wet and cold is very different to dry and cold. I've seen many a miserable Gurkha wet and cold, and exchange Americans and Canadians in pieces. (I've seen altitude and heat exhaustion drop my soldiers as fast; its all to do with giving resourses for soldiers to climatise. Royal Marines spent several weeks/month before they set of into the mountains in Afganistan.)
Goretex likes cold and dry to work most efficiently, so getting it to work in wet and cold, or even wet and warm needs some thought.

The issue bivi bag has but one hole, to get in and out, so no more leaks from zips. Its part of a sleeping system that not only includes the sleeping bag but a basha and sleeping mat. The Mat is very important as a thermal barrier that keeps the cold rising from the ground. The sythetic sleeping bag keeps its thermal efficiency even with a damp soldier and not only keeps the soldier warm but can wick away moisture and persperation to the extent that the soldier might even come out dryish. The bivi bag, so long as air circulates inside and out should expel a good amount of excess moisture (the reason why I like hooped ones). However, both bags should be given a good airing when there is an opportunity. Finally the basha, keeps direct rain off the bivibag so that the goretex has a chance to work but also as cover for personal administation. You can't sort your feet out from a bag. Goretex does not work when saturated; infact it can work the wrong way. Its needs wind to drive the system. It also doesn't last very long, two three years best so don't save it, use it and then buy again. A bivi bag makes a good bergen liner, river crossing bag, survival bag, and a marginal body bag.

The new issue comes in DPM as all kit does now as printing cost don't add much. Finding a single soldier bivi'ed up at night is difficult unless within a hide's roped footplan. A properly set up hide with correct security is very difficult to approach without being challenged. Sleeping outside a designated area is likely to get yourself crushed by a vehicle; they just wont see you.

The bivi system gives individuals soldiers the chance to rest in order that they can remain in fighting condition for longer in the most adverse conditions. They do work, just. Even in summer they can help keep the midges away and that morning dew off.
 
GreenJacket...
I'm curious what type of pack you refer to as a Bergin.
I was in Viet nam in '69, and worked a bit with the Australian troops ( great Soldiers,great folks) They used a ruck sack that was set up much differently from ours, seemed better capable of moderate loadings, rather that ours being suseptable to over loading. They were frameless, but bery comfortsble with around 40 lbs in them.
I really liked the kippers, milk, and the Cadbury chocolate in them.
 
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