Equipment Advice from Steve & the MG's Blog
Equipment information from Steve’s BLOG (Steve’s excepts are in it original black text)
These are cut and pastes that Steve had written in his Blog. I thought they were very informative so I put them together to keep.
UPDATED: 4 JULY 05 - 5 months down.
I have updated this page keeping all the original information I added in December 2004 and adding my personal assessment from being in Iraq for 5 months. There will be differences in peoples experiences as some soldiers are coming from the active duty and some are being called up right off the streets. Updates are in BOLD letters. It was already a long post, so HA, now it is even longer!
THUMB DRIVES or portable hard drives. I’m talking Gigs, baby! CD-RW or DVD-R drives … you’ll be able to get disks for the CD-R’s. Great for sending free pictures back to da house!
Digital Cameras - don’t pay out the nose for the newest and greatest. 3.1 to 4 mega pixels will do the job, and see if it can record 3 or so minutes of video clips. You are coming to Iraq or Afghanistan and you’re going to put it on your gear in a pouch or pocket. It will get damaged. The more you baby it, the quicker it will get damaged! Mine still is very effective, but it’s got the scratches to prove it’s been around. (My camera says, “Chicks dig scars!”)
Speaking of scars … don’t forget your power tools. We came to a FOB that had been lived in for a year and a half, and still had a lot of stuff to build. Saws, drills, screws and nails of all sizes and shapes will come in handy. Hey, smart guy … if your unit isn’t over here right now, start ordering it now. Sooner or later the rotation will getcha even if you’re slatted to come for OIF 7 … you know the drill! You’ll need both carpentry and masonry skills. I don’t know how many times I have been asked for a soldering gun.
Great Stuff©, the foam crack sealer in a can … if you want to limit the numbers of critters coming into your “crib” at night. Yeah, FOBBiT’s!
XO’s - Commo … is a constant issue over here. Your AO’s will be bigger than you’ve ever dealt with before. Get it repaired at home station. Keep pushing the issue, as this is one of the big three issues! And get commo smart NCOs and O’s. If you’re in a town under wires in the low ground surrounded by trees and you can’t reach base … it’s not the equipment! (Kah-Duh!) If I have to explain one more time why I can’t reach base to anyone in the truck and they don’t consider the conditions we are in … I’m going to lose my mind.
O, Oh, O yeah. O’s and some of you NCO’s that think you need to be an “O”. It’s really not your truck. It’s really the gunners and drivers truck. Trust me; I don’t even have a truck. It really belongs to the gunners I place in charge of them.
And the Last word … on the Mollie Vest. The solution is the $47 to $57 dollars you’re going to spend on a tactical tailor kit (MAV or Rack). No need to buy the whole kit, just the body harness. You can attach all your issue Mollie pouches to that. Or, put on the LBE, LCE and live like three decades of warriors did from the 70’s to the 90’s (and get your rear end chewed on by a uniform Nazi.) Since the Army’s gone Mollie, the first option is probably the best. It does make a difference.
Steve wrote: Most of the people I came over with brought most of what they thought they would need to the CRC in Ft Bliss. And most of these people bought a few more things at the Ft Bliss PX, or local shops. After getting a ton of gear issued to us at Ft Bliss, including 3 sets of long underwear and a pair of cold weather boots (on top of 2 pair of regular desert boots), most folks also ended up shipping at least one duffel bag worth of stuff home via FedEx (provided free of charge on one of the last days before shipping out). It was also a surprise to many that they could only take 3 duffels and a carry-on, not 4 duffels, which was a change in June, I believe. We were allowed to take 3 duffle bags, 1 ruck sack and 1 carry on. 2 duffle bags have been shipped with our milvans. The 'A' bag will fly with us and must weigh less than 70 lbs. The ruck will be used to carry our body armour and “man bras” with weapons magazines and other equipment. We are not allowed to 'stuff' the outside pockets of our carry on bags.
It would have been comfortably great to fly without personal gear, but with all good plans, that one got circle-filed and we ended up taking on board with us our man bra’s and ballistic vests.
Steve wrote: Upon arriving in Kuwait, 20+ hours after getting on the plane in El Paso, we were informed by an army Major that the army had been surveying soldiers to find out what they were buying for their time in Iraq, and that the army had decided to issue most of these items. It's a lot of good stuff -- too bad they didn't let anybody know they would be doing so, since most folks already had most of these items by the time they arrived in Kuwait. Now, with this said, you really should buy anything you think is *critical* rather than hoping you'll get it in Kuwait or Iraq. But if it isn't *critical* and it's on this list, you can save yourself some extra weight and expense and just pick it up here. Also, the PX in Doha is well-stocked with army gear, as is the PX at LSA Anaconda in Balad, Iraq. So if you don't buy it and bring it, and you don't get it given to you in Kuwait, you can probably pick it up here easily enough. We are expecting to go to Arifijan instead of Doha on our arrival, but we have no confirmation on that yet. The PX is bigger than the one at Doha, but I imagine we will push out to a Camp in the desert very quickly to do a last minute train up before we make the 'Combat Patrol' up north.
What we actually did was go strait to the camps in the dessert. No Doha or Arifijan for the “Dirty Thirty”. We spent around 3 weeks where we acclimatized and received our briefings. We went to ranges and shot all our weapons. It was all controlled, albeit loosely, by the 42 ID. Bring your own staple guns and staples for the small arms ranges in Kuwait. I don’t mean in your TAC BOXES and MIL VANS … I mean bring your own staple guns, Mike Golf’s and range-setter-upper-type people. A good idea might be for units to pre-plan who they will have go out and set up the small arms ranges before you fly. Trust me, everyone in the unit will end up out there on that day.
Steve wrote: At Doha, we received (and do not have to return) another duffel bag, a no-frills green camelbak (you may want to buy a nicer desert one), a black rigger bdu pants belt, several pair of nomex and cold weather gloves, a set of Wiley-X sunglass-goggles, a set of full coverage goggles (like you would wear on convoy ops with a kevlar), 2 pair of nicer boots, both desert style, one cold weather one normal, made by Belleville and much more comfortable than the Altamas and other brands we were issued at Bliss, several no-name wicking polyester brown t-shirts (similar to UnderArmour but not quite as nice in my opinion -- but way cheaper (free)), several black silk cold weather t-shirts (for layering -- hiking gear -- good stuff), black polyester fleece jacket and pants (name brand hiking apparel - much better than field jacket). That's about it. We were also fitted for the new Kevlar helmets that are coming but which are on backorder at the moment. At Doha we also received our protective vests and inserts. We have received our RFI here at Ft. Benning. The Helmets are actually not Kevlar, but a Polymer that is suppose to be more resilient to small arms fire.
There are new Wiley X glasses and ESS glasses coming out that are a lot better than the first Wiley X’s they issued too us. (They have NSNs.) My ESS CDI glasses have held up very well. I have only worn out one set of smoke lenses in 5 months. The amber lens works well at night in the Iraqi towns. The Iraqis use a lot of dim orange light and florescent lights at night … except when the power goes out in the entire neighborhood you are in, but not in the rest of the city!
You should also try to order Gerber multitools. Not a day goes by I don’t pull mine out at least once. Shame on you if you don’t have one on your belt, soldier! More important than “dog tags” in my humble opinion. (IMHO)
The Advanced Combat Helmet (ACH or aka MICH) helmet is lighter and easier to wear for long periods of time. The problem is that the back straps slowly work their way loose and that causes the helmet to move around a lot. Over all, it is an improvement over the Kevlar.
The Belleville desert boot we got issued is the best boot I have been issued for duty here. They are holding up very well, soles still have plenty of life in them and are making me feel like a goon for bringing so many extra pair.
Steve wrote: Since being on the ground in Iraq, I've learned that cotton t-shirts are worthless. They will be soaking wet in about 5 minutes if you are outside or in a hot tent. Once they're wet, they don't dry quickly and they're quite uncomfortable. I have 2 underarmour loosegear brown shirts I picked up at Fort LeonardWood for (ouch) $20 each and they are fantastic by comparison. I have about 10 cotton t-shirts and I'm probably going to throw them away or something. The wicking polyester shirts issued at Doha I haven't really put to the test yet. I'm wearing one today but the sun has only just come out and I've been indoors since it has - I'll review its performance relative to the expensive UA shirt in a later post. I see a lot of people wearing the UA shirts, though, and they're definitely worth it in my opinion. They dry very quickly and, although I know this sounds gross, they can really be worn several days at a time without being washed if need be (laundry services being somewhat hard to come by here at the moment). My cotton shirt I wore yesterday was done after just a few hours of the heat. I prefer the UA shirts to the poly moister wicking t-shirts, but they are still better and dry faster than the plain ol' cotton brown t-shirt.
The UA shirts are still the best, except for the little white label on the inside. After a few washings, it starts to crack and peel giving you the feeling of a bug on your neck just below the rim of the body armour! The moisture wicking shirts that are issued are good and dry out fairly quickly on a line. Both the UA and moisture wicking t-shirts make you feel about 10o cooler than the normal cotton t-shirts, which are, as Steve said, worthless. They take hours to dry on a line and stay soaked from the moment you do PCC’s and PCI’s until you get back.
Steve wrote: I wrote earlier about the heat but I don't think I used the two most common analogies I've heard or come up with since being here. Walking outside during the day invariably feels like the blast of hot air that comes with opening up an oven to check on dinner. Except that the blast of hot air doesn't dissipate - that's just how it is once you're out in the heat. With the wind blowing, rather than feeling particularly cool, it feels pretty much just like having a hot blow dryer blowing in your face, but nonstop and across your whole body. On the plus side, if you spill some water on yourself, it dries within a couple of minutes... I've always described the heat as looking down a hair dryer ... all day long.
The breeze is good until the air temperature hits about 100 degrees. Then there seems to be an automatic change over from nice breeze to Dante’s inferno.
Steve wrote: In closing, with regard to what to bring, truly try to bring as little as you can. You're going to have to lug the stuff quite a ways before you finally get somewhere where you can unpack, so the less weight you have to contend with, the better. Oh, and luggage carts -- I have mixed feelings about them. I picked one up in Bliss but the only time it was really worthwhile was the first night in Doha. Otherwise, the terrain has usually been too rocky (or involved stairs and/or buses to get on/off) to make its use worthwhile. I'd probably skip it if given the chance to buy it again.
The only thing I have with wheels is a Stanley Mobile tool box I use when I work on the Bradley Gun. It gets around okay, and I usually drive it down to the motorpool, which has a concrete floor, or just have to wheel it around the company area.
1. FRS Radio and/or GPS. The Rino 120 works as both but chews through batteries. The radios can be useful for non-tactical usage on bases. I used a Rino 110 through the entire war. My platoon sergeant and two of the squad leaders had Rino's also. At the time, we knew the Iraqis didn't have the stuff. Now, we know that they have captured it from us.
Rino 120’s are in the supply system. We use them a lot. In a story about my Rino 110, it became “priceless” to us on our Ground Assault Convoy from Kuwait to FOB Normandy. Had I not have already been to a refuel station 2 years ago and kept it in my Garmin, are convoy I was in would have turned around in search of the place using even more fuel and loosing daylight.
2. Name tapes - you'll want some extra ones of these for your bags, IBV (bulletproof vest), boonie hats, trousers (a lot of folks put them above the back pocket), etc. I know you can get them at FLW or Ft Bliss -- not sure if anywhere in Kuwait or Iraq does them. An excellent idea to tag your DCU pants with name tapes. Since I do my own sewing, all my pants have this done. I've also tagged my man bra, assault pack and many other items.
Tagging your new stuff is very important as it is guaranteed that you’ve got something issued to you that the other guy didn’t. On that note, some of you may be getting the new ACU. Will somebody please tell me when you would EVER take your name tape or US Army tape off of your uniform unless you are the 2% of people in the SPEC Ops world. Stop the Velcro (hook and loop tape) madness!
3. Under Armour T-Shirts (and Boxer Briefs). Brown Loosegear is my preference for the shirts. These things are the best I've found. Cotton is horrible. HeatGear style is ok, and you can buy them at the PX in Balad but they're super-tight, like wearing spandex, and are hard to keep tucked in because they're not very long. The LooseGear ones have the same moisture-wicking qualities but wear more like a regular t-shirt. They give you some polyester shirts, too, and they're better than cotton, but not as comfortable as the UA gear. Downside: expensive. $20 per shirt. Worth it to get a couple, though, if only so you can see the difference. I cannot speak enough of the boxer briefs. Try to forget the 18 bones per set of drawers and remember how cool your crotch will feel. Yes, I said that!
And I meant it, every patrol out the wire. Buy it at home because you they don’t get enough here. I got lucky and found a shirt my size (HeatGear©) at LSA Bombaconda (Balad) one time. The only thing I’ve seen otherwise is the ColdGear© and women’s UA gear.
4. PT uniforms - bring at least 2-3. I only brought one (since I had to buy my own and didn't know how much PT would be going on here). Since PTs are pretty much the only 'casual' clothes you can wear around (e.g. not DCUs), you'll want a few sets (in addition to being used for PT and perhaps as sleepwear). Caldwell has no PX so it was tricky for me to get any after arriving here, but Chris hooked me up today while he was offbase at a place with a PX. And don't forget the winter PT's!
Not having winter PT’s would have been a mistake in the winter when we arrived in Kuwait unless you are from Alaska. We are allowed to wear civilian clothing IN OUR IMMEDIATE LIVING AREA ONLY. So PT’s are the common off-duty uniform of choice.
5. Carabiners - Bring about a dozen of these of different sizes. They're super handy. Along with the usual must-have items: 550 cord, bungie cords, and 100MPH tape. –YES, as a matter of fact, I wear a D-ring on my gear and one on my assault pack, and have two in the room. Sometimes you just hook things to them to get them out of your hands.
Steve wrote: One other thing I wanted to mention while I'm thinking about it is sun block. You really don't need to bring much, if any. There's tons of it lying around. They issue it to you at the CRC. And the only part of your body that is even in the sun is your face, maybe the back of your neck, and your hands. So you're not really going through it very fast. I have about 3-4 bottles of it that I brought or had given to me by people and I don't think I've opened any of them yet. Just FYI. People seem to forget about this one, and I didn't bring enough with me for the invasion. The back of my neck on top of my Bradley got baked.
It is not as available around the FOB here as it was for Steve, but it is still easy to get your hands on.
Steve wrote: For telephone, nothing here beats the Segovia IP phones. You get about 10 hours for $25 - something like $.05 per minute. AT&T phones are common, too, but the AT&T phone cards that have domestic minutes get used up 10 or 20 times as fast for international calls, so a 300 minute card would last an hour if you're lucky. So, get a phone card or two for en route, but once you're hear, go with Segovia (which you buy online and just get a number to use, no actual card).
We’ve got Segovia at FOB Normandy, and it is a steal.
Steve wrote: NOTE on AT&T Cards: "If a soldier wants to get minute for minute on his card he need only call the customer service number on his card, hit "0" and it may ask for his pin number (or they'll need it handy). He tells the Customer service Rep that he is calling from Iraq/Afghanistan on a military camp or base and they will make the call for him at a one to one ratio. If he/she doesn't choose to do that and they call the regular 800 number on the back of the card in the instructions they will be paying an 18 to 1 ratio. That means, instead of it costing 3.9c a minute it will cost 70+c a minute."
Steve wrote: Still love all my UnderArmour stuff -- I don't wear anything else for shirts/underwear now. (I agree. I case you missed it, this stuff is a 4.5 out of 5)
Steve wrote: Got a Gilette Mach3 razor from my wife a few days ago to replace my Gillette Sensor (figured I'd give the new one a shot and see how I liked it). The difference was amazing - there's no way I'm going back to the Sensor. I know it's a pretty simple thing, shaving, but seeing as I'm doing 7 days a week now I really appreciate having the better razor. Another excellent choice. But the power Mach 3 kills me. Save your cash and just get the regular Mach3 or try the Sensor 3 blade cartridges.
Just stick with the MACH 3 and you’ll be abele to find blades at most PX or PX outlets
Steve wrote: Camelbaks -- if you're going to be in a mechanized unit, don't fret about them too much. The water in them gets warm quickly, and they get in the way when you're riding in a vehicle. All our tracks and humvees have coolers in them and we stock ice from the mess hall before going out each day, so while we're out we always have cold bottled water and/or Gatorade. No need for anything more on our backs (the IBA and basic load are sufficient). Pretty much everything you drink will come from a sealed plastic bottle, either bottled water (usually in 1.5L bottles) or gatorade (from the chow hall - 20oz bottles).
In my unit I have found that the camelback is a plus, but you will be riding in vehicle. Most likely, a uparmoured M1114 or a Bradley. It may get in the way, so down the water in the Camelback first. Coolers are available through the system and through the bigger bases. There is the small, sliding door in the back of the M1114 co you can get to the trunk if you put the cooler there. We get ice from the mess hall Refer-vans and put it into freezers we’ve got in our unit. Sometimes they run out, but it has been a good flow lately. We have to wear too much stuff, with body armour on as it is, so adding canteens to the man bra or OTV / IBA is just not worth it. Most guys are killing 3 liters of water and a Gatorade per patrol now and it’s not even hot yet!!!
Steve wrote: Boots - I was issued some Bellevilles at Camp Doha in Kuwait as part of an additional combat issue. They're much nicer than the basic issue Altamas I got back at Ft. Bliss, and I've been wearing them since the day I got them 2 months ago without complaint (and without blisters). I have been having a hard time breaking in the winter Belleville boots, but I think that it is just because of the different shape of the boot. (I haven’t worn the winter boots since I left Ft. Benning, GA. If it was cold, it was usually muddy out here, so I wore a pair of boots that were desert veterans.)
Steve wrote: Oh, another tip - my watchband broke off while I was putting on or taking off my IBA (indiv body armor), either in Kuwait or just after getting to Iraq. It's been frustrating as hell not having a watch on my wrist, but there's no watch shops around here, and all you can buy from the Iraqis are fake luxury watches (Rolexes, etc.). So, bring a few sturdy watches or at least a few extra watchbands/pins if you're coming over here. A battery operated or mechanical alarm clock is a must, too. We keep having power outages (and also water outages), so anything that depends totally on AC power (like a clock radio) is not going to be too reliable. Watches don't seem to last in the sandbox too well. My Timex Expedition took a dump on me in OIF after we had gotten to Baghdad. Armor crews, remember to keep you watches and rings secure and never work on your 25mm with them on. Mike Golf rules.
Steve wrote: Also, I've managed to fry a clock/radio that was sent to me from home and a small stereo I bought at the PX by plugging them into a 110V power strip that was plugged into a 220V wall outlet via a $1.25 plug adapter. Lesson -- the plug adapter doesn't step down the total power coming through to my accessories. I've noticed that none of my appliances that have big brick plugs or connectors (like laptops have) have been damaged, so I think it's only a problem for electronics that get power directly from the wall current. Anyway, I picked up an 'Automatic Voltage Regulator' that puts out actual 110V current (and even has a little dial showing you how much load you're putting on it), rated at 1000W (or Volt-Amps as they use here, it seems -- I think that's the same as Watts). It cost $60 but since I'd already fried that much worth of stuff I figured it was worth it not to fry any more. Have a clock radio from Kosovo that runs on both 110, 220. I'll just have to make sure the switch is set right before I plug it in! I know my unit is trying to get power converters. We'll see.
My clock radio has been a champ throughout this entire journey. I’m sure that it wishes it was back in a Sea Hut at Camp Monteith, Kosovo.
VOLTAGE REGULATORS: They can be had for about 40-50 bones from the local nationals. Bring extra fuses for them though. (110 – 10A) We had a lot of generator issues here in March and again in May which killed many fuses. Remember that a used regulator is not necessarily a bad one, so incoming units can probably get them for less from soldiers in outgoing units. SSSC out of LSA Bombaconda also gets them in stock, but units are limited to 1 per month per company level supply room.
I have run my computer off the regulator the entire time and have only fried a multi-port USB hub on 1 July, 05. My old, trusty computer has jokingly been blamed for power outages in the barracks
I Still like the products the people at ESS are making for us.