In this video I cover just the basics, because that is all you really need. Keep your kit simple, carrying only what you need.
When you look at my kit in the video, it’s going to look like I’ve got shit slung everywhere randomly. Trust me, there is a method to the madness. Start with priorities, ammo for example, and position those pouches to allow rapid access under any conditions. Then move on to secondary items and position pouches for them.
Once you have your kit setup the way you want it; immediately go out and do PT wearing it. Go climb a wall, or better yet, go run an obstacle course. Go climb behind the steering wheel of a HUMMER. Go to the shooting range and try some transition drills. You may find that one of your pouches, while perfect standing in front of a mirror, actually interferes with you climbing or drawing your pistol. Find what works and what doesn’t. Then, fix and adjust those pouches, and try it again. Can you shoot, move, and communicate with your current gear setup? If not, fix it now; before your life depends on it.
Gear setup will vary by operator and by situation. Medics obviously carry more med gear. Commo guys obviously carry more commo gear. Breachers carry more breaching gear, and so forth. Running three mags deep on your front allows for access to a lot of ammo, but makes climbing walls a bitch. Running a slick front on your kit allows you to get low in the prone, but adds a lot of pouches sticking out on your sides. That normally isn’t an issue, until you are trying to get through narrow doorways in Afghanistan, and your sides are now too fat. Again, what is your situation? My kit evolves to match the current requirements.
You’ll see SWAT guys running their radios on their backs, but SF guys run them on their sides… Why? The SWAT guys work in a purely “permissive” environment. If they need to change channels, they can ask their buddy to do it. Now, switch to the SF Operator and he may find himself in a extremely hostile environment, pinned down and alone. He may need to change freqs to talk to a QRF or MedEvac bird. He can’t rely on someone else to swap his channels, so he locates his radio on his kit so that he can reach the dials.
We can talk fine details all day long; what-if it to death, and never get all operators to agree. Bottom-line is 35 pounds of lightweight kit is still 35 pounds. So, keep it light, keep it simple, and only carry what you need.
All right, welcome back.
Hey, we had a comment on a different video, a viewer wanted to know a little bit about
how we set up our body armor, what kind of pouches, stuff like that we put on it.
So we decided to do another video and we'll break it down just for him.
So again, try to keep what you have on your body, on your kit, on your weapon to the bare
minimum.
Don't weigh yourself down with cool guy stuff if you really don't need it.
If you don't need a lot of stuff, don't put a lot of stuff on there.
You'll find some units carry a lot of extra gear because they have different assigned
jobs and tasks.
If your job is basic and simple, don't add all the extra stuff if you don't need it.
All right, so let's start with the front of the body.
Right off the bat, you need ammo for your primary weapon system.
In that case, we're running five, five, six mags.
So on the front of the body armor here, we've got three, five, five, six mags on each side.
And then there's some more we can reach by reaching around behind them on the backside
of the body armor here.
I'll cover them when we get to the back.
All right, now you notice the retaining band is off of this first magazine.
That's so that if we had to quickly reload our rifle, we could do that from that position
right there.
But other than that, all the other magazines all have some form of retaining device on
them.
The reason for that, if you were to trip and fall off that ramp of that helicopter or just
basically fall down, fall upside down, going through a window, whatever it may be, you
don't want all your magazines to fall out of your kit.
Just lose all your cool points, one, and two, now you're wasting time on the battlefield
trying to pick your stuff back up.
After you're done with mags for your primary weapon system, you need mags for your secondary
weapon system.
Just like how we do it on our belt where we keep our reload mags on our side, same way
on our kit.
That magazine will be up in our right hand or your strong hand, whichever eye dominant
you are.
My magazines for my pistol are set up, again, on my other side so that my support hand can
quickly perform that speed reload on that pistol.
Now likewise, same with the rifle, my first pistol mag is set up for a speed reload.
It does not have a retaining band over the top.
The hundredths of a second that I can save may make a difference between life and death
inside a room.
If my long gun goes down inside a room, I'm already having a bad day.
My reload on my pistol has got to be as fast as possible.
Once I've got my reloads for my weapon systems out of the way, after that we're looking at
medical gear.
You need to have a tourniquet where you can reach it with either hand.
Don't just think, well, I'm going to have it on my left side.
Put your hand on your wallet.
Put your other hand on your wallet.
You can't get to it with that other hand, can you?
Likewise, that tourniquet needs to be somewhere where you get it.
For me, I keep that tourniquet on my belt where I can get to it, and I keep another
one right on the front of my body armor right here.
Other than that, I will have medical gear either in my deltoid pouches, or you see on
my belt, I've got a med pouch right center on the back.
That's where I keep medical gear for me to do self-aid with.
Buddy aid, I don't need to be able to do buddy aid on myself, so that pouch is actually on
the back.
I'll cover that when we get back there, too.
Other than that, I've got a push-to-talk button for my radio.
My Pelta headset's wired in with my comms system.
I plug that in there, push the talk button.
Other than that, a couple other pouches to hold.
I've got a few flashbangs up front in a pouch here to hold a firing system for an explosive
door charge.
Other than that, you do not need a whole lot of other stuff on here.
We'll talk about the back of it.
I already mentioned that I keep a buddy aid medical kit on the back.
Now, I can't reach that.
That's not for me to treat somebody else.
That's for somebody else to treat me.
When that other assaulter comes up to me, he'll take this kit off, and he'll use the
medical gear in here to patch me up.
You also see I've got a couple extra flashbang grenades on the back.
That's so when I'm the number one man on the door, locking down that door, the number two
man comes up behind me, he's already got flashbangs right here in front of him.
He's just got to take it off, show it to me, and he'll be ready to pump it into that doorway.
I've also got a couple extra general purpose pouches here.
If it's a day hit, I still want to bring my night vision with me.
I can put night vision in there, extra batteries for all my electronic equipment.
You'll see there are extra 5.56 mags that I can reach on both sides.
I've got a 100 ounce Camelbak bladder ran down behind all of this stuff.
Along with my antenna for my radio.
So that's it.
It seems like a lot, but just carry what you need.
All you need is just the bare basics.
That's about it.
That's how we, the professionals, set up our kit, set up our body armor.
If you've got any other questions or comments, leave them below.
