Quote:
Originally Posted by Eddie
Maybe in the old days, but nowadays pretty much every BN has an SOP of how many of what to carry where.
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When I first joined the reserves, our kit policy was that in training you carried what you were told were you were told, but as soon as you got badged you could make your own decisions except for a few obvious things like everyone carrying their personal medical kit and ammo in the same place.
When I went to Afghanistan with a regular unit the kit demands became even looser, we were mainly doing vehicle mounted patrols and were told to keep as much stuff as possible off our person when in the vehicles, as getting kit caught on the hatch as you left it at some speed after hitting an IED had been known to cause more injuries. Most of us just had ammo and a mine kit on our persons, with the majority of our dismounted kit plus a camelbak in a daysack tucked into a shady spot of the wagon.
Of course, I get back to my reserve unit and find that in the year I've been gone it's become full of new recruits, and as a result has reverted to strict packing lists and kit checks before every exercise. Furthermore, because my face is no longer known, I'm treated like one of those recruits by the newer members of the training staff. Annoying.