[pmulcahy11b]

So here's what could be the start of a new thread: what non-standard gear did you carry in the military?

Some of the non-standard stuff I carried at various times (aside from personal stuff like a cassette player and some cassettes, and generally at least one book I was reading at the time) included a strong work-knife with a hammer end (which I also kept sharp enough to be used as a weapon, though I never got in a situation where I had to), a dagger (ditto), a compass pouch, a 5-quart canteen attached to my ruck, a signal flasher (used it only once -- in Korea, one of the TAC crew got hit on the head by the hatch of an M-577 and was knocked unconscious. I signaled the Medivac helicopter with it -- tactically, through the bore of an M-203).

In Desert Storm, I had my standard six 30-round magazines -- plus three more in an extra ammo pouch, another in one leg pocket, and two 20-round magazines in the other leg pocket. And compared to many troops, I was carrying a light ammo load. But then again, I was also the Dragon gunner, since I was the only one in the platoon to have an actual C2 qualification.