It Fits!

It looks like everything will fit in my assault pack, brief-case, and weapons case.

My pack will look roughly like the jalopy heading west in The Grapes of Wrath, with random little bags hanging off the side.

I have my whole little cargo bay sleeping kit strapped to the top. I've got my inflatable thermarest, camping pillow, and woobie (little camo blanket, among the best pieces of kit we get issued) in a large compression sack. My hammock is in it's pack bag hanging off the side.

So floor or hammock, I'm ready for either.

It helps that we aren't packing our armor since we have to keep it accesible during the flight.

I had to cut out some of the foam in the weapons case to make room for my headset, headphones that both reduce loud noises while amplifying ambient sound and can be hooked into our radios.

I should have cut out more of the foam to create custom spaces for all the M4 magazines, cleaning kit stuff, and random slings, sights, lights, etc. I guess I was reluctant to do so earlier, but the case does belong to my unit and is assigned to me for the rifle that is assigned to me. And I'm pretty much at the end of this rotation and don't care as much about what the weapons storage gnomes back home might say.

My rifle is very clean. I took the time to scrape off every little carbon deposit on the firing pin and the bolt. I then lubed it back up, reassembled it and made sure the sight, light, and laser were all off. Just add ammo and flick a few switches and I'm ready to rock again.

When it goes back into storage I'll need to take the batteries out of everything. Everything but the sight. That belongs to me and is going right back on my rifle at home.

Once we get to Bragg I'll need to rearrange this mess one last time. The armor will need to be packed for real. I'll probably just take my jalopy ruck and toss it in the extra duffel along with some other random junk and just check it as my fourth piece of checked bags.

My briefcase will be my only real carry-on for the commercial flights home.

The bag drag to the lodging at Bragg, lodging to my ride, the curb to the terminal, and then from the baggage claim to my ride at my home unit will be rough. Four giant bags with only the weapons case being within weight limits.

Maybe that's the real reason we PT.


And before I forget, I got a copy of an ancient (late 60's) SOWT recruiting film. It starts with this incredible footage of an old-school HALO jump (High Altitude/Low Opening). Classic.

But He-Man knuckle draggers that we are, I found 13 Going on 30 on in the team room here.

They said it was the only thing on.