The following post was originally part of a discussion on women in combat. I've taken the liberty of deleting those portions and left the block of text that discusses the gear a long-range patrol member carried deep in "injun country." Obviously, mission parameters will affect this list. I've made no effort at "cleaning up" the text - I'm passing it on just as I received it.

i see no problem as long as they can meet all of the standards of soldiery that the men must meet, basic, ait, jump school, phase 1 and 2, specialty training, recon school and carry seven 20 round mags in a canteen cover and 4-5 covers on web gear, a 5th had a canteen, that's 560-700 rounds of 5.56, a gerber knife, buck knife, transponder, strobe, mirror, penflare, compass, maps, claymores, dextrose in bags, serum albumen in a can, morphine, bandages, butterfly needles, venocath, concussion grenades (depending on the mission) 5-6 hand grenades a handful of cherry grenades, length of rope, rapelling skills, snaplinks, lengths of rope for securing gear and tying prisoners, or tourniquetes, timex, bricks of c-4, and maybe some detcord, detonators for claymores, small radio taped to web gear, usually the ky-38 and the kyk-12 (heeeeavy), silenced .22 or .32 (depending on mission) a canteen or 2 of powdered cs, a white phosphorous grenade with fuse igniter on ruck sack strap, black leather gloves, large floppie hat, 3 pairs of glasses, a&d ointment, a thin plastic ground cloth, for laying on or under or cut up for sucking chest wounds, water bladder in ruck, dried rice and fish or lrrps, some smoke grenades, sawed off m-79 and rounds (sometimes or a .45 for backup), salt tablets, iodine tabs, lomotil, amphetamines, morphine, mosquito repellent, leech repellent, lite weight cloth around neck for cleanup, stabo rig web gear, car 15, weapon cleaning gear, cleaning rod taped to weapon for expanded cartridges, medicinal type tape, roll of duct type tape green, tape to wrap wrists & ankles, button all buttons, flash lite, xtra bulbs and batteries with red filters, also if necessary trade off carrying ammo cans for machineguns, mortor rounds, tube, baseplate, pod, sight, personal gear, radio, there was probably more equipment, then be prepared to rest on the ground (rarely sleep) in the mud, spend days and weeks soaking wet, wading in filthy scummy water, accept as a way of life mosquitoes, leeches, snakes, rotten feet, raw armpits and crotch, deal with the process of bodily elimination with t.p. that melts in your hand and absolutley no privacy, unless she is willing to risk her life for it. then she should know all the military skills: crossing rivers, and trails, breaking contact, breaking ambushes, setting up ambushes, patroling, doubling back, radio work, move all nite and be where you are supposed to in the morning, etc. etc. etc. then there is the actual facing enemy fire which could blow large chunks of meat from your body, and coping with killing people and washing off body parts of friends as you pile them into the bag. on and on.

General Survival

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