The gear we carried in Nam

[Delta254]

The photo above was taken by Ray Stubbe as one of our recon teams came back in from patrol. I'm second from the left, carrying an M-79 grenade launcher and an M-16 on a sling made from parachute cord.

We often ran patrols in areas where we couldn't get artillery support and since there were only 6-8 men on each team, we had to carry enough gear, weapons and ammo to support ourselves until we could break contact with the enemy or until we could get choppers to extract us. If I was carrying the M-79 I would also carry an M-16 instead of a 1911 .45 cal pistol.

I was thinking back to the gear we carried. I'll probably forget some, but here are the items I remember:

M-16 with 25 magazines and 2 bandoleers of loose ammo
M-79 with 30 - 35 rounds of ammo
6 frag grenades
2 smoke or tear gas grenades
1 willie peter grenade
1 Claymore mine
B-1 surgical kit (if we didn't have a Corpsman)
C-rats for 7-9 days
6 canteens of water
spare battery for the PRC-25
poncho
K-bar
maps and compass
Gas mask pouch minus the mask (used it to carry bug juice, cigarettes and C-rat toilet paper)
Instamatic camera in my front shirt pocket

When I joined Bravo Company at Khe Sanh prior to the siege I was able to obtain an ANC-47 packboard and pack. The pack frame had a soft canvas liner that went against my back and the pack itself was large enough to hold most of my chow, poncho, spare M-79 rounds and spare M-16 ammo. The primary and secondary radio operators carried the same gear but instead of the M-79 and ammo, they had the PRC-25s to hump. The point man usually had the lightest load, but he was constantly breaking trail. The last man (tail-end Charley) carried an M14 and rifle grenades. Others in the team carried coils of rope, C-4 demo kits and other misc gear.

It has been long enough that I know I forgot some items, but I can still vividly remember the weight of all that gear draging me backwards as we humped the hills and mountains around Khe Sanh.




Similar Threads:

• What they carried
• Marine carried war home inside of him
• Investigation by military carried out with honor
• The Things They Carried
• They Carried Each Other

[Rocky C]

Welcome home and welcome to the forum Brother.

Semper Fi,
Rocky

[The DUKE]

What????? No entrenching tool

[Delta254]

What????? No entrenching tool

No flack jackets, helmets, shelter halves, tent poles, shaving gear, blankets, mess kits ot any other luxury items. Would have loved to have a flack jacket and helmet to sit on while we were being inserted into hot LZs, but didn't want them in the bush.

[Kegler300]

Where's the ...

[The DUKE]

Just busting your chops bro,
been there done that ,
I know where your coming from :-))

[montana]

A few of us packed the M14. 8 magazeans 20 rounds and a lot of loose rounds

[m14ed]

Louisiana HotSauce

"Don't leave home without it"....


or a reasonable fact simily *
what ever you could grab
to spice up them rats
for when you had'um

[SgtThrasher]

Where's the ...

I agree that P-38 was a hot item.