Stuff you carried in combat

[Ndnsoldierboy]

I'm gonna tell my son to read your comments so he'll know what to bring with him or we will know
what to send him! One question tho..... generic or cushy soft toilet paper? LOL Would dried or smoked meat be good too? I was wondering because the smoked meat smells really strong! even if it is wrapped and put away you can still smell the smoke. My son loves the smoked meat with a lil cayenne pepper on it! I send him smoked meat and the other guys kept asking him for some.

You can vacuum seal the dried meat. I got some that way in Iraq...the only thing is, you can't bring it back thru customs when he is redeploying to the Big PX.

[Ndnsoldierboy]

I almost forgot, I carried a small american flag with me as well. It is still in the waterfproof bag I carried it in Afghanistan & Iraq.

[lostsalt]

Thanks guys

I could listen/read you boys trading stories all evening.

[50cal]

we had 2 small American flags taped to our brush guard on the humvee.....when I left for Kuwait to fly back to the Big PX, my driver took them off and gave them to me, I got them mounted in a plaque along with a picture of my entire squad in MOPP suits......I brought them back with me when I got rotated back the second time.....

[SmokeEater]

What did I carry? Well the usual stuff. Flak, Kevlar (that was one size too small, and didn't fit right because the Marine Corps got ride of the old kevlars with the suspension lining, and replaced them with the football pads). CAT Tourniquet on my left shoulder.

I found a small first aid pouch somewhere, and molle'd it to my flak jacket. Inside I had a small bag of hetstarch, with an IV set up, IV catheters, Quickclot, and a 9-line on a dry erase board, and a map pen (to fill the blanks for the VC). Lots, and lots of non-latex gloves. And Crystalite pouches.

Elsewhere on my flak: Full-combat load of 5.56 rounds and M-16 mags. IFAK. That big green holster for my M9, and a 9mm mag holder. Also a camel back molle'd to my back. Plus SAPI's front and back, and the groin protector. Also the Caduece right smack in the middle of my flak. My KBAR.i wore a neck gaiter around my neck, although when it got colder I swapped it out for one of my firefighting hoods. I wore whatever I could find for eye-pro because I lost my ESS goggles during the spin up.

Wore both flight suits and tanker suits... Tanker suits, by far were more comfortable. I had a medicine bundle in my left breast pocket, my kill card in the other pocket. And a CAT in my left leg pocket. I had my leg holster for my 9mm strapped to my left leg. I kept my M9 on my flak, while mounted, and switched it over to my leg when I was dismounted.

On my other leg I had another medic pack, which I would have used over my big bag. Inside of it I had: Lots of Israeli Battle Dressings (aka Cinch-tight). Asherman Chest seals. Needles for chest decompressions. Quickclot, and Hemcon. Old school battle dressings. Ace bandages. Trauma shears... and for my Marines.... LOTS AND LOTS OF MOTRIN, MOTRIN, MOTRIN.

Desert boots with the extra dog tag on the wrong foot.

In the vehicle with me: My M16A4 rifle (which the BZO on it sucked- never got it right), with ACOG and a Specter sling I bought at Lejeune. Butt stock pouch with another M16mag. Within arms reach, I had a mag loaded with nothing but tracer rounds. Mostly I kept that for spotting targets at night for air support, etc.

My Aide Bag pretty had everything that my leg pack had, but just more of it. I also had colored flagging tape for marking causalties for Triage. Actual triage tags. Lots of IV bags. Intubation kit. Cric kit. Chest decompression kit. Ice packs. Heat packs. Extra M16 mags, extra 9mm mags, a few porno mags. I had flex-cuffs strapped to the outside of it.

My assault pack: More battle dressings, CATs, IV set ups. Lots of cravats. My iPod. My FMF PQS. Extra MRE snacks and entree's that I would rat f*** and field strip. Lots of Crystalite, and gatorade pouches. Pougey-bait from the chowhall: pop-tarts, muffins, cookies, chips.

In vehicles I ended up being the A-Gunner/A-driver most of the times. So I was pretty quick at swapping out SAW and M240 barrels.

When I did dismounted patrols, and I wouldn't carry my aid bag, and would swap out the non-essential stuff from my assault pack, and beef up the medical supplies. I always made my vehicle the CCP, and left my aid bag there, so I could work on more than one Marine at a time (if it came down that). I also spread-load extra medical equipment amongst my Marines who were Combat Life Savers. I also required all of my Marines to carry their CAT's in their left leg pocket. I also made tourniquets out of cravats, and had them stuff them in their IFAK.

When I did do dismounted patrols, I would ALWAYS look to carry something extra for my Marines... Extra loaded mags, SAW/240 barrels, Frags, Pyro, chemlights, whatever was needed to get the job done. I also knew some of the dirty habits of my Marines... So I would carry lots of extra chew, dip, smokes, etc. I got hooked on Redman chew while I was over there, but I always rat-f*** dip and smokes from care packages, to save them for later.

I tried to plan for everything, and despite some skirmishes, I never took a casualty from a Marine in my unit, and my deployment was fairly uneventful.

I'm guessing I had some powerful medicine with me.

[50cal]

dirty habits?????............us?????????????..........

[50cal]

what I thought was funny, was back in the rear they would tell you in boot camp that the corpsman wasn't suppose to carry, next thing you know in the 'Stan, our Doc was humping a 203....LOL!!!.....he also got to carry his 9 and we would help but spread-loading.....pretty much he looked no different than any of us.....he did carry a extra decks of cards though for those long nights of Spades......LOL!!!

[Ndnsoldierboy]

what I thought was funny, was back in the rear they would tell you in boot camp that the corpsman wasn't suppose to carry, next thing you know in the 'Stan, our Doc was humping a 203....LOL!!!.....he also got to carry his 9 and we would help but spread-loading.....pretty much he looked no different than any of us.....he did carry a extra decks of cards though for those long nights of Spades......LOL!!!

Doc all loaded down...but much lots of respect for the ones who went out the wire with us.

We did carry morphine in our medical pouch and 1 israeli bandage as well in Afghanistan...but in Iraq, it was just the bandage only.

[SmokeEater]

What really impressed me was in Fallujah, we met up with some Artillery bubbas at the gun line where they kept the M198's. I was standing there talking with their Corpsman and they got a fire mission. The next thing I know the Corpsman is running like crazy to the gun, slinging powder bags over his shoulders, and helping send rounds down range. I looked at my Marines like, "why haven't ya'll taught me to do that?" (We're artillery too- Rocket Artillery). Had to be one of the moments I was most proud opf the US Navy Hospital Corps.

[injunboy]

our doc carried his 9mil and took very good care of it and also carried his weight among us. and he had this special bottle of motrin that never, never went empty. but!!, theres this time he got into it with a sidewinder snake in the middle of camp. we was standin around shooting the S*** and doc goes into panic mode, aims, and unloads his clip into the dirt! which was jaw dropping and then the snake is still alive! haha we laughed sooo hard man i can still giggle to this day. ole doc became sensitive about it so we couldnt really rub it in. i dunno but even that was funney. love the corpsman

[injunboy]

oh yeah one of the coolest pieces of gear i had to sign my life away for included these anti laser oakley sunglasses.. *yeah right!* basically when the fixed wings were in the pop and the target painted these shades would save our eyeballs.. haha and good luck to the rest of your body! o yeah we couldnt just wear these sumbits anytime it had to be only during operations.. haha *yeah right!!* thx to the boys in the wing for thinkin up this excuse for these hella fine shades

[Ndnsoldierboy]

Fixed wing...we only got their freqs and that was it...

[Ndnsoldierboy]

oh lookout, here comes the airwing now...

[50cal]

LMFAO!!!!!!!............that was funny.....

[Ndnsoldierboy]

I saw B-1 and B-2 Bombers, some F-16's for OEF and OIF, but the 1st Gulf War, I saw every type of plane the U.S.A. had in its arsenal back then flying.

Now, mostly its just the good ole helo...love those Super Cobras and Apache attack helos.