In a recent letter he wrote about an exercise in which he was a Bravo Team Leader.
He said, "I was curious as to how much gear I'm carrying, so I weighed it all. In my rucksack
I have: two extra shirts, an extra blouse and trousers, extra pair of boots, sleeping bag with bivy,
sleeping mat, two tarps, silk long underwear, long john underwear, 4 pairs of socks, eye protection,
wet weather jacket and pants, fleece jacket, entrenching tool, foot powder, hygiene kit, baby wipes,
weapon cleaning kit, 3 cans of Copenhagen, a "Jungle Antenna " kit, a coaxial antenna extension,
7 MRE meals, 210 rounds of 5.56 ammo, 200 rounds of linked 7.62 NATO ammo, a spare barrel for the
machine gun, the tripod for the machine gun, and some other little things. That's my rucksack. On my
load bearing vest I'm carrying 7 magazines of 5,56 (30 rounds each), a radio, a GPS, a compass, extra AA
and AAA batteries, night vision goggles, some writing material, a map, camouflage face paint, iodine tablets,
a headlamp and I carry an M-4 carbine. On my ruck I have 4 quarts of water and 2 more on my vest.
Altogether I'm carrying 142 pounds of equipment. Sometimes we'll "take a casualty" and we have to carry
him on a stretcher."
Next a course in Arabic and duty in the Middle East.
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