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Military.com article on US field gear, "The 8 Most Useless Pieces of Gear Ever Issued"


MattS
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phantomfixer

I do like the old black gloves and wool liners...even without the black outer shell the wool liners are pretty warm

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What the heck is wrong with the M65 field jacket?

 

If it is cold, you put a liner in it.

 

If you are still cold, you put a sleeping shirt under your fatigue shirt.

 

If you are still cold after that, you put a wet weather jacket over the field jacket.

 

The black gloves and liners were fine most of the time... but you did have to take them off for fine detail work.

Some troops had a set with the ends of the fingers cut off.

 

As far as load bearing equipment... what is the alternative?

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El Bibliotecario

I would suggest the referenced post was written to gain attention by creating controversy or by people who may well have had no first hand experience with some of the items. The worst I would say is that many of the items reflect the military's penchant for buying peripheral bits of equipment of minimal use, no doubt fueled by lobbying contractors and retired generals on corporate boards.

 

My jeep driver was once wearing the cold weather face mask. When he said something I disagreed with I jokingly reached across and buttoned the flap over his mouth.

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Some people may have used theirs, but I thought the little brown cotton handkerchiefs I was issued in basic seemed pretty useless, especially when they had to be clean and pressed during locker inspections. The long black trench coat I wore once in AIT was equally unneeded.

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I still have the facemask I bought in Germany. I hate to see what they have to say about the wool shirts and field pants

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  • 3 weeks later...

All of those are a matter of the author’s opinion. In my opinion, he is wrong on multiple counts. I liked my black leather gloves with liners. They worked just fine. They were all that we were issued at the time, and I used mine long after less durable gloves were issued. I miss my field jacket. It was a great piece of kit for dry-cold weather. I used my LBE long after I was issued a load bearing vest. He certainly should’ve put the old woodland camo LBVs on that list. They were trash. Sun wind and dust goggles were fine if you needed them. Not terribly durable, but that’s why we were issued spare lenses. Not to mention we were issued multiple pairs in my little part of the Army.

 

You know what else is useless? Blake Stilwell’s article.

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