Heavy Battlefield Weight
BY Herschel Smith
18 years, 5 months ago
Over at military.com, there is this interesting piece on battlefield weight:
The Marine Corps is involved in a delicate balancing act. It wants to field the most capable Marines, equipped with the latest gear and protected by the best body armor. However, Marines are saddled with 70-100 pounds of gear — the combat load — and simply adding more equipment and armor can make them tired and less agile, which potentially could cancel out any benefits the new gear may offer.
Read the entire piece here.
I know that my son, Camp Lejeune, 2/6, hates “humps.” They carry 80+ pound backpacks on humps of 20 miles. So it isn’t like they don’t train to carry this much weight into battle. That doesn’t mean, though, that we shouldn’t push for technological development to lighten the burden.
I know this. When he deploys to Iraq early 2007, the deal I am going to make with him is this. He doesn’t ever go out into potential combat situations without wearing his body armor. EVER. PERIOD. It was disturbing to read that some Marines are opting to leave their body armor behind.
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