First off:
Went to the field. Came out early because I had two wisdom teeth that were dislocating my jaw and were putting me in termincal pain. Just had them pulled 30 minutes ago. Am in la la land with Tylox and local anasthesia. Came over here just to get on TFL.
This is the first real field problem I've had with this platoon ... What I found out:
(1) The rats are all kleptos. I lost two pairs of nomex gloves, a bunch of hygenie kit, MREs from my ruck, Heaven knows what else they would have taken if I hadn't stashed it away from the "designated" spots.
(2) Good equipment works wonders. The milspec socks are garbage. The e-tools are worthless. Everything issued to me failed in one way or another, except the Goretex bivy sack.
(3) Painkillers are worth their weight in gold. So is candy, beef jerky and other kinds of "pogi bait."
(4) Cigarettes and cans of dip rise astronomically in price. We had guys buying packs of cowboy killers (Marlboro Reds) for $10+. Small black market here and there.
(5) Incompetence rises to the fore. Our platoon sergeant popped out a TM and was reading out of it in the field and issuing orders. Pretty much the whole NCO cadre failed out there, with one exception. Hypocrisy was the name of the game. "Don't smoke at night" = "I can smoke in my truck because I am an NCO." "Be tactical and exercise noise discipline" = "I can crank up my radio amps so they can be heard 300 yards away because I am too lazy to listen closely while I chat up my buddies and play cards on my guard shift while turning the engine up on the humvee for hours so I can put the heater on full blast because I am an NCO."
Anyways, I plan on ordering more stuff from www.rangerjoes.com as needed. Am going to 48 hours quarters now. I feel like my jaw got hit by a semi.
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Now for the real question:
I have a stock M4. What would you get in terms of scopes and taclights etc for it if you were me? Would you get a Harris bipod? What kind of folding knife would you get? What kind of straight-edge? Would you get a machete?
I'm leaning towards a Surefire taclight, a new foregrip from www.gggaz.com, a Harris bipod, and maybe a Reflex sight. And possibly just a Cold Steel tanto folder. What in your experience would work? I'm thinking of house-to-house, tunnel-to-tunnel work out there ... from what I understand, Afghan villages have underground water tunnels called "Karez" which the mujahideen use full advantage. I also don't expect the houses to have many glass windows out there so the bipod is there for me once I go up a few floors or on a roof. Opinions?
Went to the field. Came out early because I had two wisdom teeth that were dislocating my jaw and were putting me in termincal pain. Just had them pulled 30 minutes ago. Am in la la land with Tylox and local anasthesia. Came over here just to get on TFL.
This is the first real field problem I've had with this platoon ... What I found out:
(1) The rats are all kleptos. I lost two pairs of nomex gloves, a bunch of hygenie kit, MREs from my ruck, Heaven knows what else they would have taken if I hadn't stashed it away from the "designated" spots.
(2) Good equipment works wonders. The milspec socks are garbage. The e-tools are worthless. Everything issued to me failed in one way or another, except the Goretex bivy sack.
(3) Painkillers are worth their weight in gold. So is candy, beef jerky and other kinds of "pogi bait."
(4) Cigarettes and cans of dip rise astronomically in price. We had guys buying packs of cowboy killers (Marlboro Reds) for $10+. Small black market here and there.
(5) Incompetence rises to the fore. Our platoon sergeant popped out a TM and was reading out of it in the field and issuing orders. Pretty much the whole NCO cadre failed out there, with one exception. Hypocrisy was the name of the game. "Don't smoke at night" = "I can smoke in my truck because I am an NCO." "Be tactical and exercise noise discipline" = "I can crank up my radio amps so they can be heard 300 yards away because I am too lazy to listen closely while I chat up my buddies and play cards on my guard shift while turning the engine up on the humvee for hours so I can put the heater on full blast because I am an NCO."
Anyways, I plan on ordering more stuff from www.rangerjoes.com as needed. Am going to 48 hours quarters now. I feel like my jaw got hit by a semi.
---
Now for the real question:
I have a stock M4. What would you get in terms of scopes and taclights etc for it if you were me? Would you get a Harris bipod? What kind of folding knife would you get? What kind of straight-edge? Would you get a machete?
I'm leaning towards a Surefire taclight, a new foregrip from www.gggaz.com, a Harris bipod, and maybe a Reflex sight. And possibly just a Cold Steel tanto folder. What in your experience would work? I'm thinking of house-to-house, tunnel-to-tunnel work out there ... from what I understand, Afghan villages have underground water tunnels called "Karez" which the mujahideen use full advantage. I also don't expect the houses to have many glass windows out there so the bipod is there for me once I go up a few floors or on a roof. Opinions?