This is current. Some of these guys are wearing the new, improved hot weather uniform (or as I like to refer to them as the OCP jungle fatigues). Those didn’t come into issue until 2020 and didn’t see widespread use until about a year later. The easiest way to tell that is from the back. The standard uniforms have the gussets. The new jungle fatigues did away with the gussets and have seams that run diagonally across the shoulder blades. The new uniforms also lack chest pockets.
In 2014 I was at Ft. Benning for training. All of the 3rd Ranger battalion guys there were humping modified ALICE packs. I’m familiar with Tactical Tailor. I never bought a MALICE pack, but I am a customer. I like that they still use a good shade of OD green - not that awful sage “Ranger” green. Regardless, if 2014 isn’t contemporary enough, I’ve seen ALICE in use more recently.
When I went to NTC in 2021, I brought an ALICE pack. I personally never took to the various iterations of MOLLE rucks. You’d be surprised how many old troopers (like me) and young troopers alike were using ALICE packs. ALICE wasn’t in the majority by any means, but it was there. Granted, NTC is the opposite of the jungle and I wasn’t humping anywhere because we were in trucks the whole time.
One of the things I noticed is that what’s old is new again. Having been out of the field for several years and since the changeover from UCP to OCP, I was pleasantly surprised at the individual gear being used by the mech brigade we were supporting at NTC in 2021. During most of my career in the GWOT years, certainly in the conventional Regular Army, the rule was to keep adding layers of Kevlar and plates. I know that plate carriers were wisely adopted in Afghanistan, but I was accustomed to the rule that Active Duty soldiers train with body armor. So I brought my plate carrier to NTC. I was the odd man out. Everyone was wearing TAP racks with no armor. When I saw that, I had to laugh and I thought to myself, “I’ve seen this before.” For those who don’t know, the TAP rack is basically a mashup of a MOLLE chest rig and an ALICE Y-Harness when worn without a plate carrier. There is also an Airborne specific rack that is basically a thick MOLLE battle belt with an H-Harness. Most of the students on this video are wearing the standard TAP rack low around their waist like an ALICE setup. I’m surprised that I didn’t see anyone with a battle belt and suspenders, but I’d assume that’s because the students are following a packing list.
Forgive me if I’m “preaching”, but this has been a subject of great personal interest for some time. I started with ALICE in the late 1990’s and it was my primary gear set training as an infantry officer. I never really liked MOLLE, but I had to adapt to it over the years. Now that I’m an old soldier, it warms my heart to see this.
I believe that as the force focuses back on conventional operations, we’re regaining our senses with regards to gear. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t a place for plate carriers anymore, but we’re re-learning the wisdom of the “old ways”. There are plenty of old hands on here who remember an Army that wasn’t defined by FOB operations and contracted chow halls. Iraq made us lazy.
An ALICE rig doesn’t trap heat and moisture. There were good reasons that the Army rejected chest rigs and vests for decades before GWOT. Wearing a plate carrier or vest in constant heat and humidity will only invite skin lesions and jungle rot. Furthermore, we’re re-learning the value of canteens. Camelbacks are bacteria and fungus factories (again, I never took to them) and difficult to clean. In the jungle, a Camelback is a no-go. We’ll need E-Tools and machetes to build fighting positions and clear fields of fire. You’ll also note that he is using a medium ALICE pack. Basically, all that stuff that my soldiers in 2004 would have laughed at as “old Vietnam gear” is finding new life. I argued all along that the fundamentals of infantry combat didn’t change just because Iraq was an anomaly. But we can’t underestimate how much fashion plays into it. Guys want to wear the “new stuff” particularly if the SOF dudes are wearing it.
I will qualify this by stating that I didn’t serve in Afghanistan. Many close friends did. I know that adjustments were made to adapt to humping up and down mountains. But it is my professional opinion that even Afghanistan’s light infantry combat TTP’s were unduly and inappropriately characterized by our experiences in Iraq which overshadowed the Afghanistan conflict from 2003 - 2008 and largely defined conventional Army doctrine with regards to FOB operations and motorized infantry tactics. Certainly while ground units did live on austere FOB’s and conducted traditional infantry operations in Afghanistan, there were no shortage of giant FOB’s and LSA’s loaded with computers, recreation centers and chow halls. Unfortunately, doctrine and procurement decisions tend to be determined by the people living on the FOB’s, not the Joes on patrol.
I believe that the modern jungle warfare school is run by the 25th ID’s 3rd IBCT. The last I checked into it, the school was not a TRADOC school, but they accept soldiers from across the force. When the school started around 2012 - 2013, they had to raid the Army’s remaining stocks of BDU’s and jungle boots because the red soil was staining the digital UCP uniforms so badly as to make them unserviceable. So the school was issuing BDU’s for a time. Likewise, the suede boots soak up moisture and didn’t hold up against the elements. While the uniform problem has been resolved, the soldiers are clearly SOL now when it comes to boots. The jungle school gave input into a new jungle boot back in the 2015 - 2016 timeframe. Although the boots made it out to the force, they didn’t go very far. I’ve had a lifelong love of the old OD Vietnam jungle boot. They are still my go-to boot for rucking and hiking. Sadly, the new jungle boots didn’t measure up to the original design and I don’t think you can even find the new ones anymore.
Yeah, fighting in the Pacific definitely forces us to re-orient ourselves.
