What backpack does the US military use?
So, what kind of backpack does the US Military use? Most people ask themselves this question before they think of shopping for a back pack. Generally, they know that any backpack that is used by the US military is among the best in the market.
Tactical backpacks have been used by the military for a long time. They allow combatants to carry a wide range of items that enable them to survive a few days in the field. These bags allow you to carry food items, water and other small but convenient tools like flashlights, pens and maps. The military Tactical Assault Backpack is a versatile backpack and is one of the few designs that are used by the US military. And backpacks come in a wide variety of designs, colors and shapes.
Different models of backpacks
Students and hikers for instance use the small backpacks for their day to day activities. Small
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Technically, backpacks distribute the weight well, especially around the hips through padded belts. These carry most of the load while the shoulder straps have less load weight. The simple reasoning behind this is hips are stronger than shoulders, thus the weight distribution. This system is known as MOLLE, (Modular Lightweight Load-carrying Equipment). Compared to earlier backpacks, today’s backpacks are innovative and classy. One of their innovative features is the even weight distribution design that is backed by medical research. The US military is known to use the military Tactical Assault Backpack mainly due to the bag’s suitability in the field.
First, it is big on size, with a capacity of 34 liters. Accordingly, its well suited to carry large loads and therefore ideal for camping and hiking. Durability is one of the features that make this backpack stand out. It’s made with heavy duty fabric that is long lasting and also, water resistant.
Reliability and price
Although their physical loads did not weigh the soldiers down, they definitely became their necessities. Certain physical burdens became items that helped them escape from the reality of being at war. Even though these men had things they had to carry, they elected to carry more. The items they carried were intended to illustrate aspects of their personality. All of them carried great loads of memories, fears, and desires. These abstract objects were an essential part of them and therefore could not be put down. They continued to carry these emotional burdens along with them throughout the war. And as Lieutenant Jimmy Cross came to realize, “It was very sad…the things men carried inside. The things men did or felt they had to
From this, the soldiers have become robotic due to the war, as they no longer possess any emotion or individuality among themselves and thus are no longer differentiable. In order to restore what’s left of their respective identities, the soldiers must carry items that one may assume are “trivial”, when in actuality they are the most significant “things” they carry. For instance, O’Brien details the story behind what one of the soldiers in Cross’ platoon named Kiowa carries by stating, “Kiowa, a devout Baptist, carried an illustrated New Testament that had been presented to him by his father, who taught Sunday school in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma” (3). This is the only item Kiowa possesses to reminisce on his
What really shocked me at this point is that with all this weight the soldiers had to carry with them, they were expected to be very mobile and able to haul around everything for miles at a time. The only benefit I could possible see coming out of all the things they carried is the protection the backpack gave the soldiers from the spraying of bullets during battle. Other than that, the more the men carried, the more their moral went down under those conditions. I think that the author brilliantly described this story. It was almost like I felt my backpack getting heavier as I was reading on and the items kept increasing.
Soldiers in the Vietnam War had to carry all of their belongings on their bodies with them over great distances of walking, earning Vietnam soldiers the nickname ‘Grunts’. Thus, they tried to limit their already grueling load as much as possible. In Tim O’Brien’s, The Things They Carried, he creates a detailed outline of the items carried by soldiers in the Vietnam War, which were “largely determined by necessity” (2). While most were out of necessity, the soldiers in the text also had many things that were strictly for personal reasons. The soldiers were already weighed down tremendously by their gear and weapons that were necessities, yet they chose to carry around the extra weight of seemingly useless objects. Some people carried objects
In the novel The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien’s opening chapter describes a group of soldiers marching through the jungles of Vietnam. Subsequently, Tim O’Brien started revealing personal items each soldiers carries with them during the war. These soldiers carry some surprisingly heavy physical and emotional burdens thought the jungles of Vietnam. However, these emotional burdens are far heavier than anything ...
In "the things they carried", author Tim O’Brien tries to teach readers that war changes people, by using baggage as a symbol throughout the book. Ultimately, "the things they carried" is literally built on a foundation of the things they carried. Whether it’s the way Jimmy Cross uses the pebble to escape from his duties as a soldier. Or the way that they all look up to the pantyhose as an almost godly relic. All the way to Norman Bowker finally realizing that courage comes from within, not from winning the Silver Star. These things, made up the soldiers attributes, made up the soldiers’ persona, made up the soldier. But they didn’t stop at the soldier; certain items characterized all the soldiers as a collective group. It even went as far as to describe an entire group by the things all of them carried, of course being the green berets. There were no single green berets just a group; nobody made an effort to distinguish one from another. Like the way we make no effort to name each and every cell in our body, they are just smaller pieces that make up one entity.
Each soldier carried with them necessities, most of them following standard operating procedure. Anywhere from gum to heavy machinery, they carried it.
Among the necessities or near-necessities were P-38 can openers, pocket knives, heat tabs… …and two or three canteens of water. Together, these items weighed between 12 and 18 pounds. They all carried steel helmets that weighed 5 pounds. On their feet they carried jungle boots—2.1 pounds. (O’Brien 2)
Tim O’ Brien alternates between narrative and descriptions of the tangible items that they soldiers carry. He remembers seemingly everything that his squad mates were carrying and provides an “emotionless recitation” of the weights of each of the items the soldiers carried into the field. He frequently uses the term “humping” to describe how the soldiers carry their gear; making them appear more uncivilized, like animals. As he switches back to mentioning the intangible items, such as the experiences of his leader Jimmy Cross and his love Martha, the emotional weights of each soldier is felt by the reader. This contrast in style affirms that they soldiers are human and provides emphasis to the weight these intangible objects have on the soldiers.
At first glance of the title, Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried looks as if it will be about the various amounts of material and equipment that is expected to be carried by soldiers as they carry out their various missions during wartime. O’Brien goes on to describe, in very minute detail, every little piece of equipment. Instead of listing off the weights and amounts of various military equipment, however, he begins with First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross’s letters from a girl named Martha. As the story progresses, more and more items are described, each with multiple meanings, both physical, and the emotional and mental escapes that they provide to each soldier. Just as the equipment and items carried has multiple meanings, so-too does the stories title. The Things They Carried is just as much about the physical properties of the soldier’s loads, as it is about the mental baggage, pains, and emotions each of them carries.
In the literal sense O’Brien talks about what different members of a platoon in Vietnam carried. This helps him to move to a more symbolic sense at the end of the story. He starts by talking about necessities and slowly moves on to what they carried to remind them that there was a world out side of the war. “Among the necessities or near necessities were p-38 can openers, pocket knifes, heat tabs, wrist watches, dog tags, mosquito repellent, chewing gum, candy, cigarettes, salt tablets, packets of Kool-Aid, lighters, matches, sewing kits, Military Payment Certificates, C rations, and two or three canteens of water.” But as the story moves on it shows other things that were considered necessities to them even though to some one else they might seem a luxury. Such as Kiowa carrying his grandfather’s hatchet. These are obviously not necessities to others but were one for them. In the story the theme of weight kept coming up. Literally he meant the weight of each weapon, ration, and body armor, ECT… “it was SOP for each man to carry a steel-centered, nylon-covered flak jacket, which weight 6.7 pounds…” Weight is used in this story to help show the symbolic meaning of weight later on in the story. “What they carried varied by mission.” Knowing the different dangers throughout the land also added to their burden, making them carry even more such as mosquito netting, machetes, mine detectors, and even things that didn’t have much use such as Kiowa carrying the New Testament and Dave Jensen carrying his night-sight vitamins. All of “The Things They Carried” helped to add to the stress of the war and also help to quell it, they carried what they needed.
Unlike infantrymen, who slept and sat on whatever nature provided, officers sometimes had the luxury of furniture. Enlisted men, unlike their officers, had to carry all their belongings on their backs. On long marches, men were unwilling to carry more than the absolute essentials. Even so, the soldiers ended up carrying about 30 to 40 pounds. Each soldier was issued half a tent.
Imagine walking through a rainy, humid tropical rain forest with forty to fifty pounds of precious luggage strapped to your back wondering where and when the next shot will be fired. Wondering whether or not you will live to see another day of combat with your brothers. American soldiers carried this burden with them every day while in combat during the Vietnam War. In the short story, “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, he explains the positive and negative effects of the things that soldiers carried with them during the Vietnam War.
But "As a hedge against bad times, however, Kiowa also carried his grandmother’s distrust of the white man, his grandfather’s old hunting hatchet. Necessity is dictated by the. Because the land was mined and booby-trapped, it was SOP for each man to carry a steel-centered, nylon-covered flak jacket, which weighed 6.7 pounds, but which on hot days seemed much heavier." Focusing on how the heavy gear soldiers bear in very violent surroundings. This highlights all the emotions they faced affecting their combat performance.
During the Vietnam war, soldiers were not exposed to the traditional coping mechanisms of our American society, as illustrated in Tim Obrien's The Things They Carried. These men were forced to discover and invent new ways to deal with the pressures of war, using only their resources while in the Vietnamese jungle. It was not possible for any soldier to carry many items or burdens with them, but if something was a necessity, a way was found to carry it, and coping mechanisms were a necessity to survive the war.