Just got issued my SHTF gear today...
 

And I really must say that it kind of sucks that i had better gear in basic than the state issued gear :P
still have 1970s style gear cept for the eye pro, beanie and helmet. save for the helmet and mickey mouse boots, I have better personal gear here in my room. Heh, just when I thought I got away from metal framed alice pack I got issued a new one.
I wonder if the weapons I see from the unit will be A1s, M60s, and M79s. Maybe even the Garands, BARs and 1919s :D

Those guns are worth major moolah -

What do you expect from the ARNG? ;)

CA is broke. You should be getting better gear if you get deployed.

Come to a real infantry unit, not tankers playing infantry..... we'll hook you up. We got all brand new ACU IBA's and MOLLE stuff last year, then they gave us even more crap when we MOB'd out.

Your going on the Kosovo mission with the 184th, right? When you go to RFI at MOB you'll get all brand new MOLLE **** in ACU, an ACH, the IOTV (if you have a funky size at least, a lot of us didn't get IOTV's since they only had like X-Long X-Large) and a bunch of other cool guy gear.

Nope. Im with the 1/185th. Im stuck in rear detatchment until my shoulder heals up from the seperated AC i got in jump school :P
After that, I can see where I can jump on and go play army.

That sucks man, Kosovo is a pretty chill deployment from what I hear. It also kind of sucks being on rear-d when the unit is deployed because when they get back they're very clique-y and stuff.... you end up getting treated like second-rate soldier

Im already being treated as such sort of. Most of the soldiers in the rear detatchment just got back from Iraq and Im the FNG that supposed to go get chemlight batteries and bull**** like that :rolleyes:
Then I have to be treated like that all over again when my unit gets back. Im thinking of giving this a shot though since ive only had one drill with them so far. maybe my CO will let me go out there, i dunno. I hear I could try to go to kosovo but I signed up infantry to go have some fun in the desert.

It's no fun in the desert.

Well, chemlight batteries and stuff are more of what you said, FNG hazing stuff. Things will lighten up soon enough and you'll get in with the other guys on the rear-d, probably with the dudes that will filter in every drill from basic. You guys will form your own little rear-d sub-clique, but when the main body comes back from this deployment, they'll all be in with each other because they've spent the last 400 days with each other while you've only spend one weekend a month with your guys at drill.

When they cherry pick people for deployments in small groups it makes it even worse, its very bad for unit cohesion. Luckily for us most of my company deployed as one big group.

gentleman OPSEC guys do not discuss unit identifications or mob dates at all. for the the love of god. i believe i outrank you guys so stop now. edit your posts.

The mob dates and stuff have been reported in newspapers, we were told if it was public knowledge its not violating OPSEC.

I agree you should edit...better safe than sorry.

You wouldnt believe what the badguys look for in intel.

I remeber when I was anxious to "get in the fight"

Dropped out of college and ROTC thinking the war would be over and I'd miss it.

Now I am deployed for the fourth time.

Ive heard that the CA Guard is getting flat screwed over by the state, what say you guys? 2 kids that I spoke with last year ended up joining the Guard and now they say the bonuses they were promised arent being paid and no $$$ for school, is this true stuff or these kids just whining?

You're more likely to end up in the rock pile...

but you enlisted in the Guard! Youll be in the desert eventually, right outside of San Diego on operation "border watch"! :eek:

I kid... cmon! :p

The majority of the news I got about my unit while I was in basic was from news paper clippings my dad sent me (that got me smoked after I read them but it was still worth it) and the Army times when it talked about what units were deploying and such. I learned when they were mobing, where they were mobing to and to which theatre they were deploying to.

I didnt see any dates I posted but also, they didnt train us in hardly any protocol at all so Im not sure what I did wrong. Pm me Chris please and explain it to me since I'm a noob and have no clue :confused:. It was really funny when I found out the hard way not to walk and talk on a cell phone when I was visting sand hill when I was in jump school :p We were just taught infantry stuff and that was all. Had like half a lesson in one of the army values once but that was it lol

Just to correct one thing. You didnt join the Infantry, you joined Armor. 1/185 is an Armor Battalion.

If you want gear that works in the guard, buy it yourself. I use my RACK with my custom configured load bearing set-up so when we go through RFI all that molle crap will be going in a duffel and stored.

My advice to you is to get as far away from the 185 as possible and get on another deployment if you can.

1/185 is a combined arms BN, they've got both tanker and mech infantry companies. On the RACK, now they're complaining about people wearing anything over their IOTV's since "it makes the quick release useless." I'm still rocking my FLC because I still have an IBA since the Army didn't have the foresight to manufacturer more "MEDIUM" sized vests, but I was told once I get the IOTV it has to go.

Speaking of MOLLE gear. I just picked up a vest recently and I don't even know what pouches go on there other than Mag pouches. Someone help me out. Thanks

I don't know... Maybe. I got my bonus and my money for school. Bad recruiting??? Who knows

I got flat screwed... well more like anally raped but that was from the IRS not the guard.

You can put whatever pouches you want on your vest, they make pouches for everything. The MOLLE set you are issued should come with a vest all put together with 3 double magazine pouches, 2 grenade pouches, 2 canteen/general purpose pouches (I use mine for my NODs), and 2 triple magazine shingles.

depends on your mission profile. I run mag pouches, an admin pouch, two general purpose pouches, a hydration carrier on the back and some other odds and ends.

IMO, don't put anything on the vest. Wear either a Tactical Tailor vest or something equivalent. There's nothing like being able to strip your gear in a hurry to get the hell out of a burning vehicle or do a 150 yd dash ;) My 2 cents.

As mentioned before, it was reported on the local news, so its not opsec in any way shape or form when its our command giving out the deploy dates in a tv interveiw. And since we are over here anyways, it really didnt matter much, the on base hadji shops knew where we were from before we even landed! Granted I firmly believe anyone can conduct a onsite opsec correction, and should, but I see nothing of opsec here. Rank has nothing to do with it.

When I deployed to OIF1 my Flak had a 1972 Date of Manufacture in it... Guys had written their last-name, rank, and last 4 on the right inside lining...

Humvee's still had the plastic doors, no bullet-proof glass... man those were the good ol'days...