Boy was good in the air, and not a bad part time medic either.

TR

Does anyone know if any units have as yet to receive the "training plates" for the IBA? Same weight as the real deal but no ballistic properties and a fraction of the cost? They were supposed to come on line this year from what I read a while ago.

This would help this situation somewhat I believe. If your average squad leader in the 101st, 82nd, 1st MARDIV etc..had access to training plates for the body armor, which everone will wear in theatre, combat fitness will be greatly enhanced for soon to delpoy units.

There is a shortage of real deal SAPI plates, and your average grunt units are not issued them until days before deployment and have little opportunity to train with them.

Issue an equal number of rubber rifles, rubber machine guns and rubber mortars that are in the T & E to that unit. Keep them in a conex box, with your training plates and Bob's your Uncle. Also gotta have that weighted rubber ammo for those special occasions :D

While I understand cost considerations, I think they should be training with the real deal. With the way things are, maybe carrying on post isn't a bad idea. I think Spec Ops guys should be carrying 24/7. National carry permit. We do it OCONUS, why not CONUS?

Issue the kit and they're responsible for it. Take it home, whatever.

You can trust seasoned SOF troops, and a bunch of Warfighters with that. The sad truth is, you cant with the rest of the military. The real deal plates will get stolen and sold on Ebay for a thousand a pop. Training plates are just steel, and not nealy as expensive to replace when Pvt. Joe Shit The Ragman sells his SAPI plates to the local racket for a thousand dollars when he's broke as a joke.

I think my unit has something like 14 sets of IBA and plates. THe downside to this is they just grabbed some random plates and some random vests not taking into account size of plates matching the vests. I think we have about 8 issuable sets. Totally unacceptable. We are being told that we wont get the complete armor set until we hit kuwait. For the trainup, MUIC and other pre deployment activities no one will get used to shooting with it or just every day operations. We do have enough flack jackets but as you know its not the same.
I think there should also be weighted rubber/plastic m16 and m9 magazines to simulate a combat load of ammunition. Hopefully this can be implemented or at least considered as a training option.

I know, just wishful thinking...

Doesn't for me. Get a "The web site you are trying to access has exceeded its allocated data transfer." message.

Same here.:(

It worked for me on 6/17/04 at 0805 PST.

Footmobile,

What about going to the motorpool or whereever you guys have scrap metal and cut your own training plates? If the motor guys get pissed maybe cut some scrap metal off of APCs or tanks that are used for target practice.

Just a thought.