What are you allowed to bring back from theatre?
 

Just wondering what you gentlemen are allowed to bring back from A´stan or Iraq. I suppose rugs and pakols aren´t a problem; but what about captured items such as webbing or firearms?
Also, if someone sends you a weapon, say a handgun or a knife, in theatre, can you bring it back or is it better to hand it over to a new arrival?
It seems Belgian troops in the Stan have a very hard time receiving such items and bringing them back. It seems nigh on impossible.

It's not a shopping trip. Coming home with your team in one piece should be more than enough.

Wish we would have had enough downtime to even think about shopping(Sarcasm):boohoo

What to bring back?!

Experience. Then, you parcel that out to the next guys.

Read the previous three responses. Repeat until understood. Spend your prep time prepping for combat instead of figuring out where you'll hang your war trophies or your silver star.

While there, you will be briefed on all of the particulars of your question.

Whooo young trooper.

Look at who posted. SA is needed here.
1st He is from Belgium
2nd He is not in the military (LEO) and is a history buff and researches USSOF.
3rd He was trying to compare Belgian Troop comments to our experiences/Rules.
4th He can not get US Awards OH That goes back to SA and he is in another country.
No reason to beat on someone unless there is a reason. He has not made any comments since opening the thread since he now knows that US SF when deployed are focused on the mission and because of that and our missions you do not have time to go shopping. Weapons are not allowed to be brought back for personal use either.
Nice little things sometimes pop up and make better mementos. The Best thing that you can Bring Back is Your Team Mates and your memories.

Didn't mean to be harsh - just had lots of those questions from our young soldiers. Thanks for the SA check. My apologies Christophe.

We were not allowed to bring firearms back as personal items, only bayonets or similar with the theatre commander's approval.

A theatre commander has the time to approve individual requests from thousands of troops? :munchin

:munchin Let's see .... Your ticket stub.... Half empty stale bag of popcorn.... maybe the girl who dragged you there... :munchin

I'm not a "souvenir" type so, I'll be doing the usual; trying to bring back less than what I took.:cool:

Stay safe.

No, and that's the point. 99.999% of personal requests that I saw whilst there were denied at the CO/BN/BDE level. "war trophies go against what we're trying to do here in Iraq" - GEN Abizaid.

Firearms for persons were entirely forbidden, with the exception of a "display item" for BN/BDEs. 1 per organization - to be added to the property book. These requests went through the CoC up the the theatre CDR.

I've seen 2 investigations for "war trophies" violations - neither ended well...

hmmm...
 

last time I was over in the sandbox u could bring back clothing items, patches, captured military items (like old bayonets, helments, etc), rugs, your usual tourist crap...you COULD NOT bring back ammo, guns, gun parts, explosives, human body parts, bags of sand (for fear of bring back parasites), spent brass....which is stupid as its harmless, I had some air force puke try and tell me I couldnt bring back a spent casing from a BLANK ROUND that was fired for a memmorial service we did, with it being from part of the 21 gun salute. my 1st sgt gave it to me because I wrote and read the prayers for the service. Fortunatly, even though they took it, my SSGT snatched it back from em and got it back to me, which I later gave to the fallen Marines family.

just use common sense when thinking of what to bring back with you...its ALOT harder to bring certin things back, and sneaking em back is even harder...my first tour they dumped our things, kicked around a bit, and said we were good...u could sneak ALOT through like that. Next tour, in kuwait, we were treated like convicts, bags dumped, xrayed, scanned and swabbed, our personal bags checked, dumped, our pockets dumpbed, and I swear we went through atleast four metal detectors. use ur best judgment is all, and dont do anything like try and sneak some gernades in a camelback or anything (its happened).

~JohnnyBoy

common sense
 

Most of us don't use deployments as shopping trips. If you're that concerned over what you can or can't bring back, talk to a U.S. Customs agent. While you are talking to Customs, ask them what can happen if you get caught sneaking back an AK.

The general rule is nothing. Our S2 had the tailfin from a 60mm round and submitted paperwork with photos to bring it back. It was approved.

The Aussies took some stuff back in team boxes for their unit to use.

When you leave theater in Kuwait, Navy Customs go through all of your bags with a fine tooth comb. It took 4 hours to clear customs. And it was hot, dusty, & dirty. Not a pleasant time.

All I brought back were photos, memories, and 4 duffels of basic gear.