[The Reaper]

For those of you who have never been on a team or carried a team ruck on a patrol, let me elaborate.

There are twelve people on a fully manned SFODA.

You have your own mission gear. Each MOS has a different load. That may include one of the multiple radios, antennas, kit bags, aid bags, a collapsible litter, demo, breaching gear, machine gun, sniper rifle, shotgun, maybe a mortar (with bipod and baseplate) or AT weapon, binos, LASER targeting designator, spotting scopes, etc., etc.

You have your weapon (normally a pistol, too) and ammo for your weapon. 30-40 pounds of body armor. Helmet. Smoke grenades. Frags. Night vision gear. Cameras. Batteries for all of your equipment. A gallon of water per day. Eye and ear pro. GPS. Maps and compass. Survival gear. Blow out medical kit. MREs (maybe 1-2 per day, because of the weight) Poncho, poncho liner. Maybe cold weather, infil/exfil, or mobility gear. NBC protective gear.

Team gear. Extra radios, antennas, batteries, machine gun ammo, mortar or AT rounds, demo, IV bags, IED jammer, mine sweeper, etc.

THEN, you can add whatever meager personal gear that you can carry. Maybe a spare t-shirt, a couple of pairs of socks, a sawed off tooth brush. For a week's patrol.

This will total somewhere north of 100 pounds, at times, more than 140 pounds. Studies have shown that trying to move with more than 35% of your body weight is injurious to a healthy, well-condtioned adult male.

If you think this is an easy task, go find a friend who weighs between 100 and 140 pounds. Put them on your back and try to carry them around piggy-back for ten minutes. Imagine doing that in the thin air at 15,000', on a 45% slope, for days on end, while remaining alert for IEDs, enemy, hostile wildlife, and generally things that will hurt you, and being prepared to effectively return fire in a couple of seconds. Gravity may be politically incorrect, but on this planet, it is inevitable.

I have a wife and a daughter. All other considerations aside, neither of them could even lift that load, much less do it for an extended period of time.

If one of them were on a team, and could not carry her share, guess who does? Her teammates, as all of the mission gear still has to be carried.

Is that fair? Do you think you might resent having to leave behind your one spare t-shirt, your spare socks, a spare mag, a radio battery, or an IV bag?

I have watched a fellow soldier bleed to death. It was not a pretty sight, but I never bitched about carrying med supplies or other team gear again.

At what cost, do we waive standards for the sake of social experimentation?

More importantly, are we prepared to accept the cost and consequences?

TR