VonSteuben Training Sends: Mike’s Jäger Kit Part 3: Pack

“Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and smile, smile, smile!”

WWI British song

This is the final article in my 3-piece series about my kit.  First I showed you my current belt setup, with all the barebones rifleman essentials necessary to get me into the fight.  Second, I covered my chest rig, with extra ammunition and tactical tools to get me through the fight.  Today, we take a look at my pack, which contains everything necessary to sustain me in the field for up to a week or more.

You may already be speculating on what kind of large rucksack I’ve selected for this purpose.  Is it a USMC surplus FILBE main pack?  The classic ALICE?  A large internal frame pack?  Or some other fancy new ruck?  My answer will probably surprise you; I use a USMC surplus assault pack.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Left: A simple USMC assault pack.  Right: The same pack with my modifications.

I know what you’re thinking.  “How on earth can he get by for a week out of such a small pack?  Don’t you need a lot more than that?”  The answer is no, at least not for my area.  If I lived further north, I would need a larger pack to account for warming layers, a better sleeping bag, and more calories worth of food.  However, I live in North Carolina, and that means that I can get away with carrying significantly less gear.  Additionally, years of going to the field as a Marine taught me what I actually needed to get by and what was a luxury.

My requirements for my pack are that I can use it to survive in the field for at least a week in warm weather (4 days in cold weather), carry additional ammunition and tactical tools to accomplish my mission, and weigh less than 45 pounds dry (i.e. no water) when combined with the rest of my kit.  As spoiled, domesticated Americans, we are accustomed to being comfortable.  This means that most people tend to overpack when going to the field (or just camping in general).  I have discovered that you can save a lot of weight in your pack once you get comfortable being uncomfortable.  In reality, there is a very short list of things that we actually need to get by, and we can break it down into 3 categories: Water, food, and shelter.

Water is the most obvious; without it we will die in just a few days.  However, water is heavy, and it is not realistic to carry enough water to last me a week.  The balance I have found is to combine a 2-liter camelback with two USGI canteens.  This is, for me, about 2 days worth of water if I’m not hiking a lot (in which case it would be 1 day’s worth).  Fortunately for me, there are a lot of natural sources of water in my area such as streams, so I can resupply water in the field.  This is why I have a Sawyer Mini water filter in my buttpack.  It’s not the best filter out there by far, but it’s super compact and lightweight.  I am also about to buy some water purification tablets to supplement my filter, in case I need to pull water from a pond or other questionable body of water.

Food is necessary to give us the energy to accomplish daily tasks.  I use field-stripped MREs for my field rations, as they’re self-contained and have a lot of calories.  I plan to eat 2 a day when I am being very active, 1 a day when I can get away with it to make them stretch.  There are plenty of other options for field rations (freeze dried, canned soups/chilis, or even just dried rice and beans), but this is what I currently use.  Bear in mind that you don’t need your food to be hot, you just need to be able to swallow it.  I see small field stoves as luxury items.  Even if you don’t have access to MREs, you can eat canned chili cold and you’ll be fine.  Dry goods, however, may require boiling to be eaten regularly.

You need some shelter, but this is where people tend to over-pack.  You need shelter to protect you from 4 things: heat, cold, wind, and precipitation.  Do you really need a fully enclosed tent to accomplish these things?  No, a tarp or USGI poncho will do all of this just fine, and it takes up significantly less space and weight.  In my area, there are so many trees around that I can get away without even carrying poles or stakes.

All right, now that we’ve covered what we actually need to survive, let’s look at what’s in my pack.