Some Notes on Current Load-Outs and Gear

(This is not an article I want to write regularly. I personally believe it places far too much emphasis on the cool-guy CDI gear, rather than on the individual and team tactical expertise we all need to be developing. Nevertheless, since I've been asked about it in classes/clinics, and via email, I wrote it.

I'm currently working on an article, per request, on caches and establishing a cache network for logistics support. Following that, I will write one on the development on Escape-and-Evasion networks, also per request, as well as one on the OODA loop developed by Boyd.

I received a request to write an article on developing intelligence networks, but I've got to tell you, I really don't feel qualified to do so. If any readers are former intel guys or cops and feel up to it, I'd be happy to edit and publish it, attributing it however they would like. Otherwise, when I get an opportunity, I will do my best to cover the subject, at least in how I've personally gone about developing my networks. --J.M.)

My personal survival and fighting load-outs have changed recently (within the last couple of months). One rather expensive aspect of what I do, as a "journalist" and a trainer, is to constantly test new concepts in gear. A lot of stuff i can look at and instantly see that the practical drawbacks outweigh any purported theoretical benefits (butt packs on the LBE being a classic one. They're a great idea...unless you have to hump a real ruck too!). On the other hand, some stuff that's coming out, as I look at it more and more, or hear first-hand reports from friends who are still wreaking hatred and discontent in foreign lands, I have to step back and take another look at.

Additionally, as I get older, and as I consider the options and obligations of the Resistance more, my thoughts and theories change and alter. These two issues combined mean that my load-outs and my load-bearing gear change pretty regularly. Granted, a lot of stuff gets tried out for a couple of weeks or a month, then ends up on a gun show table or traded off (or even just ends up tossed in the "I might need to outfit somebody else someday" boxes. Yes, boxes!)

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