"Worst piece of kit you had in the military?" Topic

If you served in the military in some capacity, what is the worst piece of kit you had to deal with, and why was it so bad?

That's a tough question. I think for me I just went with what I was issued and made it work. This was an US Army infantry soldier/officer from 89 to 94.

The Gumby Suit, thick rubber rain gear almost guaranteed to produce heat casualties.

V/R,
Jack

The "Y" shoulder harness for the TA 50 I was issued as an infantryman. The back bottom y strap that attached to the web belt had these ridiculous clips that always dug into your back when wearing your ruck if you dropped your belt too low. Usually all the cherries had raw gauges in their back on their first field problem. However, even the vets could forget and a 12 mile movement to contact exercise got real painful real quick. We often replaced the clips with para cords-but pray the BNSGM did not catch you without the clips.

Worst piece of issued gear was the heavy rubberized rain suit the Marines issued in the 70/80s… best piece of gear was the poncho liner and/or the canteen cup.

A dumb ass 2nd Lt.

Chem-suit boot wraps.

Issued these big rubber boots you were supposed to wear over your combat boots. Think same person designed the concrete boots for the Mafia.

Agree on the chemo suit boots. Always came untied or knotted up.

Through the 70s and 80s, the Canadian Army persisted in issuing rain gear that didn't keep out rain. Almost every soldier in our brigade in Germany purchased a US Army rain jacket at their own expense, and these were authorized as "official" wear. In other words, the leadership recognized the deficiency, but seemed powerless to correct it through normal channels.

The ALICE Rucksack and Mountain Ruck. The stitching was crap and consistently breaking. Can't count the number of times I had to road march with one shoulder strap.

Being the third man of a two man infantry support weapon and having to carry the spare-spare bits the corporal had scrounged up in his pack rat way. Extra cleaning kit, spare bipod and barrel plus tools and possibly ammo all hung on the back… gaah.

Does MRE hard tack crackers count?

The M-85 machinegun. Utter junk, it jammed constantly.

PMwalt – that's the same gear I'm talking about! When I got to 1/2 in 95 I was issued that same crap. We were issued Gortex in 96 or 97, but by that time most of us had bought our own.

Maggot – I didn't mind the Y harness, which we called an H harness for some reason. I just went around the clips a million times with 90 MPH tape. But the clips on the ammo pouches and canteens drove me insane.

Saber – I thought the rubber MOPP boots were good to go, but the old black floppy things you tied up like Roman sandals were utter and were dragging behind you after a hundred yards.

FABET01 – now I have to admit I liked the mountain ruck, still have it, but those damn quick release tabs could really up your day. And I broke three frames in ten years…

V/R,
Jack

The USS Coral Sea…..left over from the Korean Era with a tacked on angle deck, she had a permanent list.

M-219 machine gun, it was rated at 215 mean rounds between stoppages. Many fired like a single shot weapon with the loader having to re-cock the weapon to fire the next round.

The M-85 was a tempermental beast and I had my share of jams, but one worked fabulously for me and upon dismounting it to clean had the bolt fall apart in my hands from broken pins. Usually had issues with the feed chute that often caused the weapon to fail.

I rather liked the gumby suit. This has to do with driving an amtrac in cold Pacific waters, and the tendency for said waters to end up in the driver's lap. Gortex didn't cut it.
Similarly, I used to wear the rubber overshoes over sneakers at Ft. Lewis in the Pacific Northwet (not a typo).

The mirrors on the side of my turret in Baghdad got unbolted and chucked. The windows were small enough as is without a mirror in the way. If I wanted to look behind me I used the traversing lever.

The absolute worst was the PEQ-15. It's a laser for the end of the weapon. In theory, it points where your bullets are going to go. In practice, the adjusting screws spun in random directions upon firing, rendering it entirely useless after very few rounds.

ACUs deserve an honorable mention. Flimsy, poorly thought out, and useless as camouflage pretty much anywhere with daylight.

The M-249 SAW crap weapon in my opinion, and the M-60E3 both junk. The M-65 field Jacket, the issue leather boots in the 80's.

Tim – we had the moon boots in the Navy, had to run in those lovely pieces of C.

Issued Peanut Butter made in 1952, this was in 1977.

The Moon Boots, got caught on everything.

Tim – possibly had moon boots, but my initial issue was in 1971 and it's hard to remember.

You've reminded me of those Garrison boots. Holy cow were those things painful! How did they ever pass testing?

The 'smock psychological'. You only thought you were wearing a raincoat…

Navy boondockers. The first day I wore them I ended up in the hospital with my ankle looking like a pumpkin with a foot growing out of it.

Damned puttees!

I was an armoured infantry officer in the Belgian (:-)) army in the early nineties.

Best gear: combat boots. I traded quite a few pair with Americans and Brits in exchange for desert camo gear. There was always a black market to exchange personal gear with other forces stationed in Germany at the time.

Worst gear: inner and outer helmet. You were supposed to hold them together with a piece of rubber inner tube (which you were asked to bring along, since the CQMS didn't provide them) around the rim. This was official practice.

M-3 submachine gun (the 'Grease gun')

SA-80

Puttees and DMS ankle boots, in the Falklands my feet were permanently wet, oh and khaki flannel shirts (when new they rubbed your neck raw.)
When we returned after the conflict, they brought out the new combat high boot and cotton shirts, typical MOD being late to the ball.

M-17 gas mask. Having to hold your breath and close your eyes to change filters in a chem environment? Obviously designed by someone who knew they would never have to worry about bio-chem agents.

The woodland camo wet weather parka and trousers.

Rubbish. Didn't keep the rain out, but they sure kept the heat in…

Best piece of kit ever was the five button wool sweater.

Now, I hate the idea of having to buy yet another series of uniforms as we change from ACU pattern to multi-cam pattern.

Eric

PU12 mast, or rather the metal case it went in. Only one thin, small, metal handle to lift and carry a 30 kg case. Not fun if you had to go more than a few yards (usually we had to shunt them about 1-200 yards from the radio truck to set up).

For driving at night leading up to, and during, Desert Storm I was given a night vision device. Don't know the nomenclature. It was a scope that you had to push in once it was up to your eye to activate.

Being a scope means…no depth perception. Being activated by pushing in means…I had to drive with one hand. Fortunatly Saudi and Kuwait are deserts and more or less flat. however, I did drive into, thankfully unoccupied, foxholes more than once.

British army boots. Unfashionable, uncomfortable, poorly made and no street cred. All these things are vital on the battlefield.

martin

I have to go with Battle Captain and Ditto Tango.
The Canadian issue rain jacket and pants were an absolute waste of kit. Everyone bought US rain jackets to replace them. The US garrisons must have done a roaring trade to keep the Canadian troops kitted out.

The only thing to approach this level of crime was only achieved by the issue of Boulet boots in the last decade combined with a new forced march. It has been recorded as having crippled more feet than a century of combat in the Canadian army. Another new industry was created by medical people issuing notes that allowed the holder to wear anything BUT the issued boots.

How have we all forgotten our Birth Control Glasses?

Best gear – poncho liner, absolutely loved it (and still have it)

Worst gear – Those god awful Mickey Mouse Boots

Don't forget, it's a catwalk out there.

+1 PVT641

I was not a fan of the white Arctic bunny boots but they were warm.

On a positive note, the P-38 can opener is the single neatest piece of simple kit ever.

Several ways to look at this one. cumbersome including weight was a big factor. usage frequency was another. cumbersome was the fact as an officer, you had to carry both sides of the two person tent but rarely had time to set it up. slept inside against rules of APCs and jeeps..
another cumbersome item was wet weather gear but they could really come in handy, so they were a keeper.
hardly used was the air mattress and chem suits. tA50 items could really be reduced.

That ing black ass piece of beret.

you Shinseki!

AMX30 , second mod with 20mm coax.
20 mm from AMX had not enough space for the blet, constantly jammed. Only worth single shot. ( so forget the supposed AA use)
By 1980+ next to worthless gun, little armor, gear box prone to problems…
Coffin.

Compo toilet paper.

Where to start!? Yes have to agree the SA-80 assault rifle was a piece of compared to the trusty SLR.

I think its safe to say that UK communications gear in general, with the honourable exception of the CLANSMAN range has always been heavier, less reliable, and harder to operate than that in use with any other NATO country, generation after generation – I sometimes think that the designers made the radios so hard to use out of security considerations – if our chaps can barely manage to operate it, surely the enemy will struggle!

For once, I actually know something of what I'm droning on about on TMP, as I was a Deep Communications Specialist…

Chem suit. Hot, uncomfortable, couldn't imagine having to keep it on for any length of time. Didn't really trust it would even work in a chem attack. Always thought best defense against Chem attack was just to let the other side know you would use nukes if they used their chems or biologicals.

USAFpilot – Friend of mine spent the first gulf war standing guard somewhere in Kuwait (best place for an air force computer programmer I guess). He said the time it'd take from the alert to go off, until he could get into his chem gear was probably longer than the time it'd take for him to die from the Sarin gas.

They had quite a few alerts but no attacks luckily.

Helmet liner buckle dug into the side of my forehead – blinding headaches. Steel helmet was good for shaving though. Gloves and liners never kept hands warm, worse when wet.
The best piece of equipment though was the [don't know nomenclature] floor buffer. Most Useful military skill when I had to refinish some hardwood floors.

When I was in a LONG time ago I noticed that ANY sort of "camo" was always much hotter than normal fatigues and battle dress, and worse, NO camo ever matched the environment we were in. I truly believed that it was better to just wear normal fatigues and roll around in the mud or bracken or whatever you were in.

SA80 and my boots!