i was infantry in 9th ID may '69-may'70. there was no SOP on field equipment. we made do with whatever supply had available for us to use and basically put our rig together however we pleased. i never had a buttpack and i never had a rucksack frame, as supply was out of both when i first got to my unit. we normally carried 4 c-rats. i put the "light" cans (crackers) in a sock and tied it to my pistol belt (left side). i found an old claymore bag, cut the strap at the 1/2 way point and tied it to the "epaulets" of my suspenders. it hung on my back that way and i put some of the heavier cans (peaches, meatballs and beans, etc.) in that. small cans (shredded chicken, dehydrated ham and powdered eggs, etc.) went into the bottom pockets of my combat shirt. those little brown plastic bags that had the coffee, cigarettes, etc. went into the pant-leg pocket (usually right side) of my pants (left pocket was one of the places i temporarily put empty rifle mags in when in a fire-fight). 2 canteens, one of which i had no cover for but scrounged a d-ring for it and hung it on the left rear suspender of web gear. i tied a poncho on the back of my belt with an extra shoe-string. no one used the ammo pouches that i ever saw. i tied 2 or 3 bandoleers of loaded m-16 magazines around my waist and had 2 100 round belts of m-60 ammo over my shoulders. 2 frags and 2 smoke grenades hung off the little metal rings of my suspenders. on top of that, they made me carry a 100 foot rope that was held on my pistol belt by 2 d-rings. it was just underneath my poncho. and, just to make things worse, we were so short-handed that i also got stuck carrying a claymore mine for a while. keep in mind that, down in the delta, we crossed swollen rivers frequently and got into knee-deep to crotch deep mud daily. we were covered in mud and filth most of the time. i carried NO personal effects, as they would have been ruined (would you stick a muddy toothbrush in your mouth?). we owned no clothes except the clothes on our back. uniforms were turned in to supply when we arrived at our new companies. then supply would send boxes of used clothing to us every week or 2 and we put on clean clothes and threw the nasty, muddy stuff into the big boxes to be choppered back to the rear. we were indeed "motherless children". c-rats were brought out to us every other day, along with plastic 1 gallon jugs (like milk jugs) to refill our canteens. viet nam was no camping trip, we had way too much weight on us to consider much in the way of personal effects.
This is the most interesting looking Vietnam War era ruck I have ever seen
i was infantry in 9th ID may '69-may'70. there was no SOP on field equipment. we made do with whatever supply had available for us to use and basically put our rig together however we pleased. i never had a buttpack and i never had a rucksack frame, as supply was out of both when i first got to my unit. we normally carried 4 c-rats. i put the "light" cans (crackers) in a sock and tied it to my pistol belt (left side). i found an old claymore bag, cut the strap at the 1/2 way point and tied it to the "epaulets" of my suspenders. it hung on my back that way and i put some of the heavier cans (peaches, meatballs and beans, etc.) in that. small cans (shredded chicken, dehydrated ham and powdered eggs, etc.) went into the bottom pockets of my combat shirt. those little brown plastic bags that had the coffee, cigarettes, etc. went into the pant-leg pocket (usually right side) of my pants (left pocket was one of the places i temporarily put empty rifle mags in when in a fire-fight). 2 canteens, one of which i had no cover for but scrounged a d-ring for it and hung it on the left rear suspender of web gear. i tied a poncho on the back of my belt with an extra shoe-string. no one used the ammo pouches that i ever saw. i tied 2 or 3 bandoleers of loaded m-16 magazines around my waist and had 2 100 round belts of m-60 ammo over my shoulders. 2 frags and 2 smoke grenades hung off the little metal rings of my suspenders. on top of that, they made me carry a 100 foot rope that was held on my pistol belt by 2 d-rings. it was just underneath my poncho. and, just to make things worse, we were so short-handed that i also got stuck carrying a claymore mine for a while. keep in mind that, down in the delta, we crossed swollen rivers frequently and got into knee-deep to crotch deep mud daily. we were covered in mud and filth most of the time. i carried NO personal effects, as they would have been ruined (would you stick a muddy toothbrush in your mouth?). we owned no clothes except the clothes on our back. uniforms were turned in to supply when we arrived at our new companies. then supply would send boxes of used clothing to us every week or 2 and we put on clean clothes and threw the nasty, muddy stuff into the big boxes to be choppered back to the rear. we were indeed "motherless children". c-rats were brought out to us every other day, along with plastic 1 gallon jugs (like milk jugs) to refill our canteens. viet nam was no camping trip, we had way too much weight on us to consider much in the way of personal effects.
Thank you so much for this detailed account.
I would love to see a full kit of the 9th ID because there aren’t many videos doing impression overviews of the 9th ID in Vietnam
Second this ☝️
My great Uncle was in the 9th ID in vietnam he was a Major. I inherited his foot locker full of stuff and most of his uniforms
Thats cool! My grandfather was in the signal corps in nam from 68 to 71 and was stationed in Dong Tam and helped with radios and equipment for the 9th
Can you please make the video on full 9th infantry impression?
Hola saludos desde chile, cuánto mide la cuerda?
Never been this early, keep it up man
What's the song name?
Is it an early poncho or a lightweight ripstop one?
cool! dropped a sub.
Very different setup, cool!
Have you heard of the walking dead my grandmas friends brother was in it
How hard is it to find just the frames and how much do they go for?
You should do 173rd please!! :)
Sweet
Rad
This isn’t what my grandpa used in 62, why would they even use this stuff? Use the 2qt canteens, they carry double the water.
2qts didn’t come out until 67’ probably not seen until 69-70 onward.
The main war didn’t begin until 1965…
Yes because equipment changed drastically over the span of the war.
first