If I'm fighting in the jungle,
I want something different than if I'm fighting in Alaska
or if I'm fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan.
This is a product of fighting in the Middle East.
They were going to FOBs,
refitting, and they were going out to fight.
So you only had to worry about carrying
stuff you needed to fight, right?
But now, especially in the jungle environment,
we don't have that luxury, and you have to sustain yourself
and move long distances and then continue to fight.
The purpose I think of this is to kind of bridge that gap
between sustainability and fighting.
I'm 1st Lt. Zachary Calderone.
I'm 1st Platoon platoon leader from Charlie Rock, Cacti,
and I'm about to introduce you guys to
the jungle rig that I'm testing out,
optimized for jungle operations.
So, obviously we're not in a jungle environment right now.
We're currently in Pōhakuloa Training Area,
otherwise known as PTA, on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi.
But this rig is applicable
for not just a jungle environment,
but basically any environment we fight in.
OK.
So, from top to bottom, you have the harness itself,
which is made of super-lightweight material.
Same thing with these straps.
Like I said, six-point adjustable harness, drop extenders,
you know, when you need to put your ruck on.
Something I really like about it
is you can take all these clips off too.
So, like, these clips right here,
I could take all these clips off,
and I can just make it a belt.
Overall, the theme is modularity and customization,
and that's, I think, super important
because, like I said,
you never know which environment you're going to fight in.
A couple days ago, we were in the jungle in Oahu,
and now we're on the Big Island
in basically an open desert, I guess.
And again, left to right,
double mag pouches. Generally put mags in there.
They have these bungee corsets to kind of tighten it down.
So if I want to use the flaps, I can use the flaps.
If I don't want to use the flaps,
it's got a bungee stay right here.
Just a tourniquet on the outside that I have ready to go.
Again, my adjustable NOD pouch.
You could fit a 1-liter Nalgene in there,
a 1-liter Nalgene water bottle.
And then I have my giant sustainment pouch,
again, with a status card, laminated status card,
signaling, IR chem lights,
my leader's book with a little tie-down strap.
My leader's book,
it's basically just a notebook that I use to plan.
In my notebook, I have some,
what's called bump cards for helicopters
or for air assaulting or anything like that.
And these are used just to basically tell, you know,
have the serials for all my sensitive items and whatnot.
And then I have some protractors, map markers,
and then I have some overlays, some map overlays.
So, generally when we plan, I don't write on the map ever.
I'll just write on these overlays,
and then I'll put that over top of my map
and kind of have my mission graphics
on these instead of my map itself.
We bought, as a battalion,
we bought some stuff from this company, S.O.Tech.
Included 249 pouches, dump pouches, slings,
just various different things.
And one of the guys that works up at S-4,
one of the lieutenants up there,
which is like the logistics cell of our battalion,
he reached out to the CEO,
CEO got back to him and wanted to build
some jungle-specific rigs and equipment.
My buddy Chris, who's up at S-4,
he hit me up and was like, "Hey,
would you mind testing this out with your platoon?"
And I was like, "Yeah, absolutely. I'd love to do that."
I took my platoon out.
We all went out and did a quick ambush
and kind of started that relationship.
And then since then, we've just been
going back and forth with gear
and testing different things out.
I have my map. Nothing fancy.
I usually just put it in a Ziploc bag.
And this map is just currently all of our AO
that we're operating in right now.
And then I've got face paint,
because you need face paint.
VS17 signaling panel.
Yeah, so that's basically everything
in my sustainment pouch.
So, moving over, I have my IFAK.
It's a rip top, rip-open top.
This particular one isn't S.O.Tech,
but it's the same exact design,
or pretty close to the design that he has.
Got some gauze here, more gauze,
or I got some bandages, gauze, tape, chest seals,
some combat gauze, an Israeli pressure bandage,
and some NPAs.
I like to keep my tourniquets on the outside.
That's why I have it right here,
just so I can have super-easy access.
Have the canteen pouch, the adjustable canteen pouch.
I made this bungee corset go around it,
so it cinched down to my radio.
And then, rounding it out, just two more mags.
So I have the capacity to carry eight mags total.
And as a PL, or a platoon leader,
I don't need eight magazines,
so I usually just dish those out to my guys.
If I'm fighting in the jungle,
I want something different than if I'm fighting in Alaska
or if I'm fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan.
We have Sgt. Liotta,
one of the most badass NCOs in Charlie Rock
and, honestly, the battalion, really.
He's rocking the standard-issued TAPS.
You know TAPS? Tactical assault panel
that pretty much most of the Army is issued.
So, there's six dedicated mag pouches
built into it, all Velcro.
And then there's two at the very end,
which are meant for radios or more magazines if you want.
It's got MOLLE row,
three rows of MOLLE on the front of it.
He's got the standard IFAK upside down,
so it's a lot easier to access for him
or anyone else who needs to use it.
This pouch is actually one of the S.O.Tech pouches,
the adjustable ones he's rocking.
It's got a split Y-harness on the back of it.
So, three buckles here, and then a fixed buckle here.
He's also rocking a gun belt.
And most of our dudes are wearing gun belts,
but none of those are issued, unfortunately.
On his gun belt, he has most of his mags.
Standard-issued double mag pouches, Velcro.
A dump pouch for magazines
or anything he finds in the battlefield
that he deems as important for intel.
And then this is the standard-issued
canteen pouch he's got here.
Most dudes rock their night-vision devices
in the pouches.
And that's pretty much it.
The big difference is the level of outflow
you have for air, or for heat to escape.
So on this, all the heat's trapped right here,
especially when he's got it fully loaded down
with a full combat load, right?
Whereas me, I have nothing here, so.
All the weight is pretty much on his shoulders, right?
And for me, it's the same way.
My weight's on my shoulders,
but I can easily adjust this to sit at my waist
when I'm not wearing a rucksack or whatever it is.
As far as ease of access goes,
I have eight mags right here,
basically right here, in my front left and right.
Super easy to access, no matter what hand.
I can carry a lot more on this
and still move faster.
I have a lot more points of adjustment.
So I can tailor this. Since I have six points of adjustment,
I can tailor this to whatever I'm doing, right?
With this, once you adjust it,
and correct me if I'm wrong,
most guys just, like, once they adjust it, it stays that way
because it's a pain to readjust, right?
With this, the cool thing about it is
I have these extenders, so I adjust it
to sit the way I want it to when I'm fighting,
when I just have this rig on
and not a rucksack or something.
And then when I'm rucking,
all I have to do is hit these adjustments,
and I'm good to go.
It's a quick-adjust kind of thing.
This is an evolution of itself.
So before this you had the FLC,
the fighting load carrier, I believe.
It was basically just a vest,
and that had even less ability to adapt, right?
This is a product of fighting in the Middle East.
Because they were fighting, they were going to FOBs,
refitting, and they were going out to fight.
So you only had to worry about carrying
stuff you needed to fight, right?
But now, especially in the jungle environment,
we don't have that luxury where we're operating out of FOBs
and we have strong support from battalion
or brigade or whatever it is.
And you have to sustain yourself and move long distances
and then continue to fight, right?
So the purpose I think of this
is to kind of bridge that gap
between sustainability and fighting.
And I think with this, you don't really get that as much.
It's good for what it was meant to do.
You can take, you can detach this,
these two straps, and you can hook into a plate carrier.
But then again, like I said,
you're just carrying more weight,
and you have to modify your rig again.
Whereas opposed to this, you can just, if you wanted to,
throw your plate carrier on, and you're good to go.
You're good to fight. You have everything right here.
So I think this is a step in the right direction, honestly,
in terms of the jungle environment.
Yeah, I mean, I like it.
I like it a lot in the jungle environment.
I've noticed when I'm actually moving,
maneuvering through the jungle, I don't sweat
nearly as much as I did with my old rig and my gun belt.
And with this thing, I can kind of do it all.
Super easy to take off, rip this off.
Half the times, I don't even need to wear this.
This is just to keep it kind of closed together.
And then unbuckle this, and I can just don it off.
It's super easy. So, I mean, that's something
also I didn't really talk about earlier,
but if I'm doing combat water-survival stuff,
this thing is incredibly easy to take off.
It's just one belt buckle away.
Swim out of it, and I'm out of my rig.
So if there's gear out there
that allows guys and girls to move faster,
move longer distances, then why not?
Yeah, I think overall I think it's a really good step
in the right direction for jungle operations.