4-4-4-4

Recently I was trying to relocate the following article:

http://www.90thidpg.us/Equipment/Articles/28Pack/index.html

This has some interesting information on the difference between a marching pack, combat pack and stripped-down “patrol pack”. 

Exploring the site further turned up an even more useful article:

http://www.90thidpg.us/Equipment/Articles/TravelLight/index.html

During my search, I stumbled across the following:

http://www.2ndbn5thmar.com/notes/CombatLoad.pdf

Of particular note is the “4-4-4-4” system. Don't get too hung up on the titles. Just understand that a clear distinction is being made between short duration operations and those that span more than one day, and for the latter a distinction is made between short and long duration. I would like to examine this scheme in a little more depth. “4-month” doesn't concern us today.

4-Hour Load.

• “Deuce” (webbing) gear and weapon.
• Helmet and Flak (regarded as “mission specific”)

• Whatever weather gear the marine is wearing. (i.e. marine is assumed to be suitably dressed for current conditions)

• A zip-loc bag of toilet paper is carried in a clothing pocket so it is still with the marine if any pack has been dropped.

•  NO pack. NO food. NO toilet kit, sleeping gear, weather gear, boot polish, shelter, nor spare clothing.

If it is a tactical situation the only things you should be carring are tactical gear and water.

To this I would make the following caveats:

A reasonable quantity of “pocket food” may be carried. This is such items as trail-mix, hard candy, biscuit/cookie packs etc. These can provide a useful energy boost. No food that requires cooking nor warming. Strictly no gum.

A poncho and/or rain jacket may be carried. No spare clothing does not apply to items such as gloves and bandannas.

The deuce gear is assumed to include one or two water bottles. In some climates extra water will be needed. Water is heavy, however, so the volume of water carried should not be so heavy as to increase the rate of water consumption. Just how much water that is might prove to be a useful research project. Water-bladders for carrying water is lighter than using conventional military water-bottles. Some tactical and mission-specific items are better carried on the back rather than on the webbing. For this purpose dedicated tactical packs (“Tac-Packs”) should be acquired.

4-Day Load.

The additional “4-day items” may be considered to constitute an approach load and should be capable of being cached before the deliberate tactical phase.

As 4-Hour load with the addition of:

4-Day Pack with food, 4-day washing kit, sleeping gear, weather gear and shelter. No spare clothing. No boot polish.

A case (12) MREs is suggested as four days food. Except in sub-zero operations this may be overly generous. Three eating periods a day may not be practical and troops not eating all of their rations often occurs. Two MREs a day may be more practical, with a useful quantity of components that can be eaten on the move.

A 4-day wash kit is a hand towel, 1oz/25mls tootpaste, one toothbrush, a bar of soap and “razors for 4 days”. No shampoo, no shaving cream, no extras nor spares. Shaving cream , incidentally, is totally unnecessary and has no place in any lightweight kit. Just use your soap. You do not need a brush.

“Razors for 4 days” is ONE razor. Small tubes of toothpaste are often sold with travel toothbrushes. Cutting a normal toothbrush down to 4 inches is suggested, and you might like to follow my advice and get a child-sized brush to begin with. The document suggests carrying soap in a plastic case such as a “chewing tobacco case”. I have no idea why people think they need to carry soap in a rigid case and expensive electronic gadgets in a soft pouch. Many of the soap cases that I have used over the years have turned out to be quite brittle and easily damaged. The best way to carry soap is in a small nylon drawstring pouch. The document also suggests that an empty plastic peanut-butter jar makes a good wash-kit container. Use a mesh bag instead. You can use a bandanna rather than a hand towel.

4-Week Load.

As 4-Day load, with the addition of a 4-week pack. 4-week pack includes food, 4-week wash kit, sleeping gear, weather gear, boot polish, shelter and spare clothing.

4-week wash kit includes replacement items such as extra razors, more toothpaste and more toilet paper. One bar of soap should last more than a month. I have been on 3-week plus trips and not used up 50mls of shampoo despite daily use. It may be prudent to have a “spares bag” of toiletry items from which you can replenish the 4-day kit when needed.

If you have enjoyed this article or it has been helpful to you please feel free to show your appreciation. Thank you.
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More Ranger Rolling

Last night I conducted a pair of experiments in ranger rolling.

Firstly, I tried rolling a poncho. First I folded it widthwise. I then turned up the bottom, folded it in thirds lengthwise then rolled it down from the top. The resulting roll was a little smaller than the carrying sack. Ranger rolling either gives me a way to do without the sack or provides a convenient and quick method to roll the poncho small enough to fit in the sack.

The second item I experimented on was a poncho-liner. This took a number of attempts. The method I settled on was to fold the poncho widthwise. Then, rather than folding up the bottom I folded under the left side. Rather than folding into thirds and rolling down from the top I made my folds widthwise. I then rolled the right side to the left. Because a poncho-liner is so thick and you are working on a double thickness getting the right amount of turn-under takes some experimentation. About 25cm seems right.

You end up with a bundle that is close to a cube, but a little wider than it is high. It measures about 13" x 8" x 6", which is almost a Fibonacci/Golden Ratio object! This is a different shape to stuffsack the liner came with: thicker but shorter. Once you have the right turn-under figured out ranger rolling the poncho-liner takes less time than trying to cram it into the stuff sack.

If you have enjoyed this article or it has been helpful to you please feel free to show your appreciation. Thank you.
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Rolling and Folding.

 

I suspect that many readers have already seen the above video. It may be one of the most useful things on the internet. Using this technique putting away the laundry has become a quick job of a few minutes rather than a tiresome chore.

Yesterday I came across the term “ranger roll” used to name an alternative to a sleeping bag. Not a term I had encountered before. It turned out to be an alternate name for a poncho and liner used as a sleeping system. A websearch on “ranger roll” in fact turned up something quite different:
 

Rolling clothing this way may be old news to many of you. If, like me, you had not encountered it before there are a number of webpages and videos. Once you have seen how it works for towels and tee-shirts you can probably work out how to roll most items. Some users suggest items may be rolled tighter if rolled on a hard surface. Some items may be more compact if folded flat. It will also depend  on the space where you need to stow something, so experiment.

I realized that I had encountered the technique before. My mother used to “marry” socks by rolling them up and turning over the cuff. As an adult I realized that this was a complete waste of time. Dump your washed socks in a drawer and grab the first pair that look similar.

The ranger roll method is worth trying if you have to pack items. Remember that items such as sleeping bags and down jackets should not be stored for long periods tightly rolled.

Many items of outdoor equipment that you buy come in their own stuff sack. Like me, you have probably unpacked the item to examine it and then found you cannot fit it back in the sack as neatly as it came. Using a ranger roll it may be possible to pack the item without using the sack. Either save weight by not carrying the sack or put the sack to a more useful purpose.

If you have enjoyed this article or it has been helpful to you please feel free to show your appreciation. Thank you.
The Books

How to Wrestle Numbers.

Many things I was made to learn at school I have never had to use. Over the years, however, I have had occasions to use trigonometry, geometry and arithmetic. Maths was not one of my best subjects at school! With time I have got more dexterous with numbers but do not regard it as a strong suit. This is relative, of course. To the astonishment of younger generations I have been known to multiply numbers together without using my phone!
 

Over the last week I have been reading “Mind Performance Hacks” by Ron Hale-Evans. A very interesting book with many varied ideas. To my surprise I found the maths section far more engaging than I expected. This lead me to a book called “Rapid Math Tricks and Tips” by Edward H. Julius. I never thought I would enjoy reading a mathematics book, but I did! This book is a fast and easy read and is full of techniques that will improve your handling of numbers. The book says “thirty days” but I read most of it in an afternoon and intend to reread it today.

I have come to the revelation that arithmetic is rather like judo. You learn a few basic principles and then you may wrestle the numbers into submission.

Some insights and observations:

z x y = 2z x ½y = 3z x ⅓y = nz x y/n

which is my way of remembering that when multiplying you can change one number if you chance the other by the same quantity. For example, if you halve the multiplicand you must double the multiplier or vice versa. In other words:

66 x 3.5 = 33 x 7, but one may be much easier for you to calculate.

Similarly, with division:

z/y = 2z/2y = 3z/3y = nz/ny

This is easy to remember if recall a division is essentially a fraction, and top and bottom must balance. You must change dividend and divisor by the same proportion. Hence:

34 ÷ 4.5 = 68 ÷ 9

Breaking numbers up is another useful trick:

For example:

47 x 14

can be reorganized as

(50 – 3) x 7 x 2 or (40 + 7) x 7 x 2

Since I find threes and fives easier than my seven-times table I would solve this as:

7(50-3) x 2 = (350 – 21) x 2 = 329 x 2 = 685

When you split a number keep track of if you have to subtract or add the elements.

Solving the above I used another useful trick, which is subtracting by addition. What do I need to add to “21” to make it “350” ? If I add a “9” it becomes “30”. 30 needs “320” to become “350”. Therefore the difference is “9 + 350”. The book suggests doing the “tens” first: 21 needs 320 to make 341, then 9. OR, you can reorganize: 350 - 21 = 350 - 20 - 1.

When I was at school I was taught you divided numbers from the left hand side, but multiplication, addition and subtraction was to be done from the right.

THEY LIED!

This book has lots of examples where addition or multiplication are simpler if you start on the left. One of my favourites is the method where you run down one column, up the next, down the one after that and so forth.

The book has many other useful techniques. Many are quite simple but may not have occurred to you if you are uncomfortable with numbers. For example, rather than multiplying by “8” you may find it easier to double a number, double the result and double again. To divide by 16, quarter the number and quarter the result. Dividing by 3 and then 2 may be easier than attempting to divide by 6. One way to quickly multiply by 9 is to add a zero to the number and then subtract the original number from this. This is treating x9 as x(10 - 1). 

If you have enjoyed this article or it has been helpful to you please feel free to show your appreciation. Thank you.
The Books