I'm on active duty US military, and I just got back from a tour in Afghanistan. With the figure painter's eye for detail, I took notes on the uniforms and equipment of the guys I worked with, and I thought you might find them useful for future endeavors. US 101st Airborne TF Rakkasan -- They wore standard DCUs with Kevlar helmets. All the grunts wore the PVS-7b night site harness permanently afixed to their helmets. They wore the current generation of Kevlar flack jacket which slides over the head, rather than closing like a jacket (note: they are not wearing the Ranger Body Armor with the ceramic "chicken plate" in the front). -- To a man they are carrying weapons with telescoping stocks - even their M249s and M240s have them. Lots of M4 carbines with the shorty barrels. Just about everybody has the scope attachment mounted on top of the carrying handle of their M-16s/M-4s. -- They wore a mixture of standard LBE with many opting to wear the mesh vest as well. It looks like a corset with magazine pouches on the front, and is purely a matter of taste. I don't care for it and don't wear it. Most wore butt packs. British Royal Marine Commandos -- Dressed in Brit pattern 2-color (?) camo desert uniform. I saw some also walking around in their woodland camo uniform. Headgear was a mixture of green beret, boonie hat, and helmet. -- For weapons I saw lots of the IW as well as a high proportion of what I assume is the UK issue M249 (our SAW and your Minimag?). -- When they went out on missions they looked everybit as overloaded as you see in photos from the Falklands. I don't know if you Brits really carry that much more stuff than us or if you fill your bergens with styrofoam peanuts to impress. US Special Forces -- They are wearing a modified version of the DCUs. Before they left Fort Bragg they had their DCU tops modified by taking the lower pockets off and having them sewn on their upper sleeves. -- Headgear was a very mixed bag of boonie hats, civilian baseball hats, or none at all. Helmets do not seem very popular. -- A big departure from 100 years of US history, they are all wearing beards. As part of their advisory role with the Afghan Military Forces (AMF), they have to wear the beards lest the hajjis think that they are homosexual prostitutes (I'm not kidding!). -- Every cool weapon known to special operations. Take your pick! -- Also note that many of the VERY special operations guys (use your imagination as I can't go into it more than that) wear civilian clothes (blue jeans, t-shirts, flannel shirts, commerical hiking clothing, etc), full beards, civilian baseball hats and are (of course) armed to the teeth. Back to Frontline Vol. 3 Iss. 1 Table of Contents Back to Frontline List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2002 by Rolf Hedges This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com