But for some assault personnel to be humping that much gear is idiotic.
They have to eat, drink water, carry weapon(s), ammo, etc. Your load is divided into assault items and everyday life items. When you get to the Line of Departure to begin the Assault Phase, you drop the everyday life items and make the assault with your fighting load - weapons & ammo & comm gear.
We had one operation where resupply was not possible for almost two weeks (our company was on patrol and engaged with an NVA battalion). We normally carried a week's worth of meals, but had cut down to one meal a day then finally ran out of food. I was a radio operator and rarely fired my M-16 (I rated a .45, but I preferred to "reach out...way out, and touch someone"). However, I humped 500 rounds of ammo. This particular Op I was down to 120 rounds when it became necessary to share with my buddies. It is no fun getting low on ammo.
I carried the PRC-25, spares (battery, handset & antenna). My job was to communicate, no matter what. Assistant machine gunners carried one or two boxes of gun ammo. Regular grunts in a fire team often carried 60mm mortar ammo or LAAWs in addition to their own gear.
There is a reason they call us "Grunts".
Semper Fi, my time in the Corps was ‘70-’74. The only thing I ever humped was comm/nav gear for phantoms and intruders. Pretty funny, we were both radio men. My last CO had spent 7 years as a pow. Captain Marvel (what a heroic name) was only promoted two ranks to light colonel for all that time spent. Seems like Marines sure had to earn their rank.
Great post. My son is currently in TBS at Quantico. I hope I have given him enough foundation to deal with all the bullshit.
He did a term in the Reserves - only one deployment. Was Field Radio Operator.