"A lot" is also not a complementary construct to "a little." "A lot" is a parcel of land. "Many" or "A large number" or "Whole great metric buttloads" are perfectly useful constructs. "A lot" is just ignorance.
When these are issued out at Combined Arms eXercise at 29 Palms, and the geek-infantryman (believe me, they exist, I am one) is told to report to the commanding officer and figure the damn thing out so that it can be used, I'll believe these things are being used. Still, the point here is that if it's not exceedingly easy to use, it won't get used. If there are lots of little parts that have to go in the case, they're going to get lost. SL-3 gear for night vision gets lost all the time. The PEQ-2 infrared laser sight for the M-16 is a good example. There's a neato little switch that mounts, using adhesive and velcro, to the handguard. We never use it, though. it's supposed to stay in the pouch, but it gets lost. All the little bits and pieces that come with this junk get lost. Just like the little pieces of MoLLE gear, just like the little pieces of SL-3 for anything that comes with little garbage. A note to you engineers out there designing stuff for us to go kill people with: Make it monolithic. Configurable is nice and stuff, but if there are little parts that can get lost, they will get lost. It happens with all the stuff we have now; it'll happen with the DragonEye. Which, by the way, I don't ever want to have to hump into an LZ. I bet it doesn't de well wet, either. Well guess what? Grunts get wet and muddy on a sunny day. We're not happy unless we're wet and muddy. This thing isn't going to last long, I surmise. It's going to get broken too much.
We don't use claymores anymore. I know how to arm/disarm one, but that's just school of infantry stuff. We don't use mines anymore because of some international anti mine treaty.
They ALL smell like dog food. The damned Army at least has the money and wherewithal (and general softness) to helicopter hot, fresh food to their troops (don't argue with me on this one, I saw it firstand, in Kosovo of all places; chow via blackhawk). Thankfully they on't make the ham-slice anymore, nor the chicken a-la king, or even the freeze dried peaches. Typically, about half the MRE's I get issued get stuffed in a cardboard box in my wall locker; the rest eaten, supplemented by a handy-dandy backpacker's shaker of spices. The ones that get saved get sold at gun shows. people pay a lot of money for those damned things, even more for the newer ones that come in the light tan package.
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"A lot" is also not a complementary construct to "a little." "A lot" is a parcel of land. "Many" or "A large number" or "Whole great metric buttloads" are perfectly useful constructs. "A lot" is just ignorance.
When these are issued out at Combined Arms eXercise at 29 Palms, and the geek-infantryman (believe me, they exist, I am one) is told to report to the commanding officer and figure the damn thing out so that it can be used, I'll believe these things are being used.
Still, the point here is that if it's not exceedingly easy to use, it won't get used. If there are lots of little parts that have to go in the case, they're going to get lost. SL-3 gear for night vision gets lost all the time. The PEQ-2 infrared laser sight for the M-16 is a good example. There's a neato little switch that mounts, using adhesive and velcro, to the handguard. We never use it, though. it's supposed to stay in the pouch, but it gets lost. All the little bits and pieces that come with this junk get lost. Just like the little pieces of MoLLE gear, just like the little pieces of SL-3 for anything that comes with little garbage.
A note to you engineers out there designing stuff for us to go kill people with: Make it monolithic. Configurable is nice and stuff, but if there are little parts that can get lost, they will get lost.
It happens with all the stuff we have now; it'll happen with the DragonEye. Which, by the way, I don't ever want to have to hump into an LZ. I bet it doesn't de well wet, either. Well guess what? Grunts get wet and muddy on a sunny day. We're not happy unless we're wet and muddy. This thing isn't going to last long, I surmise. It's going to get broken too much.
We don't use claymores anymore. I know how to arm/disarm one, but that's just school of infantry stuff. We don't use mines anymore because of some international anti mine treaty.
They ALL smell like dog food. The damned Army at least has the money and wherewithal (and general softness) to helicopter hot, fresh food to their troops (don't argue with me on this one, I saw it firstand, in Kosovo of all places; chow via blackhawk).
Thankfully they on't make the ham-slice anymore, nor the chicken a-la king, or even the freeze dried peaches.
Typically, about half the MRE's I get issued get stuffed in a cardboard box in my wall locker; the rest eaten, supplemented by a handy-dandy backpacker's shaker of spices. The ones that get saved get sold at gun shows. people pay a lot of money for those damned things, even more for the newer ones that come in the light tan package.