One of my sons found out his brother had received a new pair of swim trunks. He told me that he needed a pair as well. So, I asked him if it was a requirement or a desirement. He said, “wait, now I’m confused.” Now that I think about it, I’d venture to say that he isn’t the only one. Back in the dark ages, before the war, we used to get asked if a piece of gear we wanted to purchase was mission essential or mission enhancing but the fairly free flow of OCO dollars has meant that most any whim was met with a purchase. You’re probably realizing that those days are over.
Your unit isn’t going to have much money. It may already be an issue. Hopefully, it won’t be as rough as the bad old days, but you’ll need to ask yourself if you really need the unit to purchase that new knife, or eye pro, or day pack. Or, can you purchase it yourself (that’s what we had to do), or do without?
Do an analysis and be prepared to actually justify the impact of the gear on the mission if it passes the “smell” test. Save the silver bullets for real needs and be ready to invest a little personal cash in the things you’ve taken for granted these past 10 years.
I can’t say I ever saw a freeflow of purchases. Our old 1SG got in trouble because he went over the SM and purchased all of us ACOGs before our first trip to Afghanistan.
Ever get a Camelbak, multitool, cool notebook cover, gloves, pocket knife, eyepro, etc while deployed? If so, then you saw the free flow of purchases.
Hell, your entire RFI issue was abnormal.
I agree. However, all the little “freeflow” things like trinkets like knives and whatnot, they never asked us which ones we require or would be best suited for our needs. They just shotgunned us random crap, a lot of it too. If they ever asked which crap would be best suited for us it would have saved a lot of waste and excess stuff that would just wind up packed permanently in an ISU, connex, for storage bay.
As a result, we all did end up buying personally damn near everything on our own. Outside of body armor and uniforms, we replaced or supplemented with our own personal purchases.
🙁
I was going through one of my three tough boxes tonight and saw I had four Gerbers in there… Deffinately the free flow of cash money.
Right before my second deployment we had 32 “tactical” grappling hooks show up! I saw them in a connex about 6 months ago, still new in the box, except now there was only around 20 left…
I’d be inclined to predict that 2/3 of this site’s reader base personally funds equipment later adopted by their units and/or agencies.
Examples of personally-funded gear that commanders directed their Loggies to purchase based on my/my section’s demonstration of their “mission-enhancing” potential: Safariland holsters (SLS in the early 2000s to address the UM84 hilarity, subsequently ALS when the SERPA fiascos began). GemTech lanyards. Tactical Tailor, then ATS IFAKs and CLS bags. PB magazines (just hosted my old unit on the range, saw one with my personal mark on the floorplate). Wolf springs. Slip2K. Danner. Magpul. Oregon Aero. Peltor. Blue Force Gear. Multicam.
I agree.
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