Bandolier
 

A bandolier held 7 magazines, I carried 3 bandoliers, full.
I think I was the only one that didn't have to carry a 200 round belt for the Machine gunner.
Who had to carry stuff for other people?

Ron

Ron
 

Being Mech we had the luxury of having with us not bandoleers by cases of any kind of ammo we wanted. Course we did attract a whole lot of RPGs. On those occasions when we did walk we didn?t usually carry a rug sack. I?d carry 4 slings of 60 ammo, plus the assault bag attached to the gun. Also a .45 with 2 extra mags and a frag or two. We?d carry other things but that was it for ammo.

Stay healthy,
Andy

Never liked the bandolier thingie, so I carried my magazines in an old claymore bag, I could get to more ammo much faster than the bandolier method. On tour #2, I carried smoke grenades for signaling, and an extra battery for the PRC 77 for one of my RTO's.

Just about everybody carried belts of machine gun ammo except, like you, the RTO. The machine gunner or assistant carried an extra barrel for it. Many of us carried a Claymore and trip flares. A few carried smoke grenades. Like you, I carried 3-4 bandoliers and often a mag in each leg pocket and a couple of the shirt pockets. Alot of guys carried 3 canteens, but I opted for 2 to carry more ammo. I'd rather be thirsty than out of ammo.

I like to think we all humped 200 rounds for the 60 but from the reunion a guy sent my a picture of right before we got in a real big fight , and only me and the 60 guy were humping ammo , he had more than me. Loaded it with about 30 rounds on the links while humping it. I ramble , but loved to hear the 60.

Lord bless you guys, all our gear was carried in vehicles. I threw a bandolier over my shoulder when we were on the road so I wouldn't need to rumage around for another clip. And true to someones' law, since I had it I never needed it, and that's just fine with me.

What I carried depended on
 

The mission, Basically I carried a Car 15 with 3 bandoliers of Mags and 2 taped mags in the rifle. From there on it depended on the specific mission and how long we were going to be out. Three canteens a couple of smokes, several of the small mini-grenades. sometimes a claymore if we were on a snatch mission. Rice balls with dried fish and fish sauce. radio batteries. We didn't carry a 60 so no belted ammo. Several field bandages and medical stuff. Minox 110 camera.

Just a bunch of accesories
 

When I was a rifleman in the 101st I carried boxes of MG ammo like everyone else. We usually kept them in boxes rather than Rambo style because it kept the belts clean and who wanted to get shot at while wearing ammo belts. LAter, as an RTO like Ron, I had to carry the radio and extra batteries so I only had my LBE full of mags (8) and a frag or 2.
But in the lrrps:I carried the LBE full, 2 mags taped together in the rifle 2 bandoliers of mags, a .45 with a couple of mags , a sawed off M79 with sights off and a bandolier of HE plus smoke and WP rounds, frags, Claymores, maybe a starlite, compass, first aid stuff, lrrp rations and 4 canteens. It was all business, we never carried letters from home or extra socks like the grunts did, we'd only be out for a few days.
Stay good
James

Socks?
 

You woosies wore SOCKS? :D

Socks ? Ain't wore underware in 34 years either , those wet spots dry up pretty quick