Yes it is interesting. As a young guy I was really keen to see what the other carried. Australian army gear of the 60s and 70s was so minimal and we bought a lot of our gear or sewed it ourselves. A Kabar was a big deal. To put it all into context do a seach on google on the lrrp sites which influenced their patrolling doctrine of that era in the same way as now the British influence the New Zealand SAS and the US Special Foces and SEALS influence SASR. SASR are situated at Swanbourne Western Australia and if you look at companies such as Kitbag in WA you can see the material commercially available to the troopers there.
I am interested in the development of the personal combat survival kits much of which has a lot to do with the small bug out bag concept
I will dig into my storage and get my notebooks and post the rest of the lists. I collected lists of kits pre the internet so it might be good to pot them. Their contents are not exotic though.
Regards
Vin7

e komo mai, vin7

Welcome to the forum

Aaaah. "Friendship" not "Freedom" industries. My search-fu may not be as bad as implied then, lol.

Vin7.
Mil-Spec kits are for S.E.R.E. Survival Escape Resistance Evasion.

What we do is S.T.B.R. Survive To Be Rescued.
If you want a decent basic kit buy one of Doug's and put it in a tobacco tin. You will have enough room left over for a poly bag and some MP-1 tablets.

I accept your point re SERE and perhaps this is the wrong forumt for a military kit discussion. However there is a survival and rescue component in SERE and the military are really involved in that. Doug in his appraisals of gear such as the laser flare refers to its military role. For my part I feel that the military kits which every survival orientated person has cannabilised when available offer quite good components despite criticism and people engaged in the outdoors can learn form them.For example I dont think that signal mirror development as seen in its higher form such as made by Rescue Reflectors would have got far without a military interest. And by military I include the Coast Guard and Government paramilitary type rescue organisations. Still perhaps I should leave the leave the military them alone although I did notice a SERE thread on this site.
regards
Vin7

hi vin7 welcome to the site...i myself enjoy military survival lore and collect and use military survival equiment...my personal survival kit and theory is based on the british S.A.S theme...please continue to post any info and web links on military survival kit and E & E kit....again welcome to the site..vince g 11b inf...

No! Don't stop posting! I'm already hooked!