Ben, then I apologize. I guess I misundertood you.

It's just that you said: "Making a soldier tote more load to make up for poor planning, lousy logistics, and inadequate resupply.... We fight battles using the latest technology and strategies that were proven obsolete during World War 2. ..... Command is at least 50 years behind the times."

I always thought "planning", "logistics", "resupply", "fighting battles", "strategies" and "command" are things the military does, rather than the bureaucrats. My mistake.

Wish I could actually watch those dang blasted You-Tube vids, I always get an error message, oh well

Hikermor,

I have one and it weighted in about 14 lbs without the radio and accessory pouches, so 17 is probably close with all attachments.

They are designed by Arc'Teryx, and built by Propper. They are actually very nice packs except for the weight. Weight is due to the heavy cordura used and all the Molle webbing. They are not fragile, to say the least.

If you strap the Assault pack on the back of the main pack it is even heavier. You can get the ILBE packs on ebay for pretty good prices if you are willing to carry the weight.

I switched to an Eberlestock pack that is similar in design but uses much lighter materials and only weighs about 7 lbs, which is about the same as a large ALICE.

Gotta love hand-held digital travel scales.

Greg

Interesting. Arc'teryx makes nice packs. I used one rather hard for several years before I retired. I was by the office a while ago and my successor was still using it. It was very comfortable and quite tough, and not at all heavy.

In my experience, once most of them made O-5 (Lt. Colonel, Commander, etc) they became political officers. In Baghdad, these were the officers that were dealing with the contractors and working mostly at desks. These people tended to really wrench up the works trying to get things done. I'm sure there were some out in the field doing real soldier work, but there were so many command rank officers and GS civilian equivalents mucking about in the IZ that we struggled to get anything done with them. Think of Everett McGill's character (I know he was a Major, but he was obviously bucking for a promotion) in Heartbreak Ridge and you get a good idea of the kind of crap we had to deal with. I don't consider that regular army. Real GI's worked to solve problems. Command staff seemed hell-bent on making as many as possible. They couldn't make one decision on their feet. That's not a way to fight any battle.

Part of the problem is everyone pitches in an idea and the original item gets all gacked up.

It has to be "blah blah blah and blah" capable of "feats superman wouldn't want to do" and able to be used by a guy who is cold/wet/tired/hungry/lost with a bad attitude to boot.

I was a guinea pig at the Natick Test labs a long time ago. Saw some really nice gear there, most of which, while perfectly usable, never got fielded. "Didn't meet standards"

Fast forward 18 yrs, the SGM of the test labs was a old friend, who after listening to techno-babble, got knee and arm pads off the shelf for less that 1/4 the price the contractor was quoting. And to my amazement, they were fielded as is off the shelf.

Not all desk jockeys are jerks.