Paul810 – Trust me, it sounds like a lot but it is a fairly realistic scenario. A soldier is expected to have certain basic items on him at all times to fight and to live, they aren’t much of a soldier otherwise. The hardest part of this whole training exercise is not the surviving but rather not to get spotted and therein lies the big challenge. (Did I mention that they scan your location with NVG at night as well?)
This is just the basic survival course. The advanced lasts 10 days. (That one was no fun at all)

Blast – I fully agree that a metal cup is the way to go. We have the issued NATO canteen cup with stove just like man vs wild except they are green and a thermos instead of just a water bottle. (But they took them from us as well). That’s why I ended up wearing my nice hot drink, I had to improvise. (It just didn’t go as planned) oh well, foil does have its other uses. (Lesson learned) I don’t go far without my canteen cup otherwise. By the way, we have troops heading to Texas very soon for some joint training (fort Hood I think??) Any sights to see while down that way? We are sure to get a night or two off to visit.

KevinB – the double headed nails I use resemble the colored thumb tacks on top, With a sorta grove with two extended ridges. This prevents them from being driven flush with wood in the same way as a thumb tack can only be pushed so far into cork. The indented part is for a wrecking bar to be able to grab with its teeth. Since the ground is frozen here a lot driving a stick into the earth for a tarp tie down would be near impossible. I use the double headed nails primarily for this purpose. The double head holds a loop of string very well and you can easily lash to other things for traps, a frog sticker etc. There are a lot of things I am sure I can use a good sturdy nail for besides this.

Thseng – Yes. IMP stands for “individual meal pack” and follows the same principal as the U.S issued MRE. Unlike some countries who issue a whole days calories in a larger ration an IMP provides only a meals worth of calories. I stretched mine out over the three days as best I could and added other stuff by living off the land where possible. I am about 205 lbs and fairly active so I was ravenous for the first 2 days. After that I got used to not eating and it wasn’t so bad. On the advanced course you get only 6 for 10 days. That was a hard go. I lost 9 lbs in 10 days on that one.

Frediver – No, part of the rules are that no items can be around the dish in any way. (otherwise a smartass like me would have tried wrapping a sleeping bag around the dish) I have no idea what the Mil spec thread is made from(I will have to check) But I bet I could lift half my weight off the ground with it without it breaking. I get it issued in small mini spools but I have not seen it for sale anywhere.

Frenchy – Part of my list was a zip loc bag and micro-pur(MP1) tabs. You must have overlooked it. I really like that coffee filter idea though. For something so obvious as a way to filter water I didn’t think of it. (I used a piece cut from the top of my wool sock as a filter)

Leigh ratcliffe – in this scenario, the stranded troop still has his sidearm. If the Enemy is engaging me then chances are that he has a gun of his own. I don’t want to take a knife to a gun fight. If I had to engage it may as well be with my side arm, otherwise there is no point carrying it. There are only a few troops in the world that good at swinging Kukri knives to do it in such a way as to kill an enemy and avoid giving away their position. In fact, I think they invented the Kukri knives in the first place. You know who I am referring to! My skills with a knife are good but not compared to a gurkha. I try to sway from the tactics side of the house on the forum as much as possible but you have some awesome tips. I have had the pleasure only once in my career to work alongside the British SAS and these are exactly the kind of tips I would expect from those guys. (Almost word for word actually) You are obviously a person with military experience. One thing puzzles me though, why would you take bug repellant and at the same time be worried about the smell made by a spicy ration. If Dogs are indeed on your tail then they will smell the bug juice just as well( or better)
We couldn’t put stuff in pockets for this exercise. On all other occasions I carry GORP as a sustained energy booster.

Thanks for the feedback folks.