Op Herrick 08 Afghanistan - Help me complete it please

[Mikep81]

Ok hows it going? long time no speak.
So i thought i would tell you how my loadout is now compared to last year . Its still between herick 6 and herick 7.
Ok I have still kept my L86A2 and now equipped with a SUSAT.
I have gotten rid of osprey pouches as i hated them as I struggled to reach for the mags and I could not go prone . So i have opted just to use my PLCE.
As for the helmet i got a ddpm helmet with elastics as i dont think many cut the elastics offs, I also managed to fit an NVG mount, I bought the top of a nbc boot to fit around the helmet and a bought some ess v12 goggles to finish it off . Should i put cat eyes on or not if so what colour green or sand coloured?

Any Questions ? Have I missed anything?
cheers

Cats eyes are purely personal. Whether green or tan is personal as well. I was on Herrick 6 and never used them. Others in my unit did. Most lost them after a few weeks anyway though and by the end of the tour I don't remember seeing many! But a personal choice really.

[curlyrocks]

Re: Op Herrick 08 Afghanistan - Help me complete it please

Do you think its actually useful apart from the aesthetics of it? And on tour did you use plce or not?

[Slava]

Re: Op Herrick 08 Afghanistan - Help me complete it please

It depends purely on whether you do operations at night/in dark areas. If you do, yeah they are useful.

I did a night op abroad in a pitch black forest. We were flanking the enemy and didn't use any torches in order to stay undetected. The only way I knew where I was, was by looking at the cats eyes on the person in front of me, which gave off a very very faint glow, but just enough to see them. If it wasn't for them, I would have probably got lost in the forest and broken my legs.

[curlyrocks]

Re: Op Herrick 08 Afghanistan - Help me complete it please

I see however we do not have night ops where i live unfortunately. But Ill probably just stick one on in case the forest is really dark or something.

[Mikep81]

Re: Op Herrick 08 Afghanistan - Help me complete it please

Do you think its actually useful apart from the aesthetics of it? And on tour did you use plce or not?

Are they useful or not is a good question! Personally in 11+ years I never found them that useful, apart from when moving through a deep, thick woodland at night where it literally is pitch black. I'd say unless you were doing night games and games where it was crucial to stay in patrol formation or similar then there's really no need for airsoft. Having said that, they're only a few quid so if you want one for the look, go for it.

As for PLCE, I never used it in Afghan. As I said earlier, most of the rifle company lads used it, but I was operating in vehicles as part of the BRF and MOG so PLCE would have been a pain in the arse. I used a set of custom made, single velcro mag pouches, with a Viper drop leg quad mag pouch along with a few Osprey pouches and a man bag. This is what I wore, except for my man bag;
ZeroInHerrick6.jpg

[curlyrocks]

Re: Op Herrick 08 Afghanistan - Help me complete it please

AH , i see . Cheers for the photo i really appreciate it. Just out of interest from what I have seen most people at that time tried to stretch either an inner tube or an nbc boot over the lid , why did you decide to put sniper tape around it? And did you use ess v12 s?

cheers

[Mikep81]

Re: Op Herrick 08 Afghanistan - Help me complete it please

AH , i see . Cheers for the photo i really appreciate it. Just out of interest from what I have seen most people at that time tried to stretch either an inner tube or an nbc boot over the lid , why did you decide to put sniper tape around it? And did you use ess v12 s?

cheers

Primarily because there's not much, if anything, in nature that is pure black with a mega straight line. I used tape it's a less obvious colour in the sandy places! Yeah I used a mixture of ESS's and Wiley-X's. Also used a Spec-Ops 3 point sling from my Minimi when my issue one broke.

[curlyrocks]

Re: Op Herrick 08 Afghanistan - Help me complete it please

Well according to arrse the balck bands were to loo "ally" . Sorry for all the question but did they wear their plce over or under the armour ?

[Mikep81]

Well according to arrse the balck bands were to loo "ally" . Sorry for all the question but did they wear their plce over or under the armour ?

Nothing wrong with questions pal, ask away! The black bands for most were for no other reason than, everyone else doing it. Personally I don't buy into all the "look ally" bs and will always for for function over look any day! I only taped my helmet up once the edge of its cover started to fray, which I imagine is what the original uses for the rubber were. Same with my helmet elastics. I only cut them off once they started to sag.

As for PLCE some lads did wear it underneath but most lads wore it over the top from what I remember. Back then we were transitioning from PLCE to a MOLLE system and a lot of the lads did what they found to work and a fair few changed their set up as the tour went on. As said, most of the riflemen wore PLCE but guys like me who moved to and from battle in the front of a WIMK or Pinzgaur manning a GPMG used custom set ups/osprey pouches and man bags.

[curlyrocks]

Re: Op Herrick 08 Afghanistan - Help me complete it please

Thanks ,
What did you do to attach your helmet to yourself when you were not using it ?
In terms of day-sacks what were commonly used?
And I know you were in in vehicles, but if you were to go prone would the pouches get in the way?
cheers

[Mikep81]

Op Herrick 08 Afghanistan - Help me complete it please

Thanks ,
What did you do to attach your helmet to yourself when you were not using it ?
In terms of day-sacks what were commonly used?
And I know you were in in vehicles, but if you were to go prone would the pouches get in the way?
cheers

I Had a strong keyring loop attached through the metal chinstrap loop at the rear of the helmet then a carabiner attached to my rig, but to be honest the only time I wasn't wearing my helmet was when I was sleeping or when in the vehicle way out away from civilisation. Never took it off while patrolling or dismounted at all. And yes the normal twin stacked mag pouches massively got in the way, that's why I got the regiment tailor to make me that custom single stack mag pouch. The mags then didn't stick out too far so was able to go prone with ease. In my drop leg I had another two mags and two grenades. Another 2 mags in the osprey pouch on my left hip and then another load of mags and grenades and bandolier's in my man bag as well as a mine marking kit.

Forgot to add. Day sacks were either issued NI ones, bowman radio/patrol packs or own bought ones such as camelback motherloads (I think they're called now, not sure what the name was back in '07). But literally people used whatever they wanted: as long as it was either DPM, DDPM or tan it didn't matter. A few of the guys using DPM stuff sprayed it tan using something similar to Krylon.

[curlyrocks]

Re: Op Herrick 08 Afghanistan - Help me complete it please

I am very grateful for your answers but sorry i have more question,
Where were you stationed on tour ?
And what is your experience with assault boots? because mine have fallen apart and even though they are broken in they give me some really bad blisters all the time even when i wear two socks and wear compeed.

[Mikep81]

I am very grateful for your answers but sorry i have more question,
Where were you stationed on tour ?
And what is your experience with assault boots? because mine have fallen apart and even though they are broken in they give me some really bad blisters all the time even when i wear two socks and wear compeed.

I operated all over Helmand valley from Lash right up to Kajaki and at a little known FOB called Fox. For the most part I was never stationed at any one fixed location for very long. I was actually deployed on the ground in a fighting role continuously for nearly 4 months (left camp bastion on a 10 day fighting op. didn't return for nearly 4 months and the only FOBs we saw were while we briefly stopped in for a replen)

Boots are a tricky one. Everyone has different experiences. Most guys I were with preferred the Meindl's but I couldn't stand them. I preferred the Hi-Tec Magnums. The soft soles wear through pretty quickly on them which can be a problem on your but in airsoft it shouldn't be a problem. I'd say if your boots are broken in and they're still giving you problems then they're just not suited to your feet.

[curlyrocks]

Re: Op Herrick 08 Afghanistan - Help me complete it please

Ok btw i did know about FOB Fox as i saw it on some documentary . Seems like it must have been tough. In terms of gloves did you or people wear them and if so which ones were worn?
You still in the army if you dont mind my asking?
And what loadout you using at the moment?
cheers

[Mikep81]

Ok btw i did know about FOB Fox as i saw it on some documentary . Seems like it must have been tough. In terms of gloves did you or people wear them and if so which ones were worn?
You still in the army if you dont mind my asking?
And what loadout you using at the moment?
cheers

Yeah not many people know about Fox. Even some guys deployed out there at the time haven't heard of it. But yeah, it was a pretty tough tour. FOB Fox for example was abandoned after we took too many casualties trying to establish it in the 6 weeks we held the ground for. It wasn't even a FOB really either. It was a ring of vehicles around a small compound and that was it, and the small compound took a direct hit from a rocket killing 2 and severely wounding 4. No defensive stores, razor wire or even sandbags were sent out to us. It got so bad that they couldn't reapply is by helicopter in the end so had to have all our supplies airdropped from a Herc which causes a whole new world of problems, lol!!

Gloves wise, most wore the issue soft leather DDPM, some lads used Oakleys and myself and some others managed to get hold of some operator gloves from the yank Delta teams which were pretty good. Fvck knows what make they were though, they just had a big box of them lying around and let us have some.

Not in any more left a couple of years ago, now work in close protection. I was actually TA for most of my career as well, switched over to the regs for the last couple of years. I now run a WAS RICAS full in OD with 5 single open top mag pouches, 4 centred and one to the left, with a 12 round shotgun pouch on the left and a utility on the right. Plus a large utility pouch on the rear that I've never used! Clothing wise I just wear normal Civvie tac gear that I have. Gloves I use the Viper Tan tax gloves, and then wear things like Craghoppers, 5.11 shirts etc and a baseball cap. Boots wise I still use my trusted HI-Tec Magnums or Lowa mountains. Weapons wise I use the DE M56C (I think) try shot shotgun and an ICS M4 with RIS and PEQ/16. No optics in either although I'll probably get an EoTech for the M4.