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A musket, some ball and powder, and a small pouch around the belt. This was the standard Lodo to the American Soldier for quite some time.

With the adoption of the repeating rifle, The loadout changed slightly. Soldier had a rifle, a small pouch, and some ammunition in clips or magazines stored on or around the belt.

Then, in the 1990s, things changed drastically. As you can see, it was almost a contest to see how much the soldier could carry. This made the soldier less nimble, and as a result, the soldier was forced to carry more ammunition.

The soldier during the American Revolution usually carry less than 20 rounds of ammunition. Even after the invention of the cartridge, and in the Civil War, the soldier would carry no more than 40 rounds of ammunition

Today, it's not uncommon to see a soldier with over 300 rounds of ammunition on his body. That's not including all of the extra burden of the other things he is required to carry. Many times that burden approaches or exceeds 100 pounds. Not surprisingly, the enemy can easily outmaneuver the US soldier.

The modern Minuteman needs to be smarter than this. The modern Minuteman needs to emphasize the "moving" part of "shoot-move-communicate."

Is it possible?

Here is is a patrol pack that weighs less than 20 pounds.  Add to that an 11 pound AR15 (and even that is overkill) and a 10 pound load out, and suddenly, the Modern Minuteman only has to carry a reasonable pack of 40 pounds. 


More on this to come.