You’re right; that does sound like a miserable little campaign.

If I recall correctly, this was one of the reasons that the invasion of Adak Island in the Aleutian chain was so costly to America. (As I recall, it was the most deadly battle fought, per capita, in the entire Pacific campaign, although there were so few men involved that it wasn’t that remarkable an engagement.) The steep terrain and hostile climate of the Aleutians required men to walk in terrain that would daunt even the healthiest amoung us, carrying loads that would give a mule pause. The men jettisoned a huge amount of gear on the march in and, as a result, many died of exposure during the campaign, for lack of the very gear that they dropped. They argued that they would have never made it far enough to freeze had they not dropped it.

What is a soldier to do?

My answer? Pack animals. As a civilian, I never venture far off the drivable road without pack animals to haul my gear. Why should the military be any different? I am of the opinion that pack animals still have a place in the modern military in places like Afghanistan, and I don’t understand why we refuse to use them.

I suppose neck strength is important, if you’re going to be wearing six pounds of helmet and night vision goggles — plus, perhaps, seven pounds of gas mask, too.

The body armor will probably get lighter and lighter until we face an enemy with access to more than just surplus AKs. I wouldn’t be surprised if the higher-ups wanted machine-gun-proof plates.

M16 – 8 lbs
7 loaded mags – 7 lbs
2 1-quart canteens, full – 5 lbs
Interceptor Body Armor – 16.5 lbs
MICH helmet – 3 lbs
NVGs (PVS-7) – 3 lbs
Gas Mask – 7 lbs

This totals to about 50 lbs, which is pretty close to the “fighting load” listed above. (I haven’t added stuff like uniform, trauma medical supplies, etc. to the weight estimates.)

Honestly, I don’t think that any of those items can reasonably be cut.

As a side note, back strength is a definite weakness of the (US) Army physical fitness program. I got a back ache about 4 months into the deployment that didn’t go away until I got home. I belatedly figured out what was going on, but by then it was a bit too late.