This great Tactical Rifleman Video covers how to set up your Duty Belt, currently called a “War Belt.” Assaulters have been running gun belts or duty belts for decades. These usually included just a pistol holster, spare pistol magazines and maybe a dump pouch.
Fast forward, and the current trend is to move commonly used kit from your Body Armor to your Duty Belt. This does two things. First, it helps take a lot of weight off of your shoulders (where your Body Armor rides), and transfers it to your pelvic girdle. This helps cut down on a lot of the pain of being in Body Armor all night long. 38 pounds of “lightweight” kit is still 38 pounds of “lightweight” kit.
Any way I can help cut down on the pain, brother, I’m willing to try it. Second, by running much of your commonly used kit on your duty belt, you can still develop and maintain that “muscle memory”, even when you’re not wearing full “battle-rattle” on the range. Whether you are just running a quick class or burning up a half hour on the range prior to the ops briefing, you can still shoot and reload from your support side, just like if you were in full kit.
Also, while you are back inside the wire, and your armor is grounded in the ready room, you can still walk around the FOB with your duty belt and rifle. You aren’t expecting to get into a gunfight, but if it happened, you still have at least some ammo and medical gear. That’s better than nothing. Setting up your War Belt is just like setting up your Armor; keep it simple and carry a minimum amount of gear. (Pistol / Ammo / Med / Special Equipment) Do you need to carry flash bangs? Probably not.
Before you ask, my personal IFAK pouch, Body Armor and War Belt are made by ATS Tactical Gear, check them out at http://atstacticalgear.com . They were kind enough to offer Tactical Rifleman viewers a 5% discount off all their products; just use promo code: tacr5
Following our “How to Setup your Body Armor” video, we received a lot of questions about my War Belt and also some requests that we do a separate video covering my War Belt. Ask, and you will receive!
The war belt in the video is made by ATS: http://atstacticalgear.com/
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Strength & Honor, TR.
