Why Mil Spec isn’t The Spec

I grew up thinking military specifications where the best for gear.  When me and my dad started camping with the Boy Scouts we bought authentic military sleeping bags of the era.  It was the M-1949 made of cotton and filled with down feathers.  New it was rated down to about 30 degrees, but weighed 8 pounds dry… and wet more then my pack.

We quickly learned about camping and traded it in for a nylon holo-fill that was warmer, could get wet, and weighed about 3 pounds.

When I joined the Marine Corps they originally issued me the same sleeping back before the modern sleeping system came out a couple years later.

You think I would have learned my lesson, but still loved mil spec everything until the MOLLE System first hit the unit.  We where one of the first to get issued the new system.  I was ready and excited to be the first to get the new gear… but it sucked.

The gear came with a video to learn how to put it together and use it.  You can imagine how that went.

See the training video on YouTube here. I was given this video on VHS tape in 2000.

But the problem was the pack frame.  We broke them constantly.  It wasn’t until almost two years later when I was part of an anti-terrorism force on Camp Pendleton that someone came down and wanted feed back about the system.  By then most of us had bought Black Hawk packs or gone back to Alice packs.

A SgtMaj showed up asking about the packs and how we liked them.  Me as a Corporal, with no filter, thought he wanted the truth.  “They suck, I bought another pack to use.”  That’s when I learned that the military specification for gear and weapons has a lot to do with ego, financing, and politics.  That SgtMaj was on the team that designed and implemented the system.  Like most with a big ego, he didn’t want to hear what we thought, he asked the question to get his answer reinforced.  I’m lucky I didn’t lose my rank for being an ass.

Fast forward about a decade, and the Marine Corps is using a different system and the Army was using the MOLLE packs.  I don’t know if they are still in general issue, but they still suck.

I broke two frames before I started using something else.

This Mil Spec problem plagues military weapon systems too.

When you hear Mil Spec you should know that a military specification has problems you don’t need to deal with.

1 – You only need a couple of whatever you want to buy.  The military procurement system has to order hundreds of thousands, if not millions of whatever that widget is.  This includes rifles, handguns, web gear, sleeping bags, and vehicles.

2 – You don’t need your widget to be compatible with other military gear.  The worst ever was the radio batteries.  They weighed 7 pounds and the military wanted to use them to power everything.   They where designed to run a radio in the 1960’s.  And the military just kept using the same thing.  Even when we went from the Vietnam era Syngas radio to the new Foxtrot model that was half the size and weight, they still kept the same stupid batteries.  Trust me, you never want to use one of those batteries for anything besides a paperweight.  You don’t need the old tech mixing with the new tech.

3 – You can get specialized training and have the time to figure out what ever you want.  See the video above for the MOLLE system.  That was the extend of training we got on that new piece of equipment.  Military gear needs to be easy to train mass numbers of people on quickly.  You can sit down and take time to figure things out.  When I got issued the new MOLLE system was the same afternoon we where headed to the field for training and where expected to use the new packs.

4 – Parts availability.  You don’t have to be able to order every little part in the new widget you are using to fix it.  You can buy a new widget.  Not the military.  I got issued that MOLLE pack and broke the frame.  I had to take the frame off and get just that piece replaced.  And heaven forbid you break something that has a serial number on it in the military.  They will never replace it.  Best option for you, buy two and use one.  If it breaks, go to your back up.

The U.S. Military is probably the best on the planet right now, but it still has lots of issues that need attention. 

If you are going to get mil spec gear, make sure you know why it’s spec’d out that way, and that it will actually work for you.

Stay Safe,

Ben