Granite Gear CHIEF Patrol Pack

Submitted by Eric Daniel

The time has come for me to invest in a more efficient rucksack.  Currently I’m using the CFP-90, and while it has been a trooper, and is certainly capable of hauling everything and then some, I’m in the market for something more efficient.  I like the CFP’s large barrel design; it make it very easy to stuff things into.  However, at night, when you’re looking for something specific, it can be a bit difficult to find what your looking for because you have to search vertically for things - having the ability to lay the pack out on the ground and search horizontally would be a better option.  Another drawback to the CFP is the fact that its external pouches are fixed, in both size and location (not to mention the annoying fact that the cover flap fasteners are loop through designs rather than buckle down, so that there is no effective way to cinch down the flap over the pouch.)  Finally, the CFP is based on the old ALICE system of accessory attachment, which relies on the use of metal clip fasteners, which, I have discovered over the years, are prone to failure in high torque situations (and the fact that there are only a couple of ALICE “bands” on the CFP to place things.) 

At the end of the day, what I decided I was looking for was something of equal portage capacity (5,000 cu. in. range), with multiple access points to the main compartment, external compression straps to lash large items, like snivel gear, to the outside, and MOLLE compatibility so that I could customize the pack externally for my mission requirements.

One of the packs that caught my eye was the CHIEF (Composite Hybrid Interchangeable Ergonomic Framesheet) patrol pack by Granite Gear.  Granite invested a number of years in developing this pack for the SOF community (one test involved dropping a 100lb pack from a height of 35 feet to test for deformation or loss of pack integrity), eventually being awarded a contract to provide 45,000 of them.  While Granite describes the pack as a patrol pack (a different company was awarded the contract for the SOF rucksack) the CHIEF’s internal portage capacity is the same as the CFP-90’s.  In addition, the CHIEF has all those features I was looking for. To begin with, you can load the pack from the top, as a conventional pack, or unzip the front panel, exposing the entire pack (internal load compression straps take the load off the side zippers to prevent zipper blowouts.)  In addition, every exposed surface is covered in MOLLE straps, giving you the ability to attach essentially anything anywhere.  In addition to the main compartment, the CHIEF also features a pair of radio ports on the left and right side of the pack’s upper surface (allowing you to run multiple whip antennae through) as well as bottom mounted hydration ports.  I particularly like the bottom mounted hydration ports as these keep the lines under your arms, effectively “out of sight, out of mind” where they are less likely to snag on overhead  obstructions, like branches and brush.  This position also makes for easier drinking, as the drink valve is pointing directly up at you, eliminating the need to either go looking for the valve over your shoulder, or using some sort of right angle accessory to reposition the valve.

Some other things I didn’t know about the CHIEF; the heavy duty Cordura nylon fabric has been chemically treated to reduce the pack’s IR signature.  No, it won’t make you thermally invisible, but it will reduce your operability (I spoke with Jeff Knight, CEO of Granite Gear and pack designer and he said the treatment would last the lifetime of the fabric, so there was no need or requirement to re-treat the pack.)  All fasteners are plastic fastek-type, and the shoulder straps have a quick disconnect feature, which allow you to jettison the pack in a hurry if needed (again, I asked Jeff about the durability of these fasteners, and specifically about the reliability of the QR ones on the shoulder straps (on some of the older QR ALICE pack straps, the fastener would pull apart under a heavy load) and he said that they didn’t experience any issues with fastener failure during the testing of the pack, nor was there a load limit; if you wanted to haul your anvil collection to the top of the Khyber Pass, the CHIEF would do it.)  While the CHIEF features a stand alone framesheet, suspension system and support belt for customized pack fit and maximum range of motion, all this can be removed and the CHIEF can be used in conjunction with the standard ALICE rigid frame and straps (Please note: According to Jeff, the ALICE pack compatibility feature is only available on the “original” or gen. 1 CHIEF packs, which are the ones currently available to the public.  In order to meet SOF weight requirements, the ALICE frame support feature was eliminated from the gen. 2 packs which are currently in production for SOF and not publicly available.)  Finally, the pack is compatible with body armor, which is to say you can still put it on when you’re wearing your plates and what not (one of the SOF requirements was that the pack support 90 lbs of equipment and be body armor compatible.)

The only downside to the CHIEF is its price.  At $400 (there is an ACU patterned version available for $250, strangely enough), the CHIEF isn’t cheap, but you are most definitely getting what you pay for.  For me, this means I’m going to have to keep my eyes peeled for the introduction of the gen. 2 packs on the civilian market and see if the price doesn’t ever come down on the gen. 1 versions as retailers look to clear out old stock.  Damn if that wouldn’t be a nice pack to have though.

Check out the CHIEF Patrol Pack here.

Platypus Hydration Bladders

Submitted by Everett Mobley

Camelbak packs are high quality, but I hate their hydration bladder. It collapses flat and is difficult to clean and dry.

The Platypus bladders expand like an envelope, and they can be free-standing. They are easy to fill and to drain and dry. They have screw-on caps for use as water-bottles if you're not using the sipper tube.

ED -- Everett, which Platypus system do you use?  In looking over the selection, it seems that the best bladder to use would be the Big Zip SL, with its slid lock closure system located at the top of the bladder, which makes for easy filling.  The other bladder system, the Hoser, has a screw cap, and while the loop at the top makes a convenient hanging point for the bag, the small cap opening would appear to be a drawback (most modern Camelbak bladders have a large diameter opening which allows for you to add ice or what ever easily.)  Also, at 2L. (70 Oz.) the Big Zip is still 1L. shy of the biggest Camelbak bladders.

Check out the Platypus Line of Hydration Bladders here.

Supply Captain Hydration/ASIP Pouch

 

Submitted by Devilfox

There are couple other options I found.

One is on a website called Supply Captain, they have a 'DUAL HYDRATION SYSTEM/PRC 119F RADIO CARRYING POUCH' that can carry an ASIP. Price is tad steep however, $129 or so. But can carry few other things too.

Second option in on the website, Kifaru.net. They carry a 'Radio Pouch' that hangs internally for the older 119s. I am sure if you contact them and ask, they can adjust the width. Price is a lot more reasonable around $29. Only catch is, it’s an internal mount-on backpack. Which, honestly, in the course of things ain't too bad.

ED – Devil, I like the look of the SC dual hydration system, especially the fact that you can wear it as a stand alone pack or you can lace it in to something else (another pack, the back of your IBA, what ever is MOLLE compatable.)  I’d consider it for that feature alone, and just lace the thing to my IBA, but I haven’t ever served in a unit yet that let you take your IBA off (except when you were asleep) and packing a radio and ammo into the porta-john gets old, so all my kit is still on the RACK. On the down side, though, as you said, it is a little pricy, and for that amount of money I could get a full blown assault pack.  I would certainly consider this over the S.T.R.I.K.E. ASIP pouch though, even though it is more expensive.

As for the Kifaru radio pouch, as you said, the pouch they offer is basically an internal radio hanger for ruck sack sized packs.  I already have an assault pack that both the full sized radio, or a pair of ASIPs will fit into, and my ruck (a CFP-90) comes with a built in radio bag.  Again, of the two, even though the Kifaru is cheaper, I’d go with the Supply captain bag.

Over the Shoulder Radio Holder

 
Submitted by barber13f

The S.T.R.I.K.E. ASIP pouch sucks. It digs into your arms and doesn’t fit over PPE very well. They tear up very fast and while the MOLLE pouches are a great thing to be able to put on you end up with a monster that is a bitch to carry around by the time you get done throwing mission essential items on the thing.

Look into the Camelbak Transformer, it is a very comfortable pack and has room for extra batteries, hand mic's, and whips along with any other crap you put in there. My RTO was able to keep 2 batteries, a soft or hard whip, an IZLD and an extra hand mic. The outside pouch has enough room to shove in extra maps, 3x5 cards and map markers.

I would recommend this pack to anyone that has to carry an ASIP for an extended period of time. It's a little more expensive but it lasted my team 15 months of humping through the Euphrates River Valley.

ED – barber, I’m beginning to think that this is going to be my only real option.  Currently I’ve got the Camelback Motherlode, and as an assault pack it has done just fine.  There’s enough room in there for water, snacks, a poncho and liner, a radio or two, as well as NODs and batteries.  The pack even has a couple of openings for the radio.  On the plus side, it looks like the TransFormer is even cheaper than the Motherlode.  Does it come in any color other than black though?

Check out the Camelbak TransFormer here.

Taking a Load Off

 

Submitted by Eric Daniel

You never know how much you miss having someplace to sit until they take your tank away.  For the first part of my career I was in Armor, and our motto was “death before dismount.”  Sure, we’ll complete the mission, but on the tank.  Then I went to the Scouts and we had trucks.  Granted, they were draftier, the heater didn’t work as well, and they leaked (well, ok, so did the tank) but, at least, there was someplace to sit.  Now, I’m a hapless leg, and all I’ve got to keep my butt out of the mud, or snow, or wet, is my k-pot.

No more.  After a little bit of research and a little trial and error, I have found Nirvana.  The Walkstool Comfort 22. 

Manufactured in Sweden, the Walkstool line of lightweight chairs is really quite impressive.  Made from a trio of aluminum tubes topped by a heavy duty mesh seat, the walkstool has two settings; collapsed and fully extended.  The one I opted for was the 22” model, where 22 refers to the chair’s fully extended height.  The feet on the stool’s three legs are large diameter and made from textured rubber so they provide not only low ground pressure, but good traction on unstable surfaces.  The stool is black in color, though the leg extensions are silver (may get around to painting them so it’s more “tactical”) and in the case of this particular model, the weight rating is 495 pounds.  Now, I have to admit, when I was looking for a combat chair, most of the ones I say that even listed a weight rating, were all in the 175-250 range, so if ever I was going to use the thing, I was going to have to strip all my gear off, so when I saw the stool’s was rated to nearly 500 pounds, that pretty much closed the deal – I could take this thing anywhere and it was never going to break on me.  Naturally, Walkstool makes a number of “ultra light” models, with lower weight ratings, but given that this “monster” only weighs 33 ounces and collapses to the size of my Thermos, I concluded it was money, and weight, well spent.

Check out the Walkstool field chairs here.

Smith’s 3 in 1 Sharpener

 

Submitted by Eric Daniel

I have come to the conclusion that serrated pocket knives are a fact of life.  Don’t get me wrong, I think serrated blades are a definite plus, especially when it comes to cutting things like cord, rope, cardboard and the like, but sharpening them can be a pain.  A couple of the Joes in my unit are knife magnets and they carry a number of tools to sharpen their field blade collections, but I was wanting something more universal.  What I came across was a device from Smith’s. 

Technically, I believe the sharpener is called the Smith’s Carbide, Ceramic and Diamond sharpener (though REI refers to it as the Pocket Pal.)  The carbide parts are for gross sharpening and resetting the edge, while the ceramic ‘stones’ are for finishing.  Both the ceramic and carbide stones are reversible and replaceable.  What really turned me on to the Smith’s sharpener, however, was the tapered diamond rod. The tapered diamond rod allows me to sharpen the serrations on my pocket knives that feature them, and because it’s tapered, it “scales” well with the different sized serrations (Spyderco knives, for example, were ‘notorious’ for having different radii serrations in their blades).  To sharpen the serrations, you just need to run the rod up the middle of the serration and the expanding diameter of the rod will sharpen the entire curved surface.

To be sure, this is not the best or finest sharpener out there, and I probably will not be using it to sharpen my fillet knife, but it certainly does a number on my field knives, as well as the blades on my Gerber-tool, and at $10, it’s doesn’t break the bank and I won’t cry too much if I lose it.

Check out the Smith's Sharpener here.

BlastMatch 1-Handed Fire Starter

 
Submitted by Scott F Murphy

Here I go again - throwing in my 2 cents.

I have both of these units: StrikeForce Fire Starter and the BlastMatch Fire Starter

I used to have the standard magnesium fire starter - while it works well, it basically ruins what would otherwise be a perfectly good knife.  The Blastmatch unit is amazing - I have even been able to get damp tinder started using this thing - the sparks are really hot.  The main differences between the two units are the ability to use the Blastmatch with one hand, but both produce a lot of sparks.

(No, I don't work for REI, they just ROCK.)

ED – Last time I was in REI I didn’t see the BlastMatch (though I might not have recognized it) but I did see the other striker you mention.  As you say, the only downside to the magnesium bar/flint combination is you tear up a perfectly good knife using it.  Now granted, in my case, I have been using a small pocket knife for all my fire starting dirty work, and that’s all I use the knife for, not needing to carry a separate knife to get the fire going would be nice.  I especially like the one handed set up on the BlastMatch.  I assume the flint is spring loaded in the handle and when you push the release it “shoots out” along the steel striker to make sparks.  To reload it all you do is push the flint back in (I assume this can be done just by pushing the unit against a solid surface)?

Rocket Fuel

 
Submitted by Amtho

Also try the waterless hand cleaner gel that every grunt should be carrying.  I love playing with that stuff.  It puts out a blue/clear flame (read extremely hot) and it is a gel, so handles well.  Put that in the middle of your tinder and you are good to go. 

ED – Amtho, you are a genius.  I gave this a go, and as you described, it functioned as advertised.  In experimenting I found that trying to ignite a blob of this stuff is a bit problematic; while you could light it with a match, it didn’t light very well with my sparker.  Once I soaked a cotton ball with it though, it sparked right up.  In fact, when used in conjunction with my old WWII-era ration heater, all I have to do is repack the tin and keep it saturated with Purell, which, as you say, can be found everywhere.  In fact, this has become my new tactical fuel of choice (I’ll use the trioxane until my supply is exhausted, but I don’t see myself buying any more.)

Officially, the only Purell product I tested this with was their "stock" sanitizer, which listed Ethyl Alcohol as the only active ingredient (62%).  While I'm sure their other products might work just as well (except for maybe the foaming stuff) when in doubt I'd recommend you read the label first to see what you're burning.  Purell is available at most convenience and drug stores.

Check out Purell hand sanitizer here.

Putting the Word Out

 

Submitted by Eric Daniel

Recently, my unit transitioned to the ASIP radio.  While this is all good and well, it has created something of a situation.  Prior to the ASIP we were using the stock SINCGARS which, in turn, were essentially the same size as the old PRC-77s we used to use, so, out in the field, we were able to use the same radio packs and frames for hauling the radios around. 

Obviously, the ASIP changed all that.  The ASIP is a fraction of the size of the SINCGARS and its size doesn’t really justify putting it in a dedicated backpack-style mount.  Moreover, there was no longer any real reason to have a dedicated RTO to carry the radio; the radio was now small enough that the leader could just carry the radio as part of his regular kit.

The problem here is where to put it?  Now, I’m a big fan of surplus gear because there always seems to be something out there, from a previous period, to do a job you need doing.  In this case, the job I needed done was finding a means of securing the radio to my MOLLE compatible assault vest.  Unfortunately, I seem to have struck out.  After searching high and low, far and wide, in this army and many others, I haven’t been able to find a surplus bag for the ASIP.  The only, and I mean only, MOLLE compatible pouch I’ve seen for the ASIP is the Blackhawk S.T.R.I.K.E. ASIP pouch.  Now the Blackhawk bag seems like just the thing I was looking for, but it’s also $70-80, and I wanted to be good and sure this was my only option before I considered buying one.

So the question for all of you who have gone before with the ASIP radio is, are there any alternatives (one other option is I bury the radio in my camelback, but I’d prefer to be able to access the faceplate) to the Blackhawk pouch for transporting the radio, and if so, what are they?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Lord of the Flame

 

Submitted by Eric Daniel

I like the fact that the MRE accessory packs come with matches, but the reality is, unless you’re operating indoors or in a xeric environment like NTC (when it isn’t raining) you only get a couple of days durability out of them, before they absorb so much moisture that they turn to mush.  Now this isn’t an issue if you’re on a daily ration of MREs (oh joy) but it can be an issue if you’re not (by the way, I use the matches to light my stove to boil water with.)

In the past, a Zippo was my primary source of flame.  They are durable, reliable, and easy to maintain.  However, they are no, officially, a pain in the ass to travel with.  You need to check them if you fly (if you’re allowed to fly with them at all; in leaving Iraq, if you wanted to fly with a lighter in your C bag it needed to be completely disassembled with the flint and packing removed.)  With the Zippo on the shelf, I started using the MRE matches, but they took up space, they didn’t tolerate wet well, and, well, I still had the problem of flying with them (funny story – when asked what they did during the 6-hour flight from Tinian to Hiroshima to drop the first atomic bomb, Paul Tibbets replied, “Smoked a lot.”)

So I started looking around for an alternate method for getting the stove fired up.  One of the things I’d always been curious about was those “emergency” magnesium block fire starters, so I thought this would be as good a time as any to try one out. 

The one I selected was by Coghlan’s and cost me about $5.  Through trial and error I learned a couple of things about these devices.  They make sparks, lots and lots of sparks.  If you’re using a relatively volatile fuel, such as white gas or propane, the striker on the fire starter will do the job.  If you’re trying to light something less explosive, like paper, you’re going to need some assistance.  This is where the magnesium block comes in.  The theory is, you scrape some magnesium off with a knife (the same knife you use on the striker), pile it up, and use the striker to ignite the metal shavings, and use that flame to start your fire (as you can see from the photo, the knife I used for this task is a little cheapie folder; you really don't want to dull your main knife by shaving a metal block.)

A word of caution though.  It isn’t as easy as it looks.  If you’ve got to resort to the magnesium block, more is better – use a lot of shavings.  I’m not suggesting you grind the entire block into dust, but you will need a generous pile (that was basically my unit of measure; if I’d scraped enough to be able to make a pile with my fingers, then that was enough.)  Also, unless you want to be there all day scraping, be sure you scrape your filings into or onto something flat and non-porous, like a rock, or a piece of paper (I used the lid of my WWII era-ration heater), so that your shavings don’t fall into the cracks, as it were, and get lost.  You will also need to be out of the wind.  While the striker will work just fine in the wind, the shavings lack mass and are easy to blow away.  The same goes for the rain – the magnesium will burn when wet, but your tiny pile is unlikely to maintain coherency in a rainstorm.  Finally, be prepared.  Those filings burn quick.  Don’t expect to get your pile started, and then put some tinder on; the filings and the tinder need to be co-located so that the flame gets it going.

At the end of the day though, the fire starter worked just fine, since the two fuels I use most often are white gas and trioxide tabs, and both of these light readily with the striker (I have to admit though, I was pleasantly surprised by how easily the fuel tabs started.) 

If however, you want to carry an extra bit of insurance with you can make a batch of cotton fireballs.  The fireballs are nothing more than ordinary cotton balls soaked in Vaseline.  To make them, microwave (or otherwise heat up) 1.5 tablespoons of Vaseline in a heat resistant container.  Once the Vaseline has melted, add 8 cotton balls, pushing them in, en masse, into the Vaseline.  Flip the mass over and press again, ensuring the cotton gets completely saturated.  Allow the cotton to cool and then pack the balls in a suitable container (I used an old locking prescription bottle.)  To use, simply remove a cotton ball from the container, stretch it out a bit to expose it to air, and ignite.  The Vaseline lights easily and the ball will burn for several minutes, which makes it less time sensitive than the magnesium.