Airborne: A Guided Tour of an Airborne Task Force by Tom Clancy
It is a matter of some interest that the only really “new” piece of personal equipment that has been issued to the infantry in the last half century is body armor (the famous “flak jacket”). Back in the old days, our legionary’s torso was protected by thirty pounds or more of flexible armor, the lorica (originally made of chain mail, later from segmented steel plates fastened to a leather harness), which was worn over a padded linen or woolen tunic. Today’s flak jacket protects the same vital areas with less weight and greater effectiveness through a combination of advanced synthetic materials (mostly Kevlar) and metal/ceramic inserts.
As the name suggests, flak jackets were originally developed in World War II to protect bomber crews from antiaircraft shell fragments. An improved model was widely used by American troops in Vietnam, where it was credited with saving thousands of lives. The current protective vest weighs about 20 1b/9.1 kg, and is designed to stop a 7.62mm round at short range. The bullet may knock you down, or even crack a rib (it will definitely leave you severely bruised!), but you will be alive. Airborne troops do not normally jump wearing flak jackets—the weight is simply too great. The troops’ protective vests are dropped separately, and are normally worn on patrols or when close combat is expected. The greatest complaint about the current vest is that it is torture in hot weather, since it does not “breathe.” For these reasons, the Army is continuing research and development toward lighter, more breathable protective gear.
The design of effective body armor depends on a profound understanding of the gruesome science of “wound ballistics.” Unlike a tank, it is not practical to protect the soldier’s body with a thick mass of dense, rigid material. However, you can make a flexible (though binding vest) by building up dozens of layers of Kevlar fabric running in different directions, reinforced with overlapping metal or ceramic plates at key points. This spreads out the impact energy of a bullet or fragment over a wider area, preventing a potentially lethal penetration. Body armor is particularly valuable in peacekeeping and “operations other than war,” where the hazards are sim-ilarto those encounters by civilian law enforcement. Just ask any city cop if he thinks protective vests are for sissies!
Chemical Protective Gear
Since the first use of chlorine gas as a crude chemical weapon on the Western Front in 1916, armies have struggled to provide soldiers with effective protection from increasingly horrible chemical and biological threats. The two recent Persian Gulf Wars have proven to everyone that the threat of chemical and biological weapons is still very real, and the 82nd Airborne troopers have to be ready for it. To survive, let alone fight, in an environment that may be contaminated with persistent nerve gas, lethal aerosol viruses, or radioactive fallout is a formidable challenge. The goal is to completely surround the soldier with a portable, flexible barrier through which only sound, light, and filtered air can pass. The long-term problems of eating and eliminating bodily waste make this virtually impossible, so the practical objective is to survive long enough to complete a mission and reach a safe area where troops who have been “slimed” (exposed to chemical agents) can decontaminate themselves and their equipment. This problem has been reduced slightly, since U.S. tactical vehicles and many items of equipment are painted with a costly Chemical Agent Resistant Coating (known as “CARC” paint) that does not absorb toxic agents, and stands up to the harsh chemicals needed to decontaminate surfaces.21
The basic piece of nuclear/biological/chemical (NBC) protective gear is the M40 protective mask carried by every U.S. infantryman. The M40 is a silicone rubber mask that fits tightly against the face. Large binocular goggles provide good peripheral vision and can be covered with removable tinted inserts. A flexible “voice emitter” covers the mouth area (this allows the use of voice communications gear), and there is a drinking tube designed for a special canteen adapter. A replaceable filter canister screws into the left or right side, usually the opposite side from where the soldier would hold his personal weapon to aim it. The filter canisters contain layers of elements that trap the most microscopic airborne particles and droplets. This includes activated charcoal (this absorbs many toxins), treated paper and fabrics, and other components that the Army would probably rather not discuss.
Along with the mask, a rubberized fabric hood covers the soldier’s head and neck—the normal “Fritz” helmet is worn over the hood and mask. In a riot-control scenario, with simple tear (CS) gas or other irritants in use, the mask could be worn by itself, but troops expecting a significant NBC threat would normally supplement the protective mask with a complete disposable outer garment of rubberized fabric. Called a “MOPP suit” (for Mission-Oriented Protective Posture), it has a charcoal-lined inner layer, and includes over-boots and thick rubber gloves. The full MOPP ensemble is heavy and hot, but does provide a good degree of protection. Part of the MOPP outfit is a strip of chemical indicator paper wrapped around the upper arm. This strip is supposed to turn red in the presence of dangerous concentrations of nerve or blood agents. Combat units have a limited number of battery-operated hand-held Chemical Agent Monitors (CAM) used to determine the effectiveness of decontamination and the limits of a contaminated area.
An 82nd Airborne Trooper in full MOPP-IV Chemical/Biological Protective Ensemble. Though heavy and hot, this suit will protect against most kinds of chemical and biological agents.
OFFICIAL U.S. ARMY PHOTO
Reliable detection and warning of attack by biological agents and toxins remains an urgent research priority. During Desert Storm, every American soldier and Marine who went over the berm into Iraq and Kuwait wore MOPP suits, albeit with the hoods and masks off (though nearby and ready for use). Luckily, it was actually cold and rainy during the February 1991 ground war, and most troops actually stayed warm by keeping the suits on throughout the entire “Hundred-Hour War.” However, normal summer desert conditions would probably limit wearing of the full MOPP ensemble to just a few hours at most. Clearly, more work is still needed to make the American soldier proof against the variety of NBC threats.
Personal Stowage
Besides the clothes on his back, the soldier must carry all the essentials of military life around with him. Even the Romans had the problem of carrying their “stuff.” On long marches, the legionary often carried his food (usually bread, cheese, smoked meat, and onions), clothes, and other possessions wrapped in a bundle and tied on the end of a stick, much like the fabled “hobo rig.” Today’s airborne troopers have a somewhat more difficult set of stowage and carrying problems to deal with. They must jump heavily loaded into a 130-kt/241-kph slipstream from an aircraft with everything they will need. Then, once on firm ground, they must live and fight with just what they are carrying for up to three days of operations. This is an impressive luggage design problem, one that has challenged engineers for several millennia.
The modern equivalent of the Roman stick and bag is the “rucksack,” a large backpack originally made of canvas. Current models are now composed of synthetic fabric over an aluminum frame, with a suspension system of padded webbing straps designed to support heavy loads in reasonable comfort. The official acronym for this system is “ALICE,” which stands for All-purpose, Lightweight Individual Carrying Equipment. Obviously, the paratrooper cannot wear a backpack over his main parachute, so for jumping, the rucksack is strapped dangling between the jumper’s legs, secured on a length of webbing that is released just before landing to reduce the force of impact. This rather awkward arrangement requires a “chalk” of paratroopers to waddle or shuffle out to the aircraft when boarding, rather than marching.
One of the important lessons that every airborne trooper has drilled into his head early in training is the necessity of getting his weapons ready for action as soon as he hits the ground. Even before he gets out of his parachute harness, the trooper is expected to have his personal weapon locked and loaded in case a fight develops on the drop zone. Consequently, it would not do for the paratrooper to have to go fumbling through a tightly p
To accommodate the dual requirements of safely delivering a weapon and making it easy to get into action, the U.S. airborne community has developed a series of weapons-carrying cases. These resemble oversized padded gun cases for wrapping and packaging individual weapons to ensure they remain attached to their soldier (always on the left side) and arrive on the ground ready to shoot. Every man-portable weapon carried into battle by the airborne has at least one such case. In the event that a heavy weapon like the 60mm mortar or Javelin antitank missile system is too large to be carried in one case, it is broken into separate loads which each go into their own specially designed case. The biggest of these is the case for the Stinger man-portable surface-to-air missile (SAM) system, which is so long that you have to be at least 5’ 8”/1.73 meters tall to use it safely. In addition to its designed load, each heavy weapons case can carry a personal weapon, like the lightweight M4 version of the M16A2 combat rifle. Once on the ground, the paratrooper rapidly assembles his personal weapon, loading it with a magazine stashed in a pocket in the carrying case. Then, grabbing up his rucksack, personal weapon, and heavy weapons load (if any), he is ready to go.
Or is he? As we mentioned earlier, the last thing that a paratrooper running into a sudden firefight wants to have to do is go rummaging around, frequently in the dark, into his rucksack for a fresh ammunition magazine or grenade. Therefore, certain essential items of gear are moved out to a special harness mounting on the outside of the BDUs. Called web gear or load-bearing equipment, this is a belt with a suspenders-style set of padded straps. Using special metal clips, you can attach a variety of different bags, pouches, and other containers to the belt and straps. These include canteen pouches (usually two are carried on the belt), ammunition pouches (these hold three loaded thirty-round M16A2 5.56mm magazines and a pair of M49-series grenades), flashlights, and even holders for cellular phones. The idea is that in the event of a sudden close-combat action, the troopers would drop their heavy rucksacks and fight “light,” with the equipment on their web gear. In this way, their mobility under fire is maximized until such time as the situation has been resolved, the paratroopers can retrieve their packs, and move on to their next objective.
Personal Weapons/Tools
The reason that you drop paratroops onto a target is to take it, usually by some sort of potentially lethal force. More often than not, that force will be based upon the personal weapons of those same troopers. The Roman legionary’s only weapons were a short, straight-edged sword (with a blade 18 inches/.46 meters long) and a couple of javelins. By comparison, today’s airborne soldier carries an amazing array of personal firepower and tools. While some people might admire the elegant simplicity of the legionary’s weapons, you have to remember that modern infantrymen face an array of enemies and targets unlike anything imagined two thousand years ago. While the legionnaire might have had to face another pikeman or mounted soldier, today’s soldier might be asked to destroy a tank or bunker, or shoot down an airplane or helicopter. This is an enormous group of tasks, and obviously requires a versatile array of tools to accomplish. Fortunately, the U.S. Army has done an above-average job of equipping him for the task.22 M16A2 Rifle. Historically, airborne troops have often been armed with submachine guns (like the British Sten, or the German MP38, misnamed “Schmeisser” by GIs), or short-barreled folding-stock versions (“carbines”) of standard infantry rifles. These are not only lighter, but easier to manage in the cramped confines of a troop carrier aircraft. The U.S. Army, however, equips its airborne infantry with the standard M16A2, preferring the benefits of standardized training, logistic support, and superior accuracy from a longer-barreled weapon. This is the story of that weapon.
Americans love rifles. Without the firepower and lethality of the famous “Kentucky” rifle (developed by German and Swiss gunsmiths in Pennsylvania), there would be no America. The Indians would have wiped out the struggling colonies in Massachusetts and Virginia in the 17th century, or the English would have defeated them in the American War of Independence. The intimate connection between the American rifle and American history makes military firearms a volatile and controversial topic, and no rifle in history has caused more passionate controversy than the M16. When it was first issued to U.S. troops in Vietnam in 1966, it gained a reputation for jamming. Soldiers whispered rumors about a Marine platoon overrun by the Viet Cong in which every dead rifleman was found with a cleaning rod in hand, desperately trying to clear a stuck cartridge case. (The Marine Corps Historian told me that there is no evidence that this ever happened!)
The problems stemmed largely from the Army’s use of low-grade propellant in the ammunition, against the advice of the manufacturer. The inferior powder caused excessive fouling and corrosion. This would not have been so bad except that due to a shortage of cleaning kits and lubricant, troops thought that the M16 was a “self-cleaning weapon.” Unlike the indestructible bolt-action rifles of World War II that the veteran sergeants had handled all their lives, a gas-operated automatic like the M16 is a precision machine that requires meticulous and thorough cleaning after firing to ensure continued reliable operation. When proper cleaning kits were provided, and troops were trained to maintain the weapon, the M16 proved to be absolutely reliable. To improve the weapon even further, the chamber was chrome-plated to resist corrosion, and a sturdy manual bolt closing lever was added, to force home any cartridge that became stuck (this is typically caused by a dented cartridge case, which never should have been loaded in the magazine in the first place).
For over two decades, the basic M16 (as well as the improved M16A1) served in the armed forces of the U.S. and many of our allies. However, by the 1980s, a new version was needed, and this became the second-generation M16A2. Manufactured by Colt in Hartford, Connecticut, the M16A2 is an air-cooled, gas-operated, magazine-fed assault rifle firing a 5.56mm (.223-caliber) bullet to a maximum effective range of about 600 yards/550 meters. The weapon weighs 8.9 lb/4.05 kg loaded with a thirty-round magazine. A selector switch toggles between safe, single shots, or three-round bursts. The full-automatic (“rock and roll”) mode of earlier M16 models, which could empty an entire clip in a few seconds of wild inaccurate spraying, has been eliminated. Airborne troopers are trained to extend their ammunition even further by limiting themselves whenever possible to single, aimed shots. Another key improvement to the M16A2 was the muzzle compensator, an ingenious gas deflector that counteracts the muzzle’s natural tendency to climb during a burst. The weapon can also be quickly adapted for left-handed shooters (about 15 percent of troops) by switching the side to which spent cartridge cases are ejected. Generally, the M16A2 is an excellent combat rifle, and is among the best of its class today.
Beretta M9 Personal Defense Weapon. An incredibly small percentage of combat casualties are inflicted by handguns. Under the stress of combat, even the best-trained pistol shooters are unlikely to score first-round hits on an alerted opponent at ranges beyond five yards/meters! Normally, military combat pistols are only issued to officers, military police, aviators, and soldiers whose duties prevent them from using a rifle effectively but who still require a lethal close-combat weapon. For the U.S. armed forces, that weapon is the M9 Beretta Model 92F 9mm handgun. The choice of a “foreign” weapon to replace the classic Colt M1911 .45-caliber automatic was bitterly controversial in 1985, but M9s for the U.S. Department of Defense are actually assembled in Accokeek, Maryland.
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Overall, the M9 is an excellent weapon, albeit one with more in the way of safety features than I personally prefer. The weapon is normally issued with a cleaning kit, and there are a variety of holster designs, depending on the soldier’s uniform. Normally, the M9 would be carried, along with several spare loaded magazines, on the trooper’s web belt.
M203 Grenade Launcher. The practical limit for throwing a hand grenade is about 30 meters/33 yards, and the accurate limit is considerably less. During World War I, various armies experimented with “rifle grenades” that used special cartridges or muzzle adapters to launch an impact-fused explosive grenade from a standard infantry rifle. When properly employed, they were effective out to a range of 100 meters/110 yards or more. The rifle grenade was particularly useful in street fighting, where a skilled grenadier could put an explosive round over a wall or through a window. The U.S. Army never took much interest in rifle grenades, preferring the greater firepower of light mortars operated by specialist crews. In Vietnam, however, a short-barreled 40mm grenade launcher, the M79 “thump gun,” proved its worth, becoming a standard squad weapon. The only drawback was that the grenadier had to carry the additional weight of his own M16 rifle, switching weapons according to the tactical situation.