Throughout the ages, Soldiers have suffered, lost battles and wars by...(More)

Throughout the ages, Soldiers have suffered, lost battles and wars by carrying too much on their bodies harming their mobility vis-a-vis their enemies and exhausting themselves; the Battle of Hastings in 1066 A.D. had Western Civilization hinge on this thin thread. In more recent times, overloaded, immobile Soldiers have lost battles and wars and even when we win, it means heavy casualties. Prolific war analyst U.S. Army Brigadier General S.L.A. Marshall (SLAM) wrote to date the best book on the subject "The Soldier's Load & the Mobility of the Nation" which you can read online on the web page below: http://www.combatreform.com/combatlight.htm SLAM, whose experience ranged from WW1 to WW2, Korea and Vietnam--gets it--that the Soldier must never carry more than 1/3rd of his body weight but ASS U MEs that a huge nation-state logistical machine is going to swamp him with supplies along linear supply lines so men can care-free foot-slog. His protege' Colonel David Hackworth (Hack) tried to inform SLAM that on non-linear battlefields (NLBs) of limited wars Soldiers will not have WW2-in-their-hip-pocket and must be self-reliant. Hack's mentality is the Vietnam "Lightfighter" who is resupplied by air from VTOL helicopters entering/leaving the battlefield so he need not carry so much. Hack's articles are on the combatlight.htm web page, too. The problem here as this video shows, is that you cannot be helicopter inserted with light supplies even if you are within artillery range of the FOB fire base because the enemy who controls the GROUND 24/7/365 will bleed you with previously-laid land mines and could swarm superior numbers against you--belt-buckle close as took place at LZ X-Ray with Col. Hal Moore's 7th Air Cavalry. Helo resupply is NOT a given in the face of enemy ADA. http://www.combatreform.com/fries.htm We have ANSWERS to the Soldier's Load problem as Sherman's Flying Columns won our own Civil War by reducing camp furniture, refusing to be tied to linear supply lines and being able to live off-the-land, this gets you 4-7 mph of foot speed. http://www.combatreform.com/sere.htm Next, you carry your own supplies for self-sufficiency of action by out-guerrillaing, the guerrilla by using bikes and carts for 10-25 mph mobility: http://www.combatreform.com/atb.htm http://www.combatreform.com/atac.htm Even if all this was done, Hack admits a super-infantry even dug-in would be overwhelmed in a matter of hours if attacked by swarms of men because we are fighting the enemy EVEN when we should be with OVERMATCH. The answer is General Gavin's M113 light tank/APC "amtrack" that is go-anywhere by air, land, sea that carries SUPERIOR levels of supplies and firepower that's CO-LOCATED right there on the NLB so when dismounted, infantrymen can really be lightly loaded on foot. This is the actual thing we learned from Korea and did right in Vietnam Armored Cav units: http://www.combatreform.com/m113combat.htm Our current ego-created failures began in 1980 with the too-heavy Bradley damning the "mech pussies" into OPEN TERRAINS and the too-light Humvee damning our lightfighters to road (man-made strips of open terrain) land mine ambushes just because they didn't want to be seen in tracks. LTG Gavin was/is right...where is the air-delivered Cavalry in light tanks/APCs? http://www.combatreform.com/cavalryandidontmeanhorses.htm(Less)