US Army kit bag and the passing of Empires from Brighton to Liverpool, then London and Jersey
Reviews

From: Remi
Category: Consumer
Date: 06 January 2005

Review

People often wonder how the might of the American army was held in check by their Vietnamese foe from 1963-1975. Historians have looked at the main themes and areas that might account for their eluding victory. Conscription, lagging popular support, the NCOs ruling the pride, economics. But might the answer be contained in a small and simple object, one as ubiquitous as the G.I. kitbag? Its poor design and clumsiness will have certainly tired out many a valiant serviceman, bruised his back, gnawed at his knuckles and worn out his grip, so essential for handling armoury and machinery. In fact, one wonders however such an object ever got past the drawing-board of the U.S. Military, a unit well-known for their sound financial investments. Lieutenant Dan, Forest Gump's officer, in the eponymous 1994 film, advises his new private to regularly change his socks if he wants to get through his 'tour of duty', dirty socks being a far more vicious adversity than the roaming NVA infantry. Great historians have practised this fashion of giving small answers to big problems. Gibbon in his monumental tomes, the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire, apportions much of Rome's downfall to the decadence that gradually took over the patricians' lives. Standards dropped, giving the Barbarians the opportunity to invade and take hold. However, the British Empire, taking Gibbon's analysis as advice, made sure that a strict atmosphere of discipline permeated the public schools, those intstitutions famous for breeding the future guardians of Her Majesty's colonies and territories. Their loss was shunning the gains that could be made from science and technology. This was to be the US' gain. But, how many of Washington's technological inventions were conceiveed with their foot-soldiers in mind? So perhaps now, as we see the US being held in check again by a far less sophisticated enemy, we might pause and think of the ground troops tired out by their cumbersome packs. A loss of energy that can be a matter of life and death in such situations.