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RT New York: One-Two John St. Martin: Equipment Breakdown
Our latest photo shoot was inspired and is in tribute to RT New York and the photos of John St. Martin before the mission demonstrating his gear loadout that didnt use a rucksack. 1: The boonie is a vietnamese made version with a signal panel on the inside. 2: An M26 hand grenade is attached to his M56 harness, the grenade ring would be taped to prevent snagging on jungle foliage. 3: John St. Martin constructed a small rucksack from a standard Claymore mine pouch, this was done to create a low profile load-out not needing a rucksack. The other halve of the claymore mine was worn on the back with a rolled poncho (not shown in this photo) 4: John St. Martin chose to use a WW2 era BAR belt as way of carrying extra ammuntion, this was a common choice for Special Forces personnel. The belt is held up by standard M56 Suspenders and the eyelets at the bottom of the belt was used to carry WW2 and korean era first aid pouches and canteen covers. 5: The uniform is non-ripstop cotton poplin uniform with no modifications. 6: The M56 Suspenders were worn prior to the issue of the STABO harness, extractions were affected using the Hanson rig that can be seen hanging from the belt. Developed by FOB-2 One-Zero Bill Hanson. This method of extraction was the bridge between the Swiss Seat and the STABO Harness. The strap itself was no more than an "A7A Cargo Strap". Hanson devised a method of using the cargo strap as a safer, more reliable method of Helo extraction. 7: On the rear canteen pouch can be seen a pouch for the AT984 antenna. This is the pouch for the a multiple wavelength long wire antenna for the VHF low band radios like the PRC-25 and PRC-77. It provides more gain than the whips antennas or the RC-292 or OE-254 fixed station omni-directional antennas. It is an unterminated wire unlike the OE-303 half rhombic that uses a termination. We have also got a black & white and colour versions of the shoot, as well as full details of the gear carried by each team member. The shoot was held in a Victorian fort that is used by the Royal marines for training and features 3 levels and 14 mils of tunnels that are perfect for room clearing tactics. You can see some pictures of the location here. To top of the days training we stayed in the Senior NCO's mess at Tregantle Fort, which has amazing views of the sea. The boys at Southwest Wargames put on a great event and we cant recommend Gaz, Liam and Mich highly enough. http://southwestwargames.webrok.co.uk/ All photos by Natasha Talarico
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