Captain Rawles,
I came across a good post by Erik M., a brother Marine, about the practicalities of humping the brush in full gear, in your archives from last year. Where he writes from the perspective of an east coast Marine, I thought it would be good to complement that by writing on the same subjects from a west coast Marine’s viewpoint (was stationed at 29 Palms, California), as I’m guessing from his time reference that we were contemporaries, or close to it. If someone else has done so already, my apologies for having missed it.
For the high desert, and desert southwest environments, I recommend the inexperienced start off with only their cartridge belt/combat harness, and do 3-to-5 miles at a normal walking pace. Do not do this in the heat of the day, else you risk becoming a heat casualty, regardless of how much water you’re humping. When it gets 110 Fahrenheit in the shade, you don’t want to be humping anywhere if you can at all avoid it. Early to mid-morning, and early evening are the most user friendly times for this purpose. Listen very carefully to your body as well, as your body will inform you in no uncertain terms when it’s time to stop. Eat lightly beforehand, preferably fruit or something similar, and drink well before you step off. Being well hydrated here in the desert is even more a necessity than it is in the humidity of the eastern areas. I will not here address night movement, as I believe I saw that dealt with in other posts. (Note: Desert tactical movement will eventually become necessary in full daylight, but with good OPSEC, and proper discipline, you can avoid it in most instances. YMMV.)
Once a person is capable of doing five miles in combat harness/cartridge belt, with canteens, and first aid kit only, then step it up by adding the remainder of the pouches that will ride on your harness and belt. Do this until you are acclimatized to the weight and water requirements, then again with either the actual magazines or weight equal to that load. Again, rigorously avoid the hottest parts of the day, unless there is no choice. In my experience, unless you are actively being shot at, there is almost always a choice, so don’t go humping when it’s the hottest part of the day. Once used to this level, step it up to include your body armor, or tactical vest, if you intend to use any, and repeat the process. (You might wish to do this on a country/county road, as the LEOs are likely to get hinky over folks walking about in tactical gear, in the middle of town, here, and I’d assume the same for elsewhere.)
At that point, you should be more or less doing a “Boots, Utes, an’ Kevlar” physical training cycle. Keep in mind, for those who are reading this, that the normal forced march step is a full forty inch step, by the book. As Erik said, almost a run. One can, once fully used to the rigors of humping, and with a bit of patience and attention to detail, find a more or less comfortable rhythm, where that extended step will really eat up the ground, without wiping you out before you’ve gotten out of town. Find yours, as best you can, as quick as you can.
As for humping the burning desert with 100 pound of gear, and such, I will merely say the same thing I said to my troops when I caught them loading that much garbage in their ALICE pack. You want spare skivvies, socks, cold weather clothes, poncho, and at least one full change of regular clothing. Don’t bring or wear all that slinky satiny tight nylon taffeta garbage. You want good solid work clothing, that will stand up to the nastiest beating you can give it, if you don’t have any actual utilities. All else is already covered elsewhere. Such things as spare toilet paper, fire starters, mess kit, first aid extras, ammo, and whatnot, are automatically part of your harness, and need not be mentioned here, to my mind. It is also not necessary, unless you in northern climes, to tote twenty-odd pounds of tent, stakes, and subzero rated mummy bag with accessories. In the environment of the southwest, and high desert west, you’ll just end up pitching all that in the ditch in favor of more water, and more ammo.
Does it get cold in the desert? Yep. Sure does. Sometimes we’ll have a difference from midday to dew point of some sixty-odd degrees. That is to say, from an average of 105 plus, down to maybe 40. On a really rough day it can be more than that, even, but it is exceedingly rare to see temps of less than about 40 at night, in this area. Thus, unless we’re all unlucky enough to have SHTF in the middle of winter, all that heavy gear is not necessary, and in my experience should be staged at one’s retreat, if possible, beforehand. As an example, for me it rarely gets cold enough to justify much more than long johns, and a standard field jacket, besides my regular clothing, even in January. You might choose to keep the mummy bag for really cold nights, or you might choose you go with a lesser bag and augment with a blanket or two. That’s up to you, so long as your circumstances make the weight worth the effort.
One thing that I feel most compelled to address is the mention of boxer shorts. I agree with my brother Marine. Get rid of ’em. For all those wannabe couch commandos and mall ninjas running around who think you ain’t a man unless you wearing boxers, I say this; The first time you’re out humping the boonies with your life depending on it, sweating your butt off, lugging your whole world on your back, and those things twist all up in and around your tender bits, you gonna get rubbed raw and bloody with a screaming quickness. Find some good briefs, or maybe some of those hybrid half brief/half boxer legged jobs. Cotton preferably, for the absorbent qualities, and a little bit of stretch, and same goes for the skivvie shirt, too. Seriously, with as much as almost all of us will be sweating when things go sour, we’ll do better with the absorbent properties than with the macho/ego picture associated with boxer shorts, and we’ll do a whole lot less screaming in the end. I speak from hard experience, both personal, and from the perspective of pushing troops once upon a time. Get rid of the boxers, and save yourself a seriously raw groin/upper thigh area. And don’t even think about going commando either. I know it sounds corny, but it’s something that should be considered. Especially if you are blessed with a pair of thighs that rub in the best of conditions, like I am.
Rest places. In addition to the rehabilitative issues, such as resting turned ankles and such, I would recommend finding a reasonably sheltered rest area every couple days for tactical reasons. You’ll want to stop and recon the surrounds every so often on a long hump, even if there are no en route injuries. This allows things to settle some, and you to get a fair look about to see how the ebb and flow of the Golden Horde, Mutant Zombie Bikers, or even just the locals, is working out. These stops, not more than a day or two, unless there are injuries present, also afford the chance to scout out watering holes, and if one is lucky, grab a decent canteen cup bath, instead of a quick wipe down, and maybe even some warm chow while you’re treating your refills on water. Such things can go far to keep your morale meter in the green, when all else is going to hell in a hand basket. So try to incorporate a rest stop every few days at most, if for no other reason than to catch your breath and have a good look around. This will also give you a good opportunity to perform other sanitary measures, such as improvised laundry (dry method, or use a rock, if there’s little water), or do cleaning/maintenance on weapons and gear, while eyeballing the territory. Surprisingly, even your own county that you grew up in can, and most likely will, change dramatically when things get nasty, so these little pit stops will give you a chance to re assess while you rest, and hopefully do it before you have to take off again. One is a serious believer in the art of the low profile, if you can’t tell:) Stop, look, and listen when and while you can, so you got better info for when you can’t. And when you can’t, move as discreetly as circumstances allow. Rule of thumb: Even if it’s “friendly territory”, it isn’t. So recon every chance you get, while still making the miles roll by.
All in all, the remainder of that post was pretty much on point, and brings back a number of memories. Semper Fi – J.H.
