PMCI - February 2017

pmcimagazine.com
SPECIAL REPORT: A SOLDIER’S LOAD
THE UNIVERSAL SOLDIER’S BURDEN
We spend a lot of time discussing the benefits of improved equipment, but some things never change
according to former Para Peter Bing…
Friday morning, 20th of January 2017, found me
driving through the quiet outskirts of Colchester
(Essex, England) with my 85 year-old-father when,
quite unexpectedly, wheeling around the corner
and coming towards us in column of threes came a
company of Parachute Regiment soldiers.
They were, in Para vernacular, tabbing (from
TAB - Tactical Advance to Battle) in boots, MTP
trousers (boots and denims in my day), sporting
maroon sweatshirts and carrying large Bergen rucksacks.
All were blowing hard from the effort, with jaws set in a
determination that can only be appreciated if you have been
a Para (or respectfully, belonged to another elite unit), with
each one leaning forward into his burden to maintain balance
as they “scampered” (you cannot adopt the stride of a normal
runner when carrying that kind of weight) at a blistering pace
on their morning company run. Each soldier loaded, I would
bet, with a rucksack weighing at least 60lbs, before the
addition of weapon and supporting combat load that they were
not carrying that morning.
Focused on the task at hand, no one took noticed of our
passing vehicle, and even if they had, none would have had
any idea that the two veteran Paratroopers sitting inside were
taking in the scene with a mixture of nostalgia and pride. For
my father the Parachute Regiment experience began in 1951
after serving in Korea with the Argyles, and for me it started
in 1970 from school. What we were looking at was a scene
(Aldershot, not Colchester, in our day) we had both experienced
many, many, times over, being conducted by young men who
could have been either of us from our own Para generations.
That brief scene got me to thinking “nothing much changed
there then”. January 2017 and the infantryman’s lot is still to
struggle to get himself physically into battle under a mountain
of kit and equipment; as he did in the town of Colchester,
when infantry on that same road 2000 years ago were Roman
legionnaires, who referred to themselves as “Marius’ Mules”
after the general who loaded them down with so much
equipment. As an aside, Colchester is my hometown, so I
may well be descended from one such individual? Of course,
it is necessary for specialist infantry like paratroopers to be
fit enough and strong enough to bear the burden, because
unlike mechanized units, once parachuted or helicoptered onto
the area of operations they are dependent on muscle power
alone. But what studies, as far as the British Army is concerned,
have been undertaken to reduce and redistribute that load, I
thought? Many, as you would rightly expect.
As far back as the 1860s army medical services were
concerned that too many soldiers were sustaining permanent
debilitating injury from the loads they were expected to carry,
to the extent that too many dropped by the wayside on an
advance to battle, or were too physically exhausted to contribute
in any meaningful way to the assault. Again in the 1890s after
the experiences of the South African War, with its environment
challenges, amongst others, military committee examined
the subject of lighter combat loads and better load carrying
equipment. Changes were made and the soldier of WW1 was
issued with a “state of the art” set of load carrying equipment.
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