The 8 most useless pieces of gear ever issued

Can't believe they included the Field Jacket. I never had mine get soaked through, And they were almost indestructible.

Every piece of equipment is a compromise. I have been issued lots of mosquito nets over the years. Never used them, mainly because if you are moving, you don't have time to set the thing up and it just takes up space in your pack. I suppose they were useful for rear echelon types and fobbits. MOPP suits were dirty, and had problems with water, but were also great for staying warm in cold weather. It was designed as a one use item. And it was great when you went for long periods without bathing....kept your funk in. LBE was at least a little customizable. And like today's MOLLE systems, you could carry a lot of gear on it. There's always going to be a problem with crawling or working your way through close cover. Deal with it. And the old field jackets were fine. Lasted forever and if you were dealing with extreme cold weather, the liners were great. When the gortex jackets came out, we all thought they were grand, but then noticed that they kept the moisture IN, so you wound up almost as wet as if you had no jacket at all. The gloves and liners were not great and yeah, you had to take them off to do anything that required manual dexterity. But you have to take off the new gloves too. There is no glove system that will both keep you warm and allow you to do fine work, whether it's installing a wire line or typing, or doing needlepoint, for that matter. Sometimes I wonder about the folks that write these articles. Have they ever actually used any of this stuff? Or are they just pulling this stuff out of their.....

One man’s useless is another man’s treasure?