interesting responses...
canadian forces carry hi-powers not US forces (even when in a joint role as i can attest to during one of my tours in kosovo)....
mags are stored unless in an extreme circumstance because you can reload an empty mag when you are resupplied, but if you were careless and dumped your mag then you had nothing to reload and also the enemy can pick it up and reuse it
I was actually deployed (see my sig and my information and can scan a copy of my VFW card to prove it)... .
anyway, when i was in we carried our load out depending on mission. if on a long patrol that would sometimes span up to 2 weeks with minimal resupply (usually by helo in the stan or by linking up with a convoy in iraq, and in bosnia we always did short grab and go's so we loaded heavy on ammo and light on gear as we would be doing quick insertion and extraction usually by vehicle) we would carry haeavy which was usually 240rds of 5.56 plus an extra 120 or so rounds and then 45rds of 9mm plus maybe 30 rds extra and for those of us with a 203 we would carry various loads depending on the mission and dont foreget the smoke plus a what seemed like a million batteries of various sizes for the manpacks NVG's, etc... i was one of the unlucky SOB's that carried a manpack so i rucked my gear and the radio , but the other folks carried extra batteries for me...
when i retrained and was ni either the spotter or the gunner role the load out changed along with the mission or the territory we had as an AOR...
anyway, lots of answers from folks above, but just reading some i call BS as they are reading off a COD or Battlefield game load out..
