Friday, May 13, 2011

End of an Era?

After over 22 years in the Army, the 5 uniform changes that have occurred, and 5 deployments, I always said if there was a war that you should be at my house.

What once fit in a tiny front closet when we got married, now takes up half of our garage.

What is it you ask?  TA-50

I'm sure you have all learned to embrace the plethora of equipment that your husband has been issued.  I've tried numerous ways to organize the crap too.

There were hanging devices.  Stacked crates.  Left in the boxes that they were packed up in.  Footlockers.  Tubs.  The tubs seemed to work the best, because at least I could stack them on top of each other.

How many gorilla trunks are sitting in your house right now?  We got 4 by mail shortly after Gunner returned home.  I was totally not overjoyed to see it arrive.  These were added to the 8 gorilla trunks we already had here waiting for his return.

But.......

In just a matter of time, this stuff will start disappearing from my garage.  Hopefully huge amounts of it.

Soon he can go request a list from CIF with the master list of everything that he needs to turn in.  What will I do without 50,000 pounds of TA50 to move every couple of years?  What if there is a war and we need to hunker down and live off of MRE's and be ready to dig our own trenches or create a new village complete with a multitude of uniforms for everyone to choose from?

But then I start thinking about all the duplicates he has.  You can't just have one e-tool can you?  A Soldier with less than 5 canteens?  That's unheard of.  How could he have been a Soldier without stocking up on 8 sleeping mats?  Less than 20 pairs of boots?  How would that work, since he has to have tanker boots, then there are the black boots, then there are gortex boots, mountain boots, rubber boots, desert boots--you know, the right boots to match the right uniform?

With the right boots you have to have the right accessories.  We have a rucksack in every uniform color.  Don't worry, as he also has accumulated an assault bag in every color.  In case he gets thirsty, he has a camelbak in every color.

There are soft caps, berets, kevlars, pyle caps, pt caps, stetson, mess cap.  We've got 15 duffel bags, all painted with previous unit assignments.  We've got DIFFERENT PT belts from every.single.unit.

The list goes on.  So while I started thinking that we might be downsizing, I realize that my grandchildren should someday be prepared for their Grandpa to be sitting in old uniforms and telling them stories "Back when I was in the warrrrrr....".

So maybe we'll be okay in case of an emergency, because I can't imagine all of this TA50 is going anywhere...

8 comments:

Briana Rose said...

New to reading your blog! Total inspiration! I married a soldier almost a year ago, and although we had been together while he had been in for 5 years, we were recently stationed at our first post and living in a house. I CANNOT believe how much army stuff he has, and was given the lecture just the other day about why he needed to purchase ANOTHER pair of boots to add to the twenty he already has. LOVE the blog.

McMGrad89 said...

You crack me up. fortunately for us, Gary was only in 8 years and only had BDUs and Dress Greens to worry about although he did have the nomax coveralls as well. He only had to have his boots and a pair of black shoes. Not so fortunately, his TA50 was hijacked right before getting out and had to pay for it. If I had only known that we could go shopping in your garage...

Seriously....Me. said...

Whew....our attic is full of Gorilla boxes...and my coworkers find it hysterical to watch the Fed Ex guy drag them in when The Husband starts shipping stuff back. Can't wait to see how many we accumulate this go round.
Enjoy!
During Show Down this time he was missing and etool cover...in the right color. If he had let me know, I could have went digging and saved us the $11...yeah...not worth it.

Anonymous said...

Oh... My... Goodness!! Not only do we have more foot lockers than should be allowed in a single family house, but every time my husband deploys, goes for an extended training mission, or happens to see one at NEX, somehow I end up with more of them in my garage. We have so much stuff that I have decided to invest in the over head storage for the garage so that I can get it out of my way!!!

Why my husband needs 27 of everything, I will never know... And why his unit insists on putting out lists of more crap that he "has to have" (90% of it being stuff that, in the 9 years he has been in, has never had a need for and will never use) is beyond me.

I look forward to the day when I can get some of it out of my garage/bedroom/spare room. LOL!

cris said...

Yes we have a TON of TA 50, and uniforms that they don't use anymore LOL and a lot more!

Anyway nice to meet you I am your newest follower please visit me at www.armytankerswife.com and follow me when you can.

My Army Life said...

Found your blog from the "Army Wives' Lives" linky ... and love it. I laughed out loud at the visual of your family hunkering down with all the TA-50 gear! =)

Mommy said...

Too funny! I can relate as well. I'm not looking forward to organizing all of that gear when we move again.

Anyways, new to your page and love it! Thanks for sharing!

-Jenn


http://happyarmywifehappyarmylife.blogspot.com

It's Something Beautiful said...

Haha this totally cracked me up. I can't imagine having all that stuff. Mister isn't re-enlisting so it doesn't look like I'll have to. Darn... ;)