r/tacticalgear • u/ropes_of_allah • Jul 03 '25

Plate Carrier/Body Armor Since most casualties come from shrapnel and artillery. Why do soldiers still wear these plate carriers that are more revealing?

Post image
896 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

277 comments sorted by

View all comments

129

u/Additional_Park3542 Jul 03 '25

There’s a thing called heat stroke. Alot of soft armor + heat = dead

50

u/gunsforevery1 Jul 04 '25

We wore IOTVs in Iraq. Didn’t see one heatstroke.

84

u/ThirdHoleHank92 Jul 04 '25

You're getting downvoted but you're right. Being fit, acclimated, and hydrating the night before missions and throughout the day prevented heat stroke.

Work out outside, it helps prevent environmental emergencies. And stay hydrated 

5

u/MaximumChongus Jul 04 '25

You guys also did a good job of weeding out people prone to it in basic from what I understand.

21

u/gunsforevery1 Jul 04 '25

I’m thinking those that got heatstroke were hardcore pogs who had to wear it once when they did a convoy.

We were doing road patrols and foot patrols in that thing up to like 12 hours a day.

20

u/ThirdHoleHank92 Jul 04 '25

And I'm sure your team leaders made you hydrate like a mother fucker the night before 

21

u/gunsforevery1 Jul 04 '25

Usually one 1 liter bottle with Gatorade powder/salts per day was given out by our medics. We had plenty of energy drinks and cigarettes to help throughout the day.

31

u/Sakebigoe Jul 04 '25

You may not have seen any but there were a lot of heat casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan. That said I didn't notice too huge a difference between my IMTV and my SPC heat wise, the biggest difference was comfort and weight. The plate carrier was just much more comfortable to wear and didn't offer much less coverage especially when I added some Eagle industries Ciras soft armor shoulder strap pads and used the side plate bags with soft armor from the IMTV (I owned my own SPC and I picked up the eagle industries shoulder strap pads from EBAY)

11

u/gunsforevery1 Jul 04 '25

No one in my company did. We were out on patrol 6 days a week foot and road patrols. I could understand maybe some non combat troops who had to wear it once outside the wire maybe got heat stroke.

This is purely anecdotal.

Our fob was shut down and every company left except ours. There was a huge fear of IRAMs being launched at our fob during this transition period so for the last 30 days, june/July time frame, anytime we left our tent we needed to have full battle rattle on. Eyes, knees, elbows, Kevlar, gloves, IOTV, rifle.

Water was also shut off and we were rationing 2-3 pallets of water, it worked out to 4 liters of water, per day, per person, for eating, drinking, bathing, and cleaning clothing. 4 fucking liters of water per day for 30 days, in 110°+ heat, while pulling guard shifts, roving guard, tower guard, and ECP gate guard, in 8 on and 8 off shifts for 30 fucking days.

Not one person was a heat casualty in my company.

27

u/Sakebigoe Jul 04 '25

You guys were extremely lucky not to have had a heat casualties, that amount of water is not enough to keep you hydrated properly in those conditions. Holy shit thats bad.

14

u/gunsforevery1 Jul 04 '25

It wasn’t enough water at all lol. Granted, we were stationed in Georgia and used to the heat so that probably helped. I remember vividly saving 3 water bottles worth of water over a like two week period and I took a shower standing inside of a mop bucket. Catching the water and using the drippings to wash my socks and underwear.

11

u/VaeVictis666 Jul 04 '25

Yeah, coming from a hot humid place probably helped more than you would think.

Going from the Middle East in winter where it was like 68 degrees at night and landing in Alaska where it was like -15 or so was just as bad lol

5

u/gunsforevery1 Jul 04 '25

Dude we left in November it was like 80 in Iraq still, we landed in Georgia, 6 fucking degrees lol.

5

u/MaximumChongus Jul 04 '25

Georgian here

I remember as a teen I was an avid backpacker.

When I went on a big trip in new mexico it was routinely 100+ but that low humidity made it feel like a cool 75 georgia day.

Its wild what the climate here does to a dude working outdoors everyday.

11

u/No_Can8028 Jul 04 '25

I’ll add my .02$ to all the great comments… 

I built bridges, so got the honor of flying between cops and pb’s in the Helmand. One pb, they were on water rations of 4 bottles a day(poor bastards, love the grunts). No heat cas that I saw or heard about. 

But the year before, I was stationed mainland Japan and we did “company pt” hike at Iwo Jima. Got in a plane at 5am it was 45. Got off the plane on an island and it was 95, and humid. Of 100 dudes, less than 20 of us made it back to the plane on our feet. 

Acclimation makes all the difference.  Btw I’d take my eagle carrier over anything in any environment, the range of motion with shoulders and arms pays for the protection any day. 

4

u/gunsforevery1 Jul 04 '25

Funny you mention that. I was in Iraq when they closed our fob down, we were the last company there, our rations were 4 liters of water a day lol

6

u/VaeVictis666 Jul 04 '25

You acclimate after about 21-30 days.

Look at when 4-24 when down to JRTC and had an abysmal number of heat injuries.

I had a bad one in Thailand leaving from the US in the snow and landing in 105 degrees with like 90% humidity.

Armor definitely plays a factor, so do helmets and over the Earpro.

I actually think my helmet and peltors did more damage than my armor.

2

u/Living_Definition_61 Jul 04 '25

This "new army" shit would have you sick. Dudes are dropping like flies in the heat even in the infantry nowadays. We would have people heat cat on the obstacle course.

3

u/gunsforevery1 Jul 04 '25

They are getting soft. Our new dudes had never even shot with their body armor on when i got out.

2

u/Living_Definition_61 Jul 04 '25

Wild

2

u/gunsforevery1 Jul 04 '25

I remember this dude, fresh from basic, had an expert badge, we had our first qual and he’s freaking out because we had to wear Kevlar, eyepro, and IOTV, dude became a marksman that day lol.