What to bring on your IA to Iraq

I was recently asked by a lucky IA lottery winner what to bring on an IA to Iraq. That is a great question I had the exact same question when I was tagged. I searched ECRC, NKO all the usual places and found nothing of use. I have not looked at their sites lately but I am sure nothing has changed. They do not have the time to figure out why my travel claim has not been paid in over 3 months, I am sure they do not have time to update their web site.

I will try to make this as extensive as possible but the general idea is that you can forget everything, as long as you have underwear, the Army will give you all the rest of your essentials. It is my experience that I have been able to find anything I want at exchanges, except NAVY PT uniform.

Bring whatever you want to NMPS and expect to ship stuff home, this is ok, and the Navy will pay for it on the travel claim, just ensure you keep your receipt even if it is less than $75, you absolutely need the receipt to get reimbursed for the shipping. Speaking of travel claims I would not do any travel claims until you get to Kuwait, as stated above I am still waiting on the one I claimed with ECRC over 3 months ago, the Kuwait guys will have it done in 5 days.

The Army will provide 4 sets of ACU’s a bunch of undershirts, socks, boots, boot dressing straps, cold weather gear, medium weather gear, rain gear, sleeping bag, backpack, gloves, hats, gerber multi tool, sunglasses, shooting glasses, earplugs, body armor, guns, holster, knee pads, elbow pads, you will have around 250 pounds of Army issued gear when you are all done and you get to carry it all over the world.

Everything else is just gravy and can more than likely be found at the exchange except for PT uniforms. I only brought two which is not enough, I just ordered two more from the online Navy exchange and they are shipping them.

Laptop computer, I think is an essential, there has been wireless internet everywhere I have been it is slower than dial up and kind of expensive $50-80 a month but worth it to me. All exchanges I have been in carry laptops. I am also going to put a plug in for Skype, it is free video calls to anyone who has Skype on their computer and I also use them for unlimited phone calls to any phone in the US for $50 a year, a great deal I think. It is much more convenient than wandering around looking for a calling card and then waiting for a phone booth to open up not to mention cheaper in the long run.

Under Armour underwear are awesome, I will never wear cotton again, when I wear cotton it quickly feels like I am wearing a wet diaper, not so with the under armour. They are kinda pricey at $16 a pair but worth every penny unless you are a fan of sweaty balls. I do not care for the Under Armour socks, they seem to make my feet sweat more than cotton socks which is strange you would think they would work the same as the underwear.

Get a head lamp and key chain light once you get to your Army training base, they sell them everywhere and are critical when trying to move around at night when all your roomies are sleeping.

I buy a pillow everywhere I go, I don’t carry one and I refuse to use one that somebody else has drooled all over, or worse, so I just leave the old one and get a new one. Bedding sheets are abundant and are much more comfortable than the sleeping bag the Army issues.

Once you get in country you have to turn your laundry in to be done, you will need a laundry bag, I suggest a cotton one, I initially purchased a nylon fish net one and the seams started ripping after two uses. I have seen both types at all exchanges.

As far as the high speed tactical gear, you will not need any of this, non of us are high speed or tactical in an Army sense, remember we are clown warriors, the only piece of gear that I would reccomend is a strap that attaches to your body armor and attaches to you M-4 it has a plastic buckle that allows you to quickly attach and detach your gun. It is much better than a sling and during training it makes carrying your rifle much easier. They are at all the Army exchanges both at the training base and in country.

Bring your check book, there are no ATM's so if you want cash the easiest way is to go to the finance building and write a check, most exchanges will take credit cards, or eagle cash cards, which is just a debit card you set up if you want when you are in country. The local markets and souqs on base are sometimes cash only.

To sum it all up the Army gives you a ton of stuff and the less you have to carry half way around the world the better, and from what I have seen you can get anything you want once you get here, except a Playboy and a Beer, and I bet if I looked real hard I could find those also, however getting caught with either will earn you a quick trip home.