Royal Marine Deployment tips

Every one has their own way of doing things. Some may work for you, some may not. Take it or leave it. Here are our top military tips that we picked up over the years, that have made our lives easier whilst deployed in the field or on operations.

Lanyarding your Compass and vital kit

Like most of these tips, this was picked up from a Royal Marine Mountain Leader, the pinnacle of a soldier within the Royal Marines and British Military. A relatively simple tip but will save you time and make your nav checks smoother and quicker.

First ensure your compass is attached to your person in some way shape or form, either by using a catspaw knot or a small karabiner. Then simply spin the compass creating a slightly bunched up lanyard, a few inches long, enough to stow into the pocket it is attached to. By doing this you have created an elastic spring, this enables you to pull out your compass far enough to reach your map but when stowing away the lanyard will self coil itself, reducing the risk of snagging on your rifle or buttons. This cancels out the need to shove the lanyard in like a parachute post jump!

This technique can be implemented on any lanyard-ed kit, which will help mitigate the spiders web of admin that in-cure in your pockets whilst in the field.

Weapon Cleaning Kit Recommendations 

Keep it simple stupid. Does it need to be armoury clean whilst deployed? Let's be realistic of what really needs to be done for field cleaning a weapon, rolls of rag and 1 litre of oil top flapped is not what we need for a few days in the field. 

A few small purchases can again make your life easier, reduce kit to carry, and save time.

• We recommend the breechtool, designed by soldiers after years of experience struggling to get to the hard parts of any weapon system. A really good bit of kit, that we have used personally.
• A miniature spray bottle for weapon oil as part of your immediate cleaning kit will allow you to spray when needed, until back at your secure location.
• Dental tools are a great addition, not to get the corn beef hash out of your teeth, but one of these can get you in those hard to reach places on a weapon system. Easy to pick up from a pound shop.
• Boresnake is probably the ultimate pull-through, great bit of kit, one pull through and you are good to go.
• Spare weapon parts.. make friends with the armourer, any small spare parts or bolts you can get hold of, do acquire! More often than not, you see people rummaging around the foliage in a flat spin looking for firing pin! You could be a hero of your section..
• Small watertight containers were what we found best to contain and protect all of our cleaning kit. Tight enough to not cause the dreaded battle rattle (pack it out with foam cut from ammo container inserts), and small enough to fit snug into your webbing or chest rig.

Kit Segregation 

We may be obvious on this one, but you'll be surprised the amount of jumble sales you see across the harbour position. Simply put, try and keep all bits of your kit/clothing in separate individual packs or dry bags. 

Within your main compartment get smaller individual drybags for each piece of kit.

For smaller pieces of admin, try using some stash bags, which are great for keeping rations, dhobi kit, or admin pieces separate.

Looking after your Map

As above with the compass lanyard, this can be implemented on your map lanyard, we have also seen people use coiled pistol slings for maps, role dependant, as these can sometimes snag whilst moving through foliage in certain environments.

A tip for warmer climates, is to save the 'do not eat' sachets from your boot box, if you are lucky enough to actually get a new pair that is! This will help supress the moisture getting in or onto your map, within warmer climates you should have 'fabloned' your map prior to deploying.

Preparing your Rations

Taking a leaf out of the Mountain Leader book again, often used in Norway, this is where preparation pre-deployment can really make your life easier for the following days whilst deployed in the field. 

'Nutty Bag' may offend any of the army ranks reading this, but bear with us, call it what you like after. Put aside your main meals (wet) and grab all of the snack type food (dry). such as your nuts, bars, sweets, chocolate etc. Using the clear seal bag you should have within your rations, simply empty all of the contents into this bag, breaking down any bar shape foods into small mouth full size segments.

Not the most appetising to look at but this will save you a-lot of time and gash admin whilst in the field. If you are lucky enough to still be on camp, leave it on a radiator to all melt together creating one large lump of 'nutty'. 

Now you have a small bag for each day of snacks without the admin of stowing wrappers, risk of leaving a trace, and a much faster and smoother process for taking on some quick calories, whilst knowing exactly how much you have for each 24 hour period.

This can then be placed in a top pocket for you to break off small pieces as you go, to keep your calorie intake high and your admin low! 

Zip Positioning on Packs

It's the 0.1% wins that all add up. A relatively simple habit to get into. As we all know, nine times out of ten, we are operating in the dark, and every second counts when all you want to do is get your bag out and get your head down before that 0130 sentry wake up comes along to ruin your life. 

So, always position your bergan, daysack, or pouch zips at the 12 o'clock position (when you have two zips on a zipper). If you stick to this rule, you will always find your zips, first time, every time. Nothing revolutionary with this one, but you will always do this from now on, and even in a flat spin when shit hits the fan for real, you will always be able to locate those zips.

Quick and easy coffee

A reoccurring theme for most of these tips, is to save time, space, and weight without compromising on comfort or operational output. 

We don't want to blow our own pussers trumpet, but we know some great coffee to take on deployments and exercise. Trialled and tested in Norway, Middle East, Afghanistan, North Africa, Sennnybridge (the worst one out the lot).

Coffee bags are brilliant for deployments or in the field, they mitigate the need for carrying multiple coffee sticks, 3-in-1's, and the time it takes to make it. Each bag is individually packaged, ensuring that they are protected and water proof, providing a small gash bag to place the used bag back into (leave no trace).

Simply throw one into hot water, and that's it, no need to keep an eye on it, watch it, stir it, which allows you to carry on with other admin. It's also a bit of morale for others when you slide one over to a oppo who's having a bad day. The power of coffee...

Got any more tips? Share the knowledge and drop them in the comments.