TACTICAL COMMENTARY: You Are Not a Navy SEAL Sneaking up on Someone, so When You Say “Velcro is Too Loud” You Sound Like an Idiot

by James G · 67 comments

in COMMENTARY

This is the type of guy who worries about stealthy mag pouches for sneaking up on Charlie – don’t be that guy

So I was showing this guy here in Iraq one of the Zulu M-4 Mag Pouches I have and the first thing he said was “the Velcro is too loud, people will hear you use it” or something to that effect.

I was like “dude, you are a medic on a Helicopter, seriously?” – but he would not consider buying that pouch because in his mind it would somehow tip-off his location to the Ninjas or whatever he would be sneaking up on [presumably after already blasting off 30 rounds and jumping off a helicopter].

Normally this would not have stuck in my mind but like 3 days before another guy said he didn’t like one of my knives because it had a stainless blade that “would be too visible in the dark”. He is a blond guy who runs down the roads in Iraq in a 30 truck convoy in huge pick-up trucks with his PMC’s name written down the side. I was like “sure dude, they will never see you coming if you got a blacked-out blade”

This is a common affliction affecting many people in the tactical community going back as long as I can remember. It is sort of the same thing as guys who carry 148 rounds of ammo and 3 pistols everyday “just in case they have to get it on in on some sort of epic gun-battle at Starbucks where they burn through 5 mags.

Don’t be a Tacticalous Douchebagnus – Click Here to Keep Reading >>>

{ 67 comments }

TACTICAL GEAR – FIELD TESTED: Zulu Nylon Gear M4 Double Magazine Pouch – An Innovative M-4 Mag Pouch in a Sea of Mundane

by James G · 15 comments

in Field Tested,Tactical Gear,VIDEO REVIEW

Zulu Nylon Gear M4 Double Magazine Pouch – Flap open/flap closed

These days you don’t see much Innovation in the tactical nylon market outside of a few companies like HSGI, SO-Tech and OSOE. Most Tactical Nylon products are basically rehashes of the same old designs with the only difference being a manufacturers tag.

But one Tactical Nylon gear company over the past year has been pushing the envelope of new and innovative tactical nylon products. And that company is Zulu Nylon gear headed up by Joel Z. They first burst onto the market with what is [in our opinion] the best admin pouches out there.

Zulu then jumped into the Tactical man-Bag arena with the solidly built Emissary Messenger Bag. Both are unique tactical nylon products that have raised the bar in both categories.

Recently we here at DVM were fortunate enough to participate in the field testing of Zulu’s latest offering, the Zulu Nylon Gear M4 Double Magazine Pouch.

When Joel first mentioned them to me honestly my first thought was “Really, an M-4 Mag Pouch? The Tactical Gear market needs another M-4 Mag Pouch like it Needs More Chinese Sweat-Shops”. But considering how fresh Zulu’s other gear is I kept an open mind that Zulu’s M-4 mag Pouches would be as good at their other shit is.

When the pouches arrived the first thing I noticed was the unique top flap that held the mags in-place. I am a big fan of a flapped double-mag pouches [but I like a bungee for singles] but one of the biggest problems is the flap. After you open it either re-secures itself down in an awkward angle [in the case of Velcro secured flaps] or it flops around when you run [for side-squeeze secured flaps], I call this “Crazy Flap Syndrome” [CFS].

Click Here to Keep Reading – TACTICAL GEAR – FIELD TESTED: Zulu Nylon Gear M4 Double Magazine Pouch – An innovative M-4 Mag Pouch in a Sea of Mundane >>>

{ 15 comments }

CIVILIAN CONTRACTORS: The “Run to Mommy” Contractor Douchebag

by James G · 39 comments

in Civilian Contractors,Douchebag Contractors

there’s no crying in security contracting

The “Run to Mommy” Contractor Douchebag is one of the most pitiful breeds of the Contractorous Douchebagnus. This is a full grown man who despite working in a “tough guy” job as a security contractor in war zones acts like a hurt little puppy whenever someone is “rude” to him.

Just last week I had to run over and talk to one of the Team Leaders [let’s call him “Mr. Vag”] working on another camp about an upcoming mission. As soon as I walked into his hooch I knew he was one of the breeds of the Contractorous Douchebagnus just by the 13 water bottles of Copenhagen spit and dumbbells on his floor.

All I wanted to do was ask him a simple question and he immediately comes at me like I just called his whore mom a whore. If this happened back in the states I would have just walked away but one of the silly things about contracting is if you don’t bite back when someone pushes you it is somehow a sign of weakness.

Anyway, I basically had to jump on his shit and put him in his place. And like all bullies as soon as I pushed back he acted all apologetic and shit like “I” misunderstood him. So after wasting 15 minutes of my time passing on a message that should have taken 3 minutes I wandered back to my team room.

And less than 30 minutes later I got a call to come and see one of the PM’s [contract project managers]. Honestly I didn’t have any idea what it was about, but I did think it was strange because this particular PM really has nothing to do with my team.

So I scuttled over to this PM’s office and before I was even half-way in his door he starts going into a rant about how I should “respect other TL’s” and “act like a professional”.

Click Here to Keep Reading – CIVILIAN CONTRACTORS: The “Run to Mommy” Contractor Douchebag >>>

{ 39 comments }

HEALTH and FITNESS: Time is NOT the Enemy – Intensive 10 Minute Workouts

by Paul Zelinka · 10 comments

in HEALTH and FITNESS

One 10 minute workout a day and you can kick mr. T’s ass too

In the groundbreaking movie, “The Matrix” (too bad about those sorry sequels), Morpheus said, “Time is always against us”. In most aspects of our lives, that always seems to be the case.

Exercise always gets pushed to the back of the line when it comes to prioritizing things in our lives. Let me pose one question: Is there anything more important than your health? It is time that exercise, one of the two biggest components of your health along with nutrition, move up the list of daily priorities.

If you can find ten minutes, you can do a number of different workouts that will work you both aerobically (endurance) and anaerobically (muscular). The most important component of these types of workouts is intensity.

Intensity has a lot of fancy definitions. Mine is the furthest thing from fancy. Intensity is how hard or how little you bust your ass. Workouts can be low or high intensity. If you are going for a time limited workout as we are discussing here, you want to go high intensity.

That would be pushing a heart rate of 80-90% of your maximum heart rate (Quick formula: subtract your age from 220 and multiply that number by .8 and .9; that gives you the proper range of beats/minute you want to maintain).

Click Here to Keep Reading – HEALTH and FITNESS: Time is NOT the Enemy – 10 Minute Workouts >>>

{ 10 comments }

TACTICAL GEAR – FIELD TESTED: US PALM AKMP AK Shingles – An A+ Nylon Product

by James G · 21 comments

in Field Tested,Tactical Gear

US Palm AKMP AK Mag shingles at work in Iraq

One of the biggest voids in the Tactical Gear market is AK Specific magazine pouches that fit the unique shape of the AK magazine properly. It seems like every gear manufacturer just doubles the size of whatever M-4 mag pouch they sell and market it as an AK mag pouch.

I have tried a bunch of different brands of AK mag pouches and I have never been 100% satisfied. They are either too big, not big enough, the mag is positioned awkwardly, the flap or bungee doesn’t fit right or they are not properly shaped for the unique curvature of AK mags.

So far the only AK mag pouches that I have been impressed with were the ones that US Palm integrated onto their AK Attack Rack. Unfortunately at the time US Palm did not offer them separately. I actually liked them so much I considered cutting the AK mag pouches off my Attack Rack and DIY’ing them into separate pouches.

Luckily I never had to resort to such radical means to have some solid AK mag pouches for my rig. Back a couple of months ago US Palm started making the same style of AK Mag Shingles they were using on their AK Attack Rack, but as separate MOLLE pouches/shingles.

I was standing by with enthusiasm when I found that out because in my new gig in Iraq I am humping the AK about 80% of the time and I still didn’t have decent AK mag pouches for my rig.

The US PALM AKMP Shingles come in Single, Double or triple Racks in a verity of colors from the evilest of all camos Multicam to solid colors like Ranger Green, Coyote and Black [good on US Palm for making them in Black, not enough nylon gear comes in black these days]. And just like the AK Attack Rack these shingles are made of durable yet lightweight 500D Cordura, and are a US made fully Berry Complaint product.

Click Here to Keep Reading – TACTICAL GEAR – FIELD TESTED: US PALM AKMP AK Shingles – An A+ Nylon Product >>>

{ 21 comments }

TACTICAL CLOTHING – FIELD TESTED: Oakley Factory Pilot Glove – 2 Day FAIL

by James G · 55 comments

in Field Tested,TACTICAL CLOTHING

2 days is all it took for these Oakley gloves to come apart

After years of just using cheap construction work gloves [Stanley is my favorite] as tactical gloves I was convinced by one of the guys on my team to buy a pair of “real” tactical gloves. So I hit up the PX and looked at the different brands of tacticool gloves they had.

The first thing I noticed were the prices, fucking 60 bucks, 100 bucks – all I could think was “come on, these cost 4 dollars to make in China”. The second thing I noticed was they all looked stupid, when did tactical gloves have to have all sorts of plastic shit all over them, I threw-up in my mouth a little when I saw the carbon fiber knuckles they all had.

After washing my mouth out I went with a pair of Oakley “Factory Pilot Gloves’ because I have used Oakley sunglasses before and I was satisfied with the quality and brand [they also make some pimp fedoras]. They were also the cheapest at 45 bones.

Then next day I spent about 10 hours on the range here in Iraq training a group of guys to shoot the AK. That included shooting a bit myself, loading up the gear, prepping the range, cleaning the range, opening a dozen sardine cans of ammo and loading a couple hundred magazines. The next day was the same except no training, my team just shot a few thousand rounds each and did the usual loading a couple hundred mags and prepped and cleaned the range.

The next day I was sitting around our team room playing some Call of Duty Black Ops with my teammates when one of the guys said “Damn bro, you need to get some new gloves”, I thought he was talking about my old Stanley gloves so I said “Already dude, I gots a pair of pimp ass Oak’s”.

He said “Bro, these are your new Oak’s” and tossed them into my lap

Click Here to Keep Reading – TACTICAL CLOTHING – FIELD TESTED: Oakley Factory Pilot Glove – 2 Day FAIL >>>

{ 55 comments }

3rd WORLD SURVIVAL: How Not To Run Afoul of the Law in the 3rd World

by James G · 21 comments

in 3rd WORLD SURVIVAL

This Brazilian prison is probably not the accommodations your were expecting to stay in on your tour of Latin America

Each year over 2,500 Americans are arrested overseas for everything from spitting on the sidewalk to murder. One third of these poor fuckers get locked up on dope-related charges. Many of those arrested assumed that as U.S. citizens that they couldn’t be arrested or with the mindset that the U.S. Embassy would come pick them up with just a phone call.

From Asia to Africa, Europe to South America, U.S. citizens are finding out the hard way that smoking a bong with that “nice” local gal or committing (knowingly or unknowingly) criminal offenses equals’ “Prison Man Rape” in many foreign countries.

When you are traveling in the 3rd and Developing World it is on-you to know what the laws are in a foreign country before you go, because saying “I didn’t know it was illegal to give the finger to the Douchebag who almost ran me off the road” to the tribal court judge in Hellholeastan will not get you out of jail.

In most 3rd world countries you as a foreigner have Zero legal rights at all…Period. In many of these 3rd World countries your home, car and person can be searched by the police (or even by local citizens) for any reason without a warrant or probable cause.

And many activities that are completely legal or normal in your home country are considered serious crimes in the host country.

Things like holding hands or kissing in public, women driving a car, honking your horn at someone who cut you off, owning a GPS device or camera phone, owning certain books, speaking unfavorably about the local government, attending church at a friend’s home and having a copy of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue on the backseat of your car are crimes in certain parts of the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Click Here to Keep Reading – 3rd WORLD SURVIVAL: How Not To Run Afoul of the Law in the 3rd World >>>

{ 21 comments }

KNIVES – FIELD TESTED: The 888 Professional S.O.L. Knife

by James G · 17 comments

in Field Tested,Knives

the 888 Professional S.O.L. Knife – a new take on an old school spy knife

I have been a long time fan of anything to do with Cold War clandestine operations, Tech-Ops, and tradecraft, I have every book, documentary or magazine that even remotely mentions this; lined up in the library at DVM HQ.

Minox cameras, pens with hidden Garrotes, tape recorders hidden in briefcases, microdots and poison tipped umbrellas are just a few of the pimp gadgets the OSS threw together in some “Q-Like” Skunkworks lab no doubt hidden in a basement somewhere in Northern Virginia. When it came to hiding tradecraft tools into everyday objects the OSS was the golden standard.

I guess it was a combination of growing up during the ass-end of the Cold War in the late 80’s and Q in the James Bond movies that really sparked my interest in spy tools used by the OSS and CIA.

One of the neatest OSS Toys was the OSS Thumb Dagger, a small double edge knife meant to be used as a last ditch weapon or E&E tool. The OSS Thumb Dagger has a thin leather sheath that could be sewn inside a Lapel or Sleeve making it hard to find if someone frisked an agent.

It was really a clever little idea, and recently a few versions based on it have popped up here and there. Most are small double-bladed knives that require a sheath just like the original OSS Thumb Dagger. But one version made by Triple Eight Professional called the S.O.L. Knife has a cool handle that rotates completely to enclose the blade [sort of like a folder] negating the need for a separate sheath.

Click Here to Keep Reading – KNIVES – FIELD TESTED: The 888 Professional S.O.L. Knife >>>

{ 17 comments }

BOOKS: “And the Rain Came Down” by S. A. Bailey

by Rob Krott · 32 comments

in Books & Movies

Only 2 types of people do not own this book – hippies and the illiterate

They say that back in the day a viable defense for a charge of manslaughter was “He needed killing.”  This, no doubt, was a very popular state of affairs in East Texas, the setting of Seth Anderson Bailey’s writing debut.

Bailey, a wounded Iraq War veteran was formerly a 82nd Airborne Division LRSD “Lurp”(Long Range Surveillance Detachment) . Likewise, his protagonist, Jedediah Shaw, is a former paratrooper and an Iraq War veteran with his own rucksack full of demons.

Shaw returns to the small East Texas town he calls home and an oft times tumultuous relationship with Abigail, the girl he previously left behind to go off and fight “his” war. But, like a lot of returning vets have realized, it was easier carrying an M-4 and door kicking in Baghdad than it is returning  to “normal” life and handling the everyday demands of civilian life as a husband and a college student.

Despite heartfelt promises he made himself in the desert , or maybe  because of them, he finds himself leading a life of quiet desperation, working as muscle for a local bondsman.

Running down bail jumpers doesn’t quite pay the bills though and he soon finds himself mired by debt and looking for a way out. And of course someone makes him an offer.  Good money for a simple task, or so he tells himself.  The evil-doing rich scion of a local dynasty contacts Jeb. He wants his old high school classmate to find his sister and return her home.

Click Here to keep Reading – BOOKS: And the Rain Came Down by S. A. Bailey >>>

{ 32 comments }

CIVILIAN CONTRACTORS: The Bag Dump – 30 Extra Minutes of Packing Will Save You From 30 Months in a Middle Eastern Prison

by James G · 28 comments

in 3rd WORLD TRAVEL,Civilian Contractors

What item in this suitcase will end with you getting man-raped in a 3rd world prison?

NOTE: This info is not just for Civilian Contractors – anyone who travels internationally should read this

So gents – What is the difference between a spent piece of 9mm brass or an EOTECH and an M-60?

According to many customs agencies in the 3rd world [and even some 1st world countries] there is absolutely zero difference between a single 9mm brass and a Bazooka.

Yep, if you get caught with something as simple as a Fore Grip for an M-4 in your bag when traveling through parts of the 3rd world you will go to prison for smuggling a firearm into the country.

And more than likely due to a combination of your nationality [infidel], occupation [murdering mercenary], the misguided belief that all Westerners are rich [you can pay a fat bribe] and local laws that were written by some guy with a 3rd grade education – you will spend months or years and every penny you and your family has fighting the local Sharia courts.

And that’s if you are lucky.

If you get cut a “break” by the local authorities then you will only spend 2 months [and no doubt all of your money] in some 3rd world shit-hole jail.

If you are not so “lucky” then you will be in jail surrounded by people who hate you because of your nationality with no end in sight like one Security Contractor I know who is currently in a Middle Eastern prison for unknowingly having something in his bag that was considered a firearm.

And if you think your company will help you – well Buster, think again. They may feign like they are helping you for the first 30 days because they are legally responsible for you [because most U.S. based Contractors cannot fire you until you are MIA for a month]. But after those thirty days is up they will stop answering your calls and throw you to the wolves.

And I am not talking about going through some 3rd world customs with a shit-load of tactical gear and firearms accessories like what happened to Nicholas Moody. Most of us now know now that you cannot travel with all that shit anymore.

What I am talking about is something that you did not purposely pack, some little thing that either fell into your bag or is so small that you didn’t even know it was there.
Click Here To Learn How To Do a Proper Bag Dump >>>

{ 28 comments }

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →