 So there's always some more things to think about. Hello everyone, Dylan Schumacher, Citadel Defense, and I made a video about a week or two ago about chest rigs, and I, in that video, made an argument for why they're the best piece of general low bearing equipment for the American Minuteman. If you haven't seen that, you can always go back and watch it. I'm making this video because one of the comments that someone left, and I apologize, but I forgot who left it, left a comment, something to the effect of like, I like to get prone, right, and wear my LBE. So they wear the traditional suspenders with the belt, you know, and they keep their front clean so that there's nothing between their body and the earth so they can get as low as possible and be prone. And that got me thinking a little bit. Now, to be fair, in that video, I don't think I listed going prone as one of the semi-cons for a chest rig, right? Because you got like, you know, two, three inches of divide here between you and the ground. Now, can you get prone to chest rig? Yes, absolutely. I've done it, thousands of people have done it. It can be done. Is it as comfortable or effective as it could be if this two or three inches wasn't here? Well, no, of course not, right? Like, the less stuff you have on your front, the better to get prone. But where that got me thinking was when it comes to chest rigs and American fighting styles and understanding historically how Americans fight. Here's what I mean. For example, there's a gun teacher who I follow and I respect, I've read a couple of books, really like him a lot. And one of the things that he says that I disagree with categorically is we do not teach the prone position because the prone position is not an assault position. And so that, I bring that up because I think that is a perfect summation of the American style of fighting. The American style of fighting is very upright, right? I'm gonna stand up. I'm gonna walk through my assault through, right? I'm gonna be standing. I'm gonna be upright and fighting. Versus, for example, more Eastern traditions, like I think about Japan being a great example during World War II, they're prone. And Vietnam, also a great example, they will, the enemy in Vietnam, not us, they will crawl up to positions, right? They'll crawl under wire, not under flares and machine gun fire and smoke, but like dead at night, blackout, no cover, and that's how they're sneaking, right? They're sneaking close in the prone. The Japanese were famous for crawling into people's foxholes at night and cutting them up and leaving body parts and mouths and things like that, right? Like, there's a certain different tactic or I wanna say aesthetic, but that's not the right word. Aesthetic would be the word I'm trying to say, but still not the right word. It's a different way of thinking about it, right? And America traditionally, we don't do that. We typically don't crawl to sneak. We don't do that. We're gonna send lots of firepower, you know, helicopters and artillery and mortars and machine guns and flares and, I mean, the whole nine yards and with that, that's gonna be our cover, right? We're gonna use that to dominate to the opposition and then that way we can move through upright, right? And American tactics involve a lot of yelling and standing and running and like, there's a lot of like aggression. That's how we fight. We're traditionally very aggressive in your face kind of people and that carries over to how we fight, right? Every culture in history has a fighting style. For good or ill, they have one. And ours is that. It's quasi-barbarian. It's kind of like Rome meets the barbarians where it's very in your face, it's very aggressive and it's very upright. And that's one of the reasons that chest rigs traditionally work for the American soldier, right? Because all my equipment's on the front. Not a big deal if I'm standing or kneeling the whole time, right? But when you go prone, things change. Now, do I think one, that's the best tactic for American men in general? No, absolutely not. Why? Because you don't have all the firepower, right? It's that simple. You don't have the resources to have all the firepower to be able to do those stand up maneuvers all the time. You just don't. And if you do, hey, God bless you. That's pretty awesome. But because you don't have that, you likely, if things ever get weird, are gonna have to adopt more Eastern style tactics. And by that, I mean the sneaking and the crawling to sneak and the going in the dead of the night kind of thing. Like very stealth replacing firepower. And John Poole talks about that if you've ever read any of his books, but that's a great summation of the concept. So when it comes to that, okay, so sneaking being a better general strategy tactic, however you wanna classify that for the American Minuteman, not standing upright, chest rigs were designed for upright, does that mean, therefore, that the chest rig is still the best thing for the American Minuteman? And I would still say yes. And a lot of that revolves around vehicles. I just think vehicles are so central, so important, so involved, so woven in and out of life in general and any kind of combat stuff that because of that, chest rigs become a really big deal and they give you the most versatility. Like I said in the last video, chest rigs don't, I don't think do anything just super well, but they're 85% across the board. And I'm gonna take that, 85% at crawling and being comfortable in the vehicle and being able to go on a foot patrol and being able to throw it over a plate carrier. Like there's just, there's a lot going on there, right? And so because they're so versatile, because they're that 85% number across the board, I'm still gonna take the chest rig. However, I fully understand my brethren in arms who wanna go with the LBE thing and I get you and I hear you and I think that's a valid point. And I think what we all need to do is just consider, okay, mission drives a gear train. I think we can all agree to that. So if that, if you can't, well, this might not be the right channel for you. So if that's the case, right? That's the case and we know our mission is more sneaky. You can evaluate, well, is the chest rig still the best thing? Like I said, my answer is yes for all the reasons that I've given, but it might not be for you. And you know, unless you're rolling with me and we have a standard SOP, it's not a big deal because it's your kid, you can do whatever you want with it. So I just wanted to bring that up for some historical context, some thought. I think it's important to go deep to the foundations on this stuff. Maybe that's just the way I'm wired. Maybe you enjoy that. Again, if you don't, probably not the channel for you. But I think that it's important to take a step back every once in a while and take a look at it and say, okay, why am I choosing this gear? What am I trying to accomplish? Where does this gear come from historically? Why was it designed originally? Is it's original intent? The only thing it's valid for? Or can I still shoehorn it to do something else that's gonna be effective for me and my needs? And understanding that and thinking about that, even if you land at the same place, which I have, I think it still gives you a really good understanding of why you're doing what you're doing and it's gonna help you understand and solve your problem better. And I think that's why it's important to go on these little thought exercise journeys every once in a while. So I hope that's helpful. I hope you enjoyed the ride. Do brave deeds and endure.