 Sometimes you need to be armored up. Hey everyone, Dylan Schumacher, Citadel Defense, and today we are going to talk about body armor. As part of your Minuteman kit, you should have some kind of body armor. Now, earlier in the series, we discussed having a gear system and making sure all of your pieces are compatible. So for this, I have two plate carriers kind of currently set up. One of them's not really set up at all, as you'll see, but you could realistically get away with one. I just happen to have two, so I keep two set up, but you could definitely just do this with one, like this one, as I will demonstrate. So the first rig that I'm just gonna go through is this one, and this one, like I said, is not set up at all, and what I mean is, I keep it slick. I keep it completely slick. This is an AR-500 Testido plate carrier that I spray painted a while ago. I stole the cumberbund off a Spartan Armor Systems, so it has all these pockets in here with bungees, so you can fit stuff like mags in these little pockets on the side, like so. So you can run your mags and through the cumberbund like that if you desire. Like I said, I keep this one completely slick on both the front and the back because my thought here is this way, I have a completely slick plate carrier that I can throw on over my webbing if I want. It doesn't have anything else on it. I'm just having my webbing and my sustainment gear, and then I just happen to need armor so I can throw this on. That way it keeps it extremely light, which I like. I will say that on this carrier, I did put the AR-500 kangaroo pouch in here, so there is a bungee slot for three different magazines up front, so I can get three across if I wanted to put three more mags on here, just for extra carry capacity. But like I said, my goal here is to keep it slick, and then plus it up as needed. My second plate carrier system has a dual purpose. So this plate carrier system I have designed to function both as a standalone, meaning paired with the normal battle belt for the cool guy go fast thing. And then I've also been able to slick it down as needed to pair with my webbing system. So if I want, of course, I can just dump this placard, and now I'm able to throw this on and save weight. I'll still keep the IFAC, this is mullied in, and I'll still keep the blade, this is mullied in. I do have an IFAC and a blade on my webbing, so that ends up being a double, which again is why I keep the second plate carrier if I just want to go totally slick. This placard is a Mayflower placard, four mags across the front, three pouches. Right now I keep a set of handcuffs in the front pouch, middle pouch is empty, and then over here I have a ranger band. Middle pouch actually has the key for the handcuffs because you're gonna need that. So that can come on and off the rig as is appropriate. I do have a blade on here, this is the SRK blade, I still got the gel on it from the original manufacturer, you can sell, I haven't wiped that off or really used this for anything, but that is on here. For that blade, if you've seen my tactical trick video, this is actually mullied to a malice light clip, and then I use the malice light clip in order to weave through the webbing, so that tends to be a better attachment system I've found. Also up here I have an IFAC, this is a Dark Angel Medical Kit. Highly recommend the Dark Angel Medical Kit, it's a huge fan, I have one on my webbing and then I have one on here as well. Moving around towards the back, so this is a ACU IFAC pouch that I dyed with apple green, turned out a little bit brighter than I wanted, but better than just the traditional UCP. That stays empty, again this is just an empty general purpose pouch, I will eventually put another one of those on the side back here as well. I have come to realize the value of having empty pouches on your rig because it allows you that flexibility to be able to plus things up or not. So one of the things I've definitely learned during this American Minuteman Trek that we've been on is the value of empty pouches. So I keep this pouch intentionally empty so that I can fill it with at needed items, be it a smoke grenade or a flashbang or food or water or an extra IFAC or whatever, this just sits here to serve as a general purpose pouch. I can't access it super well because it is in that awkward place kind of right behind your arm, so I would need a buddy in order to access that if I wanted to keep the carrier on. Moving around towards the back of the plate carrier here, this is a, off Amazon I think it's Elite Spanker, is the product company, some off brand Chinese label thing that actually is pretty good. Just one big pouch here that opens like the kind of top quarter, then it's a big empty sack, nothing in there. This right here opens for a water bladder, so I can stuff a water bladder in there. And then this bottom pouch here, this again opens that top quarter. In here they have a little mesh divider, but other than that it's pretty empty. Again, I keep this pouch empty and I keep this whole thing empty so that I can throw in here what I need when I need it. If that's more water because I'm just gonna use this with my battle belt or if it's some extra sustainment gear like my nods or something like that, whatever that I would need, if I'm going out, I'm gonna pack this quick and then put it on and go. This intentionally stays empty so that if I were to be doing vehicle stuff, it's not gonna be riding against my back or whatever, or I could throw an assault pack over it if I wanted. Again, there is value in having extra pouches that stay empty and that's kind of been my guiding principle with this rig, this iteration. I will like I said, eventually get that other pouch here and there's nothing else on my left side. If I didn't mention already, this chest rig or this plate carrier here is the AR-500 Armor Testido plate carrier, excuse me. Big fan of it, I've had it for a while, I really like it. So that's it, that's how I've set up this armor. Again, it's thinking in terms of systems and making sure your gear is compatible with your other gear and that's what's really driven this plate carrier setup this year. Hope that's helpful, do brave deeds and endure.