 Hey everyone, Dylan Schumacher, Citadel Defense, and today we're gonna talk about having a gear system. Welcome back to the American Minute Man series. And if you've been following this series, this is kind of where I've started to make a change in the way that I primarily think about my battle gear. Before this, I traditionally did the plates with the belt and just the mags and frags, basically thing, right? Where you just got mags and medical and you're just going in to kick in doors. And I didn't really have any kind of sustainment type gear on there. Things like water, which are important. Band-aids, food, you know, just stuff to like sustain you in the field for the next eight to 12 hours. I didn't have any of that on my kit. And so this series has kind of been borne out of that shift in my thinking. So with that, I've really kind of at this point landed on a version and that's all it is. It's a version, it'll probably change in the future because as you know, you're always tinkering with your kit, but a version of a gear system. And I think it's important to think about your gear in systems rather than just like, oh, that's a cool piece, I should own that. And oh, that's a cool piece, I should own that. And none of it really fits. Now, chances are the gear that you do own does fit into some kind of hodge podge system because that's how this stuff is kind of made, right? You have a belt and then you have like a chest rig or plates and so there's a system there. However, when it comes to the American Minuteman, just you and your buddies being ready to defend against when China invades and you have to go full red dawn, having a well thought out intentional gear system with just a handful of pieces is gonna allow you to conquer most situations. I heard it said once that mission drives the gear train and I think that's brilliant and I will continue to say that and steal that. It's not mine originally, but you're gonna hear me say it a lot because I think that's important when thinking about your system. With just a handful of pieces, you can really have options to address a variety of situations. And that's what we're trying to solve with the gear system. So again, this is just my version, your version I'm sure will vary and you can do what you want, it's your kit. However, this video is here to help you think about and help you understand about thinking of your gear in a system and not just cool pieces here and there, but how does it all meld together to give you the most options with the fewest pieces possible and allow you to address all your issues? So that's what we're gonna do. I'm gonna show you my current gear system right now and we can go from there. Hopefully this is helpful and it sparks some thoughts and imagination for you. Okay, so this is my gear system currently. I'm gonna try to walk through here and explain these pieces briefly just so you can kind of understand how they all fit together. But this is the current iteration of my gear system. So the first piece and the center piece is my webbing. So this is what I would grab if you were to say, hey Dylan, I need your help, I'll be over in five minutes, bye. This is what I would throw on. It gives me enough medical bullets, sustainment gear, whatever, to live and fight for the next eight to 12 hours. Okay, it's important that you're gonna note that it rides on suspenders and that my back is clean, okay? That's an important thing to know here. I do have a video on this belt earlier in the channel. That was an earlier iteration. This is a later iteration, but that's kind of where things stand right now, okay? So this is kind of the center piece of my whole system. Paired with that, I have my three day pack, okay? Again, earlier in this series, we talked about packs and I used actually this pack over here, this 24 hour pack, but I've upgraded to this. This is the Crossfire DG3. I'll eventually do a video on this, but I just want some more time on the pack before I do that. But basically this is enough stuff to live, breathe, fight for the next three days, right? I have food, I have water, I have sleeping gear, I have extra clothing in here now because it's winter, I have extra medical, I have all the stuff to try to sustain myself for the next three days in this pack here, right? So obviously you can put your webbing on, you can put the backpack on and you're good to go, right? If you're gonna be doing a lot of movement, a lot of walking, a lot of hiking, whatever, this is a lot of patrolling. This is what I would pair, right? So that's, you see how that system comes together. All right, so the next piece of gear that's worth noting in the system is this is a chest rig. This is the Haley Strategic Chest Rig. This is their original with this useless pouch up front. They've since gotten rid of those. But here's my thought here with the chest rig. The chest rig, of course, is gonna be another four rounds or four mags of AR and these little GP pouches. The nice thing about the chest rig and how it pairs in here is if I didn't wanna wear plates but I wanted to carry more mags, I could easily throw that over the top of my webbing, right? And or if I didn't wanna bring my webbing because I was just gonna be walking through the woods for a couple of days trying to recon, trying to be super sneaky, I could just wear the chest rig and then pair it with my backpack. So I can dump all of this weight, just carry enough to sustain the rifle, right? And maybe some medical and then I can carry the backpack. So that's gonna be a way to pair that system. This will allow me to replace my standard webbing with paired with the pack or plus up my standard webbing or I can plus up my webbing and bring the pack and now I can start adding on pieces. So again, you see how that pairs together. The next piece of my system is armor. Again, you know, we're talking about in general sustainment type year but there are times when you don't wanna wear armor. If I'm ever going into an urban area or I'm going into some kind of direct action thing or whatever, I'm gonna want armor. So it's nice to be able to have an armor set that again, I can pair with my webbing. If I want to throw armor over my webbing because these are low profile straps, the armor can just go right over the top of the webbing. That's not a big deal. I can either keep or attach this placard of extra mags. I do have a knife attached on here right now but that can be removed. And I do keep medical permanently attached to this because you can never have too many high facts. So worst case scenario, I guess I'd double up on my high facts. But my point being that you can easily pair the armor with the webbing system, right? There's no reason you couldn't just grab your webbing throw this right over and boom, you're set to go. Additionally, this backpack does have a built in pocket specifically for the armor. So that pack is supposed to ride easier when you're wearing armor. So again, it's melding in with the system. The other piece here that I have in this overall system is a 24 hour pack. This used to be my main pack, like a set of since upgraded to a larger pack. I keep the 24 hour pack around because if I was going to do shorter range missions and or vehicle operations, and I just wanted like a go bag that if I needed to grab and get out of the vehicle I could grab, this would be the bag I'd use. And I would mine off my three day pack, right? Cause you can't carry these at the same time. So I would take what I need out of here. I'd put it in here, I'd put my mags, my water, couple extra clothes, whatever it is, food that I'm gonna be bringing. And I'd put it in this 24 hour pack and then this would ride my vehicle. And then if you ever had to bail out of the vehicle I'd grab this and go. And or if I was doing more urban stuff where it's gonna be shorter range duration this would probably my go to pack. So this stands in as a quasi replacement for this pack in certain situations. And again, I don't keep it full, I don't keep it loaded because if I need it I'm gonna take off my main pack to fill this. And then the last piece that I have in here is just my battle belt, right? This is a Warrior Poet Society battle belt. And this one, again, this I'm thinking for more urban operations, direct action type stuff. So it's a traditional setup, right? With a couple pistol mags, couple rifle mags. My pistol, my pistol is not on my Bane battle rattle. My pistol here and a flashlight. I keep the back totally clean because this is designed to be paired with the armor. In the event I'm gonna do some kind of direct action stuff. And I know I'm gonna be urban or I know I'm gonna be in a vehicle and that's what I'm doing. Then I'm probably gonna grab this belt, pair it with this, and take my 24 hour pack and most of my sustainment type gear at that point will be based out of the vehicle. Then I won't have to necessarily carry it on my person. So that's it. That's my current iteration of my gear system. And again, the idea here is that you would think about your system and you would think about how you wanna pair your stuff together. And with just a few pieces here, I mean I have one, two, three, four, five, six. I have six pieces total. And I'm able to cover just about everything I can think of and I would have some options to move in and out and they can layer and pair with each other quite well. So think about your gear in that sense and as an American Minuteman, remember you have to provide everything you need. You don't have the huge corporation of the United States military behind you. So think about how you want to layer and pair your gear so that the pieces are compatible with each other so that you can swap things in and out. I hope that's helpful. I hope that sparks some thoughts. Do brave deeds, end in doing it.