That comment struck me: so why hasn't he been a soldier? Is it only the duty of a few? Is this generation that soft and unmanly?
This stuff is all common sense - if the writer had even been camping over a weekend, he would have understood the need for most of that stuff. All the rest are just implements of the trade.
One other comment - don't the Brits carry grenades? We always carried as many as we could. They tend to be very useful in awkward social situations.
Speaking only for myself, I tried to enlist three times; was rejected every time, and it darn near killed my old man (a one star with 40 years in). Have about 25db hearing loss in one ear and 40db in the other, a result of an infection when I was 3. Even tried cheating the hearing test, sitting next to someone with good hearing at the Oakland induction center (I scored top two tenths percentile on my ASVAB test). Wanted to fly helicopters and the Army was/is pretty much the only place to learn to do so (other services have choppers, but the Army has many many more.
I still think they made a mistake not taking me, but that’s how it goes.