[r9etb]

Note the pistol -- stage prop, or does he figure he oughtta be packing?

[Frank_Discussion]

Do you think that particular sidearm looks HUGE on the man? Is he a tiny fella, or what?

[Prodigal Son]

Note the pistol -- stage prop, or does he figure he oughtta be packing?

You never know. Maybe he just walked up to the podium and announced:

"I am Ricardo Sanchez and I have the fastest 9 Mill in Baghdad!"

(in the background we hear that Clint Eastwood/Sergio Leone spaghetti western music...)

[El Gato]

Note the pistol -- stage prop, or does he figure he oughtta be packing?

I suspect it's standing orders for all personell in the area to be armed, and he's just setting a good example for the other troops.

[Uncle Jaque]

Re. the pistol the General packs in his brandy-new just-issued shoulder holster rig;

No doubt it is genuitne "heat", and over there where any USGI is fair game for the Islammonazies, packing is in order!

It looks as if there might be a grip safety on that sidearm, and I don't think that the current regulation PC/NATO 9mm Beretta has one of those, does it?

Perhaps being a General who has "seen the Elephant" a time or two, he has the option of packing a REAL fighting handgun; the venerable old M-1911-A1 .45!

There was a time when Soldiers took care of their leather gear... but I guess they pretty much got over it, eh?

That holster is likely as stiff as cardboard, will get dirty in no time flat (and probably be discarded for another new one) and if exposed to any elements would crack and/or rot in no time flat (unlikely for a General Officer I suppose).

And those GI shoulder rigs are not famous for a smooth, speedy draw under the best of conditions; raw and dry they can get pretty tight and binding I would think.
Let it get wet, and good luck getting your weapon clear of it in a timely fasion at all.

I bought one at a yard sale, actually, missing some of it's straps, and converted it into a crossdraw belt rig.
Slathered with HUBERD'S Boot Grease, of course.

Somewhere on the internet someone has posted some of the old recipes for leather treatments used by the US Cavalry back in the early 1900s (AKA "The BrownBoots Army") - neatsfoot oil, pine tar (natural antifungal agent), beeswax etc. and they would probably work as well now as they did then to make working leather soft, supple, and durable. Not to mention that dark, soft, warm and rich chestnut color that well treated leather takes on.