Breakdown: Mark Carter, Early LRRP Equipment in the Vietnam War.
- Jack Northam
- Jul 7, 2025
- 8 min read
Mark Carter was in LRP Detachment (Provisional) 173rd ABN BDE 1965-1966 from November 1965 till September 1966 and his experience and photos taken by him shows the doctrine, equipment and mission.
Weapons:
Mark Carter was equipped primarily with an early spec. XM16E1, discernable from later production XM16E1s (Later the M16A1) , what is most visible on the weapon is the camouflage cloth tape in abstract patterns. This is a very common modification with almost all recon and SOF outfits during the war. On his pistol-grip is paracord, in his illustration (Below) he notes it being an “emergency sling” doctrine with recon units was to remove the sling from your rifle as it could make unneeded noise and more importantly get caught on the dense shrubbery and foliage. Carter also mentions carrying an M3A1 Grease Gun, liking it for the 30 round magazine but it also had its shortfallings such as its safety. Carters also tested using a French MAT-49 but dropped it because of its magazines being time consuming to load and low power 9mm.
Also noted in his illustration is the taped muzzle seen with recon units. Coming into contact later coined the term ‘Breaking Tape’ as when you start shooting your adhoc muzzle cover for keeping dirt, dust, leaves and other foreign objects out was broken from firing. cover for keeping dirt, dust, leaves and other foreign objects out was broken from firing.
Carter mentions a .38 Colt Detective Special revolver being kept on his person although being optional. And said to have carried around 50 rounds of .38 Wadcutters presumably for short range power.
Close-Quarters Carter drew a “Survival Knife” ,but from the photos it shows a MK2 Fighting Knife “Ka-Bar”. A common choice with recon men and can be seen sported throughout the war. And a Fairbairn-Sykes fighting knife on his trouser belt.
Web Gear and Equipment
Equipment during the period of 1965-1966 for LRP Recon was pretty standard across most units and was adjusted to the user’s comfort.
Carter wears a load of two first pattern M1956 Universal Small Arms Ammunition Pouch Both holding four 20 round M16 magazines. Saddled on the side of each pouch is one colored M18 smoke grenade for signaling and One M7A3 CS gas grenade used for evasion tactics when running or dropping it on your webgear if you had to run or swim and kept extra ammunition in his pockets and boxed ammunition in his rucksack. Next to his left-hand pouch is his MK2 fighting knife with a signaling flare taped to it. In the middle of his vertical weave M1956 Pistol belt, is an early style two-quart bladder canteen interestingly the cover is not seen on his belt so it is presumed he kept it in his rucksack or a cargo pocket.
Rucksack
The common rucksack for recon men during this time period was the CISO rucksack or commonly referred to as the ‘Indigenous Rucksack’ , this certain one he has appears to be a green colored one with later type non-roller buckles. The shoulder straps have been taped for comfort.
Contents
He carries a plastic canteen in the left outer pocket, with an iodine tablet container taped to the yoke. And in the passage he wrote about his gear for existence he mentioned he kept an extra tee-shirt in a condom, and two to three pairs of socks in condoms. A lightweight poncho (This is the rubberized one not the heavyweight cotton 1950s poncho or the CISO lightweight poncho issued later) the metallic looking envelopes are Japanese patrol rice rations with dried fish, mutton, and peppers were seen commonly with recon men and SOG during this time frame and a PRC-25 Radio. For comfort and anti environment gear it looks like he has two bottles of insect repellent foot powder or sun cream (?) bandages, and lip balm. For weapons and related equipment he kept a few boxes of 5.56 boxed ammunition and a claymore bag with two M18A1 Claymores, an amount of PETN detonation cord, blasting caps, and an M57 electrical firing device or ‘Clacker’. What can also be seen is weapon maintenance gear is a shaving brush, a cotton rag, weapon oil, and a plastic bag to retain them. And a “Swiss Seat” Rope hanging off the pack.
Uniform and Related Attire
Recon men and SOF were limited on their choices of uniforms at the time. Almost all would be wearing Tiger Stripe fatigues coming from Japan and other SEA nations.
Regarding footwear, it's most likely Carter would have had 2nd Pattern Jungle boots. These can be identified by the lack of reinforcement on the ankle area
In Carter’s layout it is shown he has a jungle hat commonly referred to as a cowboy hat from its style and it’s button closure that you can fold the ears up with. This was one was made in a camouflage parachute material that coincidentally all of Carter’s equipment is laying on.
Pocket Trash
Carter carried the typical Escape & Evasion (E&E) gear such as a pen flare, signal mirror, VS-17 GVX signaling panel. Carter also notes he had one in his hat, which i’m assuming he had ‘mama-san’ sew fluorescent orange material into (most likely) his tiger stripe camouflage boonie that he is seen wearing
Final Comments.
Overall this is an excellent photo taken by an early LRP Recon man in a notable unit and shows the average equipment of an LRP man early in their history and I am glad I was able to break down his gear for Vintage Forces.
Sources Cited:
J. Anthony Photos
Mark Carter (Himself in a Quora Post)
Jack Northam
Vintage Forces
2025
(See last Page for full text from Carter)
"I carried 12 magazines in three ammo pouches, plus one magazine in my upper fatigue jacket, and one in each upper thigh pocket of my jungle fatigues. I also had a bandolier with six loaded magazines that I sometimes took with me, or an ammo pouch for the WWII BAR, which carried an additional 25 magazines. I didn’t usually take the last two items on a patrol. In my rucksack, I carried three or four boxes of extra ammo. I never actually had to use them. Our practice was to try to not fire off the last couple of rounds in a magazine, and drop it into the front of our fatigue jackets. If we used up our magazines, we’d still have ammo left without having to ask Mr. Charles to wait a minute while we reloaded out magazines. In other news, I carried a 38 caliber revolver loaded with wadcutters and a small bag of extra ammo for it. Now that pistol isn’t very impressive in a gunfight, but my theory was, if I had to use it, I would be hiding in the brush and out of ammo for my rifle, and some unlucky guy would be stepping over me when I pulled the trigger. Oh, and by that time I’m pretty sure I would have blown off both my claymores, too. Anyhow, I never actually ever ran out of ammo, so I didn’t get to test these theories. You should know that I was on a LRRP team, not in a rifle company. The guys in rifle companies ran through all their ammo more or less regularly." "We used GI tape (duct tape, actually) to break up the outline of our rifles. The tape also helped to deaden the sound of brush rubbing against the hollow forearms of the weapons. Also, we had an earlier version of the M-16, which had a three-pronged flash suppressor. The suppressor grabbed twigs and vines when we moved through dense brush. We put tape over the flash suppressor to avoid that. Making contact was called “breaking tape” because that’s what happened when you pull the trigger." "we wrapped a few feet of suspension line around our pistol grips just in case we needed a makeshift sling (when being yanked up through the trees on a swiss seat, for example). We took off our slings and sling swivels to keep them from making sounds. Also, the suspension line would come in handy, so the theory went, in case we wanted to tie up a prisoner. Somehow that never came up, though. They didn’t call us the six silent men for nothing. Well, we did sometimes make a lot of noise, but we preferred to keep quiet. Like I always say, you can’t have too many grenades." "I carried an M-16 most of the time. I tried out two other weapons. One was the M-3 Grease gun, a .45 caliber weapon that used a 30-round magazine. I liked it for some reasons, disliked it for others. The bolt had a fixed firing pin; the weapon was blowback operated. That meant that if you carried it with the bolt cocked, there was no safety other than the dust cover. You had to open the dust cover to shoot. Or, you had to carry it with the bolt closed, without a round in the chamber. Carrying it with the bolt cocked and the dust cover opened was the same as having a live round chambered and the safety off—not a good thing to do while walking through dense jungle. Also, the magazines were a pain in the butt to reload, and I could only scrounge up five of them for my weapon. I liked the slow rate of fire, and it was accurate as hell at fifty yards or so. The bullets fled downrange in a tight pattern, and you could see them without using tracers. All in all, I like it, but it wasn’t feasible for me. The other weapon I tried was the MAT-49. It was a French submachine gun, 9mm. I had similar problems reloading its 30-round magazine, and I didn’t feel that the 9mm ammo was better than the 5.56 round for the M-16. Another factor was the resupply of ammo. We had team kits set up, and in theory, we could resupply our team with water and ammo in an emergency by dropping these loads to us out of helicopters. Another consideration was that if team members had non-standard ammo requirements, resupplying them could be confusing. But in reality, emergencies were settled either by running like hell, helicopter extraction, or air/artillery strikes." "Somebody below mentioned condoms: these were for socks and a dry T-shirt. What a man carried depended on his unit and its mission. I was in a LRRP outfit. Our whole kit was different, except maybe for what we carried on our web gear. My H-harness had two canteens and two extra canteen covers that each held five M-26 frags, two ammo pouches, each with five 20-round mags. Each ammo pouch had one smoke grenade and one CS grenade. We used an indigenous rucksack, frameless, with three outside pockets. In it, I carried two claymores and a clacker detonator. Sometimes I carried a one-gallon water bag in my rucksack. One of the outside pockets had two or three M-26 frags. Inside, I carried a lightweight poncho and a reddish ground cloth. I had two or three condoms with dry socks, and sometimes I carried an extra T-shirt in a condom. If you want a glimpse of heaven, get up some morning in the middle of a trackless jungle after having sloshed through a swamp the night before, and put on a pair of dry socks. All in all, I carried 20 loaded magazines and a couple more boxes of ammo for my M-16. I carried a 38 detective special and about 50 rounds of wadcutters in a plastic bag in my thigh pocket. I carried another grenade in the other thigh pocket, where I also carried my map. I carried a notebook and a pen, a compass, and three rice bags for each day we planned to be out. I should point out here that, in my mind, you can't have too many grenades. I carried two knives—a sykes dagger and a US navy survival knife. I also carried a Pencil Flare device and five flares of various colors (except green and red—you do not shoot up a green or red flare where a door gunner might see it. Any grunt can tell you why).
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