_STRAC_ "gung-ho, 'GI,' 'SOP,' soldierly, in a military manner," etc.

[Wilson Gray]

On Fri, Dec 23, 2011 at 2:49 PM, Dave Wilton <dave at wilton.net> wrote:
> That sense was still in use when I served in the late 80s.
>
> On Fri, 23 Dec 2011 12:14:10 -0600
> Â Darla Wells <lethe9 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>>When I was in, in the late 70's, strac(k) meant to have your stuff in
>>good
>>military order and to be squared away and ready to go.

Yes, I agree completely that STRAC has *always* had those and similar
meanings. I just wanted to add that that weird,
to-be-worn-around-the-waist-instead-of-carried-on-the-back-in-the-usual-way
webbed gear was, for some reason that I'm unaware of, called "STRAC
gear," back in the early '60's - I got out in '62; the gear was issued
in '61 - when it replaced (temporarily, I hope) what had been SOP.

I never had any occasion to use it. I just stored it on top of my
wall-lockers, as ordered. The two times during my tour when we had a
real, Europe-wide, the-balloon-is-going-up alert, the armorer gave us
each three bandoleers of ammo, a sharpened bayonet, an M-14, with a
full clip plus two extra full clips.

The STRAC gear stayed on top of our wall-lockers. That is, though we
had this gear issued to us, there was no time, IME, that we so much as
touched it after that, except to turn it in when clearing post.

--
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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