13. Personal Hydration System: "Water is one of the things you always need to make sure you have," said Seaman Hugo Lara, a Navy corpsman. "Instead of struggling to get your canteens out, the cord is there within your reach. Plus it holds more water as well."
14.Watch with Compass: "You get calls where you have to lay down suppressing fire in a certain direction and instead of wasting time to ask which way is north or south, you can just look at your wrist," said Lance Cpl. Lonny Kelly, a machine gunner. "Knowing the time is important because everyone pulls shifts for guard duty or standing post."
15. AA Batteries: "You use them for your NVGs and handheld radios - both of which contribute to more effective fighting," said Cpl. Bryan Morales, 1st squad 1st fire team leader. "You wouldn't want either of those items dying on you, so having a spare set of batteries around is very important."
16. Poncho & Poncho Liner: "The temperature at night is extremely different from the day," said Lance Cpl. Jonathan Etterling, machine gun team leader. "If you don't have some sort of protection at night, you end up freezing because you're cammies are still damp from sweating during the day."
17. Ballistic Goggles: "I was the (assistant) driver of one of our convoys and we got hit by an (improvised explosive device)," said Lance Cpl. Anthony Johnson, an assault man. "Shrapnel bounced off of my glasses, saving my vision."
18. Multipurpose Portable Tool Kit: "It's like carrying a combat knife, hammer and screwdriver in one hand," said Lance Cpl. Evan Fernandez, an assault man. "Cutting open MREs, cleaning your weapon, tightening screws on your gear; it has a thousand uses."
19. Carabineers: "Anything that you might have to grab at a moments notice, you don't want to be digging through your pockets to try and find it," said Pfc. Jason Kurtz, a SAW gunner. "With these you can attach anything to your flak and have right at your fingertips."
20. High Powered Flashlight: "It does wonders," said Cpl. Chris Williams, 2nd squad, 1st fire team leader. "After you throw a fragmentation grenade into a room it's difficult to see because of all the dust floating around. No one can hide from them."
