ALICE
What to take and how to take it always challenges anyone going anywhere.
When people wander around outside their usual habitation, or away from their usual base of operations they often want to carry something with them. If there is a vehicle or someone else to do the carrying, let it be that way. When no other transporter is available, it’s best to know what to carry and how to carry it.
Packing requirements of modern soldiers, or hunters, or people who want to get away to commune with nature have some things in common. They want to be able to carry with them items that will enhance their ability to survive and their ability to do some difficult tasks. Sustained effort in hostile territory requires having a number of items to maintain life and to perform some desired operations
During the Viet Nam War the US Army struggled to define what sort of pack the soldiers should have and what they should put in the pack. That War in the jungles of Southeast Asia was nearly over before engineers in the Army with a contractor, Natick Laboratories, settled on the best kinds of packs. These workers called their product the All-Purpose Lightweight Individual Carrying Equipment or ALICE. There was a large ALICE, a medium ALICE, and a small ALICE.
Every ALICE pack consists of a belt and suspenders each with snaps, grommets, and other devices with which attachments can be made. A variety of pouches, holsters, straps, and perhaps some framework attach to the belt and suspenders, depending the sort of action the user anticipates. The suspenders are Y shaped with three adjusting straps and four points of attachment to the individual equipment belt. The suspenders have padding to enhance comfort and straps to assist in attaching extra ammunition cases. Proper design of these suspenders has been a major concern in all succeeding versions of ALICE.
The pack with all its attachments must not interfere with the free use of arms and legs. The wearer must be able to walk, maybe run, to scramble, to hide, and perform a variety of tasks while not losing the vital materials being carried in the pack. The pack itself must be sturdy, yet light. It must not be an added hazard to the wearer. The contents of the pack must be easily accessible and usable. The snaps and other connections must be sturdy, virtually unbreakable, yet easy to operate. There must be a good way to discard the pack, and then retrieve it later, if necessary.