Delta Force loadout blues: Bringing the equipment you want on a rapid deployment isn’t always easy.

Every few months a Delta Force squadron found itself on a worldwide alert cycle that lasted a number of months. During the cycle, the squadron had one simple task: be ready to deploy anywhere on the globe and engage an enemy for a set amount of time until resupplies would arrive.

This somewhat put me in mind of Dwight Eisenhower’s single standing order during WWII: “Invade Normandy!” The task was straightforward enough, but the devil was in the details.

If you were given an order to prepare to go anywhere and do anything, what equipment would you want to take with you? Simple answer: EVERYTHING you have!

Everything that Delta has is quite a lot of things, since the operating budget of the Unit is substantial. Transportation, though, was the limiting factor. We were only given so much lift in terms of deployment aircraft, so we were thus restricted to the amount of weight each man could bring.

The amount of time given to us from when the alert sounded to lift off of our deployment aircraft was just a few hours. Success in deployment on the alert cycle was measured by packing up the right amount of equipment in enough time to meet the scheduled lift-off. The feat was daunting, such that we were obliged to practice just the loadout routinely, and keep practicing it until we got it right.

U.S. Army Col. Joshua Gaspard, 173rd Airborne Brigade commander, addresses his troops prior to boarding a C-17 Globemaster III for a jump during Swift Response 25 on the flightline at Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, May 16, 2025. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Joshua T. Crossman)

One of Sergeant Major Vince’s responsibilities was to ensure the each of the men in the squadron met his allotted weight; i.e. that he had everything he was supposed to have without going overweight. And the biggest offender to the overweight scourge was the men trying to smuggle extra ammunition into their ready kit.

We were like gunners aboard B-17 Flying Fortress bombers in WWII. In order to allow for the most appreciable bomb load, all gun stations – and there were eight of them totaling 13 Browning .50 caliber “Ma Deuce” heavy machine guns – were restricted to the amount of rounds of ammunition they could have.

Nevertheless, gunners routinely smuggled extra ammo on board their bombers saying: “Ya just can’t kill enough Germans with the amount of ammo they give us to defend our bombers!” (Quote’s authenticity not guaranteed.)

Squadron SGM Vince had a trick up his sleeve ready for us. He planned yet another no-notice practice alert in the wee hours of the morning to test our ability to make honest weight in the right amount of time in preparation for a worldwide deployment. He would, by this exercise, determine who was who and what was what in the way of offenders of the squadron loadout policy!

Related: How Delta Force operators dealt with a leaky roof in their compound

Weighing our loadouts. (Cartoon courtesy of author)

And so all of our pagers went off at something like 0300hrs local Ft. Bragg time.

We scrambled in as fast as safety would allow us. I played by the rules, so when I got to the Unit, I had mostly everything packed away for alert as was mandatory prior to going home each night. I threw the few odd out items in my already ready kit bag, zipped it up, and dragged it outside to be loaded onto the deployment pallets.

This time there were two scales set up by the pallets and four men detailed to weigh and record all of the ready kit bags. One by one the kit bags were placed on the scales while the detail recorded each bag. Once all of the kit bags were weighed, the SGM called out to his scales detail as we all stood waiting.

“OK, then, that’s all them? Very good… were there any bags that broke the weight restriction this morning?”

“Yes, SGM, in fact there is only one that did not make the maximum weight limit…”

“OK, then, a name… a want the name of the man who violated our weight policy – sound off?”

“The bag belongs to… SGM Vince!”

And yet it happened.

By Almighty God and with Honor,
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Feature Image: Equipment of a Delta Force operator. (Photo courtesy of author)

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