My Security System

In my continuing efforts to relate day to day life here in the IZ I thought that I should explain a bit about the pistol that I spoke of yesterday, or more acurately the pistol belt that I wear.

When I first got to the IZ I only had my M4 which didn't lend itself to office work which is most of what I do. I then discovered that I had the unique oportunity to get myself an M9 pistol to replace the M4 rifle. After realizing that stuffing the M9 in my pockets probably wasn't the best course of action I went to the PX and got myself the pistol belt you see here.


The belt didn't come in one piece as you see it here though. It came in 4 seperate parts that I put together to custom fit my needs. The 4 pieces are as follows

1. the actual belt
2. the pistol holster
3. the lanyard
4. magazine holders (x2)

Some guys prefer to wear a shoulder rig, but I find that it's very impractical in body armor so I opted for a drop-leg rig. I also wear it over the belt I use to hold my pants up. I find that it's much more convienient to just wrap the belt around my waist than to feed it through the belt loops.

You'll also notice the large wood-handled knife that runs along the belt loop of the holster. This is my first gift for my son. It's an authentic Iraqi imitation AK-47 bayonet with "CCCP AK 47" stamped on the blade that I inscribed his name on and the Arabic word for "son". I figured it would be a cool gift for a young boy, something his dad carried with him in Iraq. Hopefully it will become a family heirloom some day.

This then is my personal security system. Every day I strap this to my leg before I go to the office and every now and then I get to show the inscription on the knife to people who think I'm trying to be an office Rambo.