Over the holiday I once again watched the HBO Series Generation Kill.

Throughout the series, a prominent issue, among other things, was a lack of batteries, not only for camcorders, etc, but also for NVGs.

Is this actually a pretty big deal in Afghanistan and Iraq? If so, it is remarkably sad.

Does anyone know? *cough* Phoenix? *cough*

That was more of a unit related issue. But we never really had a problem with it, probably mainly because we never used our NVGs over there. Unless you were a turret gunner.

Also you have to remember that Generation Kill(awesome and very accurate show btw) took place early on in the war when things like batteries weren't as readily available now. The base we were "on" had a few PX stores where we could get batteries. I say "on" because all in all out of the 7 months there we probably spent 2 months on that base, the rest of the time we were on the road or stuck on some nowhere FOB.

I don't see why not. One of the reasons war is becoming increasingly expensive, complicated, and inefficient is because of the increase in logistical resources.

Why do you say it's "quite sad" ?
Batteries are energy resources like anything else, like fuel, like food.
If there is no fuel, the army cannot advance, it's a simple as that.
Although batteries will not completely immobilize the army, they will hamper some capabilities modern soldiers have over their enemy thus lowering their combat capabilities.

Some argue that techology is the deciding factor in war... considering the logistical issues it entails such as re-supply problems for such mundane items like batteries.

Many things use batteries in a modern military force..
We never had a problem getting hold of batteries, but we sure as hell used a lot!
Of course the NVD's consume a lot of power, and we used them quite often, both drivers, gunners, and every other foot soldier.. Also, we had some gyro stabilized binos and SOPHIE thermal imagers in the platoon, weaponlights/-lasers, IR-strobes, headlamps etcetera. Most of these systems use either AA or CR123 batts, so we always brought a solid supply of them, but then again, not everything is always ON.! The Logitech stereo in my car chewed through a fair amount of AA's on every mission though=)
In Generation Kill it seemed to me it was a screw up somewhere in the logistics chain, which is not at all uncommon in the military it seems..
Loved the show, by far the most accurate modern military show ever put on TV, HBO knows how to make good stuff!

Off topic: The NatGeo documentary "21 Days to Baghdad" is also about the 2003 Iraq invasion, and foolows a group of Marines.. don't quite remember, but definately a good documentary! Recommended!

Yes.

There were shortages of a lot of things early on.

ACOGs, Aimpoints, BUIS, Batteries, Mags, (For the M-14 and M-9 mags that WORKED), cleaning kits, Match .308 ammo, and various other things.

I can't tell you how many CR123's I mailed to friends overseas. Not as many AA or AAA's, but a decent number of those as well. Also boot laces for some reason. And 'mouthwash'.

Even shipped over my first ACOG, and a bunch of Mags. Friend of mine was issued an M14 and 1 mag. No parts. No cleaning tools. No spare mags. Had an M-9, but was stuck with crap mags that jammed up cause of the sand.

That's NOT good!
We have a similar situation now, as we are issued onlyh seven mags, and there are literally no spares whatsoever, every man in my platoon had to lend three mags to the first platoon, who will deploy in a couple of weeks.. Then when we deploy, and they redeploy, we will get them back, as well as loan three mags from them...
Luckily we sometimes stumble upon the occasional mag just lying around in the forests up here, but they are generally not in particularly good condition, and some don't even fit (Diemaco polymer mags (which were standard issue with the C8 SFW), or PMags)..

Bootlaces=substitute for 5/50 cord

We get 6 mags issued to us(all of them probably from Vietnam), luckily they sell them at our military clothing store for about 8 bucks a pop.

The problem with the M-14's was that Clinton ordered all the mags and spares sold off/destroyed. And the guns were sent to Captain Crunch. . . . .

Basically, there was nothing left for the guns still in storage, and when they were pulled out and issued ad DMR's, the troopers had to make do. Others got lucky and got stuff from people stateside.

As for AR mags, most of my friends ended up buying their own. The issue ones were beat to hell, and they only got 7. (a lot of problems with the AR platform are from damaged/out of spec mags.)

One of my friends ended up carrying 15-20 HK AR-15 30 round mags whenever he went outside the wire. Cost him a pretty penny, but he never had an issue with them.

And the Canadian Thermold mags are notorious for having issues. And P Mags are just ****ing awesome. (I have couple. Awesome mags.)

Have heard wonderful things about the PMags, pisses me off that they won't work in the currently issued primary firearm due to different magwell design.. Not least because they are extremely cheap compared to the HK steel mags, which I suppose are close to or equal to the PMags performance wise? Haven't had any issues with mine, at least.
A guy in my squad bought himself several PMags, just to fin out they weren't compatible:P