Utility Vest

I will kick it off with a review of a vest I use all the time in the field.

This is the Mesh Concealment Tactical Vest from 5.11. Designed as a duty belt to be worn under a jacket, it works well to hold my field gear. Their literature describes its use as an emergency call out vest and I can't agree more. I am able to carry all of my duty gear in this vest including the following:

• Flashlight
• Motorola Astro radio with mic and earpiece
• Spare battery for radio
  
• 2 pair gloves
• several large zipties
• Leatherman Surge
• Wrench for cowlings
• Railroad rule book
• Train orders
• Notebook
• 1lb keys

This may not seem like much, but it adds up when you have to get in and out of a vehicle several times a day and need to have your tools handy. With the vest, I can wear it all day, keeping the weight off my neck by clipping the strap to my belt in the back. The mesh holds the load well but allows air to circulate underneath. Anyone who knows me understands that I am not that physical, but I wear the vest up and down stairs (167 feet each way) for my daily station check and it doesn't shift around much.

It is easily covered by a hazard vest or jacket.

After shift, I remove the radio from the pouch, un-clip my mic from the radio, and the whole rig gets tossed into my locker for the next day.

The vest is sold with Velcro backed pockets for:

• Radio - use for the radio.
• 2 Magazines - One holds the Leatherman, the other, zip-ties and wrench.
• Baton pouch - C-Cell or smaller flashlight. (I use the NightStick)
• Cuff pouch - Holds 2 pair thin work gloves or many latex gloves.

It has large pockets (Velcro closure) in the front that hold my rulebook, train orders and notebook. Cable routing is made easy with Velcro tabs and sleeve to hold excess wire.

After using it a while a couple of modifications have occurred to me. I purchased a couple of yards of 2" Velcro at the hobby store and covered the hook side of the side straps so that they wouldn't rub against my shirt, it was causing excessive wear, and the extra hook sections can be used to provide additional hold-downs for belt-looped carriers if you need more pockets (Like for your Nextel.) The other modification I made was to move the front cross strap to the back and use that to tie it to my belt (taking the weight off of my neck,) and use the front belt strap to connect it across the front instead of to my belt. I am a much larger person and this works better for me.

The web site lists this at $59.95 at the time of this writing, I believe it to be worth it.

(Photo is from the 5.11 web site)