I I can't seem to find a lot of the equipment that I was involved with either.

I agree with Rob's assessment.

I might add that there is the Army's way of doing things and the soldier's way of doing things. What I mean by this is the manual may give an official way, but the soldier in the field will often find a better way. Plus, there are things the manuals don't cover unauthorized but (sometimes) tolerated equipment, like stowing a cooler or mounting a boom box, or any of the countless number of other field mods troops make to improve comfort or ease their workload.

I have to say it helped me alot. Since I was a tanker and model mostly tanks I know where the dirt sticks, how the tracks look. Real effects of being in the field vs artistic effects and weathering. You don't appreciate how dirty a tank really gets until you have spent hours chipping mud and plant matter out of a suspension and been blasted soaking wet with recycled water out of a fire hose.

Tom