I’ve got a new piece of kit on order from High Speed Gear, Inc. It’s a relatively new creation by former saddle-maker turned load bearing kit designer Gene Higdon of HSGI. Some of you who’
ve been stationed at Camp Lejeune (particularly SOI East) or been through Scout Sniper School may have visited “Mean Gene’s” shop in the past, maybe back when he was helping out with the ghillie suits on the downlow. This new piece of kit is a horizontal utility pouch called the “Pogey” (as in pogey or pogie bait). HSGI put it together for an EOD Marine who wanted a pouch for his charges. Apparently the one he was using would not secure adequately and it wouldn’t keep everything secure.
“At first I talked to him about a zipper,” Gene told me, “but he [the EOD tech] didn’t like that because it might take too long…said there might be times he had to cut and run. So we put a zipper and a fold-over, so you could choose between one and the other or both. It was just a local item we did, hadn’t originally planned to make it one of our standard pouches, but it developed that way.”
The 'Pogey Pouch' is a general purpose horizontal pouch that can be used for general purpose, admin, medical gear, tools, etc. If you watch video or look at pictures of a D3 course, you’ll see some of the instructors running the HSGI pogey pouch (and eating M&Ms out of it, actually). The flap can be closed quickly without using the zipper, you can compress it and roll it out of the way for quick access, and it’s not so bulky you can’t extract mags from below it. Dimensions are 7.5”x2.5”x3”.
I haven’t actually run one of these on my rig yet. To be honest, I didn’t even know about them until Gene mentioned them during a conversation about something else entirely (which you’ll be reading about shortly). However, as anyone who knows me can attest, I love me some pogie bait. This body was built for comfort, not speed. Once mine arrives and I have the opportunity to put some dirt time in with it, I’ll certainly let you know how it holds up. More to follow.
