...It sucks

Platoon Leader and Radio / Telephone Operator, 1st Air Cavalry, Vietnam, ca. 1970

Great dane Platoon leader on the left wears a Poplin 3rd pattern jungle jacket with M1956 suspender and an M1967 Davis belt, which is similar to M1956 Pistol belt but has the quick release Davis buckle. Shown hanging on his belt is an M61 / M26A1 Fragmentation hand grenade and a compass pouch which also shown hanging on his suspender. His main firearm is a Colt XM177E2 (Model 629) a.k.a. CAR-15 Commando, a variant of M16 with shortened 11,5 inch barrel and telescoping buttstock, in response to the US military's desire for a shorter M16 and the Model 607 SMG's inadequacies, its distinguishing feature from XM177E1 (Model 610) is 1,5 inch barrel extension ahead of front sight and addition of forward assist. He carried his ammo in a bandoleer across his chest, which shown carrying single 20-round magazine

The platoon leader's jacket is devoid of any marking for security purpose, except for the U.S. ARMY badge on his left breast, which is quite obvious anyway. A platoon leader usually can be identified by an RTO following him, in this case, a duck tolling retriever

The RTO usually wears standard equipment of a rifleman plus a Radio set and its accessories. The radio he's carrying is of AN/PRC-25 type, or often called 'Prick twenty-five' or simply 'Prick', the radio consisted of two parts, both in metal boxes, called 'cans'. The upper can held the radio itself, the lower can held its battery pack. Metal buckles held the two together. He has the aerial tied down to reduce his profile, as the conspicuos aerial tends to draw fire from the enemy. On his jacket we can see the badge of 1st Air Cav and the SP/4 rank badge sewn on to the upper left sleeve. Like the platoon leader he wears the M1969 suspender but with M1956 belt without Davis buckle, hanging from his belt is a universal ammo pouch, while on his suspender we can see a compass pouch and a flash light. Beside his radio can hang a couple of M18 Coloured smoke grenade, which colour can be identified by their top colour or the stencil on the body. His helmet is M1 type with mitchell pattern helmet cover, on the headband there is a pack of Marlboro and a bottle of bug juice

In the image he is holding a captured AK-47, main rifle of the PAVN along with the older SKS, his own M16A1 is slung behind his arm, identifiable by the 3 - pronged flash suppressor. Like the leader he also carries an ammunition bandoleer for his M16 but is empty at the moment

I can totally see the Dane as a hardened career soldier while the Retriever as a recently drafted unfortunate engineering college student, which kinda explain his specialty as an RTO

Many thanks to DireWolf505 for correction regarding M16A1/A2

You know what, the RTO kinda reminiscent of the guy in 'We Were Soldier'. The dane is nowhere near Mel Gibson though...
...or is it?