Looking forward to photos of your gear sets when you get them done MeatMarket

GI's universally hated the M1928 pack. By design, it was laid out flat to load everything in it, then rolled up to whatever size it turned out to be for whatever it held and tied up before putting the straps around their shoulders to carry it - To access gear inside, the reverse had to be done every time. I'm also surprised they didn't design a new pack system for WWII because everyone hated the 1910 pack that was used in WWI which was the same basic design. The pack tail was almost like an afterthought and you can see from period photos it was seldom used.

The integrated suspenders on the pack worked well though - they attached to a variety of whatever ammo belt was needed and they helped to distribute the load of the belt and the gear that could be attached to the belts.

Below is a pre-WWII training photo of the pack with a tail attached