The complacent soldier’s best friend: The many uses of 550 cord
Preventing the loss of sensitive items since World War II.Joshua Skovlund
Updated on Nov 22, 2024
Marine Corps Sgt. Charles J. Herndon III, a combat engineer prepares 550 cord to use on a simulated weapons cache during a long range raid, for a training exercise at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Az., Aug. 13, 2017. (U.S. Marine Corps photo/Sgt. Kassie L. McDole)
Mil Spec Type III 550 lbs. Paracord, better known as 550 cord, can strike any veteran’s nostalgic heartstrings, especially if they had a habit of leaving their gear around.
The cord is a dynamic rope made up of a nylon sheath with twisted nylon cords inside. Its name derives from its engineering specifications, known as MIL-C-5040 cord, which require most grades of it to have a breaking strength of 550 pounds, though some high-spec versions are rated to 750.
Originally developed for use in parachutes, its do-everything nature was so evident that the Air Force has long told its pilots that one of the first things they should do after parachuting from an airplane into the wilderness is to strip the cord from their parachute for survival uses. The Air Force survival manual advises using parachute cords for making splints, shelters, and even sutures.
And it turns out those are just the beginning of the creative uses that soldiers, Marines, sailors, and airmen have invented over the years for 550 cord. Though most are clever and useful, perhaps the best known is for troops who are just plain lazy.
Dummy Cord — 550 cord has many uses, but it’s perhaps best known as a “learning tool” to reinforce the concept of not losing your stuff in the field, particularly ‘sensitive items,’ like a pair of night vision goggles or an encrypted radio. Or, for the laziest of soldiers, a “rubber ducky.”
A rubber duck is the nickname for a replica of an M4 rifle that many units train with. Leaving one, or just leaving it unattended, is the ultimate mistake.
A mistake like that can have huge consequences, like an extended workday – or weekend – spent online and walking through the woods looking for whatever item was left behind. But much simpler is a 550 cord fix: tie a length from the buttstock and to a lazy troop’s belt loop. No more lost weapons.
The same is true for a long list of sensitive gear, like night vision goggles, radios, lasers, and scopes, but also for the basics, like compass, flashlights, and VS-17 signal panels.
Land Nav Hacks — Though GPS is a common tool used to guide soldiers to a target, the old-fashioned method is what every soldier has for a backup. A map, compass, protractors, and a length of 550 cord completes the backup. The Army’s Field Manual (FM) 3-25.26 breaks down different uses of 550 cord for land navigation, like keeping track of your pace count by tying knots in a string for every 100 meters they walk, to help them keep track.
550 cord can also be used to measure distances on a map. The legend on the map gives a distance measure, and cutting a piece of 550 cord to that distance will allow soldiers to estimate the range from location to location.
Automatic doors — This is not the type of door you see at Walmart, but works just as well in a primitive setting. Tie one end of the 550 cord to a full water bottle (or one filled with rocks), loop it at a high angle nearby, and attach it to the door. The weight of the bottle will automatically close the door. It’s a simple fix to help keep doors closed, particularly ones leading into tents, keeping camel spiders, bears, and any other wildlife where they belong: outside.
Shelter — 550 cord is an absolute life a useful item to get food while in a survival setting. You can rig a quick shelter by tying a length from one tree to another, providing the base of an a-frame roof. It is also perfect for lashing together branches into tripods or other stabilizers, and to keep limbs and other cover in place. If you have a tarp, you can thread 550 cord through holes on the tarp to close the front and back if you have enough material.
Bow Drill for Starting A Fire — A good fire goes right along with building a shelter and a bow drill is a way to accomplish that. Using a curved branch with a notch on one end, you can run the 550 cord from end to end. A bow drill is used to rotate a pointed stick on an indented fire board, heating up tinder to a point of fire, and using that to get a fire going while you’re in the field.
Food — You can take one of the inner nylon strings from the core of the 550 cord and use it as a fishing line, or you can use it to build a snare for small animals. Once you have your food, you want to keep that from any animals in the area like bears. Using your 550 cord, attach it to the handle of your pack, throw it over a high branch on a tree, and house your pack up and out of reach.
Bootlaces — If your bootlaces break, 550 cord is a great replacement. One of the best things about 550 cord is that you can gut out the interior nylon cords to leave a paper-thin but still strong green outer sheet. It’s thin enough to thread through most eyelets on shoes and boots.
Memorial Bracelets — Crafting 550 cord into memorial bracelets is a popular use, highlighting both a remembered friend and the cord as a touchstone to a military past. Many have a metal plate inscribed with the name of a fallen service member. You can also use the same idea of a braided 550 cord bracelet as a medical alert for troops with medical needs that a medic would need to know, like allergies to penicillin or painkillers.
Cargo Nets — Kyle Gunn, Task & Purpose’s social media director, said he and his fellow marines made cargo nets out of 550 cord to help organize gear in their Light Armored Vehicle-Logistics (LAV-L).
Fixing A Shoulder Strap — The shoulder strap on your ruck snapped, or the buckle broke? 550 cord can be used to repair it by tying the shoulder strap to the rucksack frame. This typically requires a basic knowledge of knots like a square knot to really lock the strap to the rucksack frame.
Handle Grips — Service members can get creative with 550 cord, weaving it around the pommel to create a handle for a knife or axe to bolster the appearance of it for ceremonial purposes or for added thickness of the handle for functional needs.
We’ve barely begun to unspool the 1000-uses coil of ‘alternative’ uses for 550 cord. Let us know about the good, bad and brilliant uses you’ve seen.
https://taskandpurpose.com/culture/550-cord/
