US Army soldier's outfit, Vietnam era

Below is the cover illustration of Anthony Herbert's autobiographical novel "Soldier." What's that piece of rope around his waist and what was its main application?

 

You can use it to tie a swiss seat.

 

Used for climbing, rappelling, cas-evac, obstable crossing using rope bridges, etc.

 

[googles "swiss seat" since it sounded sarcastic]

Ok, so it's a makeshift rappelling harness. And the length of rope is 12 feet. So that's why even mountaineers carry extra length of rope or web strips 12 feet long. Thanks.

 

Hah! You wrote, "What's that piece of rope around his waist and what was its main application?", I just replied conversationally, "You can use it to tie a swiss seat.". Unfortunately, conversations on the internet are easily mis-interpreted. When I read my reply I thought, "this could come across as flippant or curt (didn't consider sarcastic), which was not my intent, so I added the second reply. It contained the video on how to tie a swiss seat and a short list of uses, "Used for climbing, rappelling, cas-evac, obstacle crossing using rope bridges, etc." I thought that prevented any misinterpretation of my initial reply. Then I read your reply, "googles "swiss seat" since it sounded sarcastic" and got a good laugh.

I think from the looks of it, the picture must be Herbert at Ranger School. He commissioned as a 2d Lt. in 1956, then applied to transition to the regular US Army, then attended the basic Officer Infantry Course, then was assigned as an instructor to the Dahlonega phase of Ranger School as an instructor. Since the M14 was introduced in 1959 and he's wearing M-1956 Suspenders and has M-1956 small arms magazine pouches on his belt. It has to have been taken in the later 1950's early 1960's. The leg ties and manner his cover is worn says, Rangers. He didn't deploy to Vietnam until 1968 and by then the manner of carrying the sling rope and snap link (carabiner) to make a swiss seat had changed. This picture is how SF carried them in Vietnam (and at least until the early 2000's), you'll see this in a lot of Vietnam photos and just may not have known its purpose.

 

Thought that name was familiar. He wrote this book after he got back from Korea. Fantastic read.