You always want to have serialized gear such as your night vision goggles dummy corded to your body. If your that can be dummy corded is dummy corded to you, will have a lot less chance to loose any of your gear or anything else you are carrying with you. In case that you are moving or running, even if your gear comes absent from the pouch or pocket you are carrying them in they will not come completely off your body. Any serialized gear that you are carrying on your body needs to always be dummy corded to that your self or your flak jacket. That also includes dummy cording the issued gear that is attached to that your rifle directly to your rifle such as your ACOG RCO, AN/PEQ 15.
The units and individual Marines to whom this gear is issued are held accountable for maintaining them. Losing a piece of gear could have repercussions ranging from payment for lost property to legal action. In addition to these are other consequences.
In the armed services, a loss of time could mean a loss of life. When not in a combat environment, time spent looking for lost gear detracts from training. An improperly trained Marine in a combat situation could cost lives. Apart from a loss of training time, a Marine without the gear he was trained to use is not very useful. In the