Equipment list

[Fuchs]

It's been said before that METT-TC drives the gear, and I'm a strong believer in that. In our perspective (well back in my Army days), Western soldiers tend to overburden themselves with all kinds of things that we wouldn't even consider carrying.

As far as I know this isn't really a "Western"-only thing.
Troops from India and Singapore appear to have quite hefty individual loads in similar terrain at times as well.

Just curious, but what is on the books in the U.S. Army and USMC as far as body armor and jungle operations?

They specialised on beating up people in less humid areas lately, thanks to the Vietnamese people.
The last official U.S. Armed Services book on warfare in jungle areas is afaik now three decades old:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita...0-5/index.html

It's thus very possible (as far as I know) that there's don't have a textbook answer to your question.