Gerber Recon (and Recon-M)

I've been finding it tough to get any good info on this light, short of the Gerber marketing info and marginally additional info from the FlashlightReviews and LEDMuseum sites. However, I've gone ahead and purchased a couple of Recon-M lights from Lighthound and been quite impressed with the build quality and battery life. I'm at about 100 hours now on the initial alkaline AA, running continuously, and I still have very usable light! I'd say that significant drop in usable brightness wasn't seen until maybe 48 or so hours had elapsed.

Since my nephew has volunteered for Persian Gulf duty (he's a bosun's mate in the US Coast Guard) and will be deployed there in January, I wanted to equip him with some useful lights for Christmas. Among the chief mission, as I understand it, is boarding potentially hostile vessels for inspection. I got him a Gladius (still neeed to buy a supply of matched CR123a's though), a Civictor, and this sweet Recon-M for lower-lumen duty (reading maps, night-vision compatibility, and general low-light/long-term usage). I know he'll be able to obtain AA alkalines as needed...it's the CR123a's for the Gladius that he'll need to "ration".

Any other impressions of the Recon perhaps someone has a good comparison to the Infinity Ultra's performance? I do know that the difference between the Ultra vs. Ultra-M is quite different from the Recon vs. Recon-M...for one thing, I don't believe the Recon is listed as water-resistant, while the Ultra, Ultra-M, and Recon-M are.

There isn't much difference between the Recon M and standard Recon except maybe double o-rings. There is the newer Recon M CPL that has different filters than the Recon. It has a white, red, NVIS(maintains night vision and is superior to green for aiding in color rendering), and Infrared(for night vision goggles).

Is the better Recon a decent light or is it a gimic? How are the runtimes and brightness?