B.O.
David Pugliese has an interesting article in today's Citizen about undergarments:
While it's amusing to think of high tech gitches, there's one element of this that neither Pugliese or his sources touched upon: special forces need to stay covert, and it's hard to do that if your stink is detectable at a distance.
Laugh all you want about that, but read the first seven entries of this thread about Airborne Rangers in Vietnam before you get too carried away.
The U.S. air force's special operations command is in the midst of a multimillion-dollar research program to come up with high-tech T-shirts, socks and undergarments that are not only fire-resistant, but can be worn for weeks at a time without retaining odours.
A little more than $2 million U.S. has been set aside for the development and testing of the clothes, better known as Austere Environment Undergarments. Another $2.8 million has been requested for next year.
The air force's commando teams, whose job is to call in airstrikes and rescue downed pilots, are working in countries such as Afghanistan, operating in enemy territory for lengthy periods. "Our airmen need clothing they are capable of wearing for long durations in austere environments," said Aaron Schoenfeld, a spokesman for the air force's special operations command.
Not only is odour-resistance a key attribute for the new underwear, but durability is also seen as a plus. One of the project's test T-shirts has been machine-washed almost 1,800 times.
While it's amusing to think of high tech gitches, there's one element of this that neither Pugliese or his sources touched upon: special forces need to stay covert, and it's hard to do that if your stink is detectable at a distance.
Laugh all you want about that, but read the first seven entries of this thread about Airborne Rangers in Vietnam before you get too carried away.
posted by Babbling Brooks at 11:09 a.m.
2 Comments:
I know that the USMC had gone to the outdoor industry looking for off the shelf/slightly modified versions of backpacking gear...
Mountain Hardware had an anti-bacterial line a few years ago..
"While it's amusing to think of high tech gitches, there's one element of this that neither Pugliese or his sources touched upon: special forces need to stay covert, and it's hard to do that if your stink is detectable at a distance."
This is much more significant than laymen might immediately think. In Vietnam, there were quite a number of behind-the-lines type folks who were forbidden to smoke while serving in those units and were fed only Vietnamese food, which is of course radically different than North American chow.
There were captured NVA, VC who on interrogation had said that they could smell an American upwind for some distance, due to tobacco smoke residual odors and the very different B.O. put off from bodies fed North American type food versus Vietmanese food.
Inasmuch as some of the men with good noses in our own behind-the-lines types, i.e. sniper teams, Force Recon, Green Berets, etc., stated the same thing, this became SOP in some of these units.
Sometimes, seemingly tiny tactical edges can turn out to be vital in combat.
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