Read the full story - Potomac Field Gear

30-MINUTE MUSCLES
RAPID-FIRE DRILLS
TO BUILD YOUR
ENDURANCE FAST
37
HOTdebate
FUN, FITNESS AND FILM
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Lifelines
E
GO FOR A SPIN
If a full-frontal look at
the six fire-resistant
T-shirts we tested isn’t
enough for you, check out
all the little details, from collar style to
logos and more, by taking the shirts
for a 360-degree spin online at
www.marinecorpstimes.com.
Stories by C. Mark Brinkley
STAFF WRITER
very so often, tactical gear manufacturers swarm
on a new idea.
A few years ago, it was hydration bladders, the
canteen of the future. A single company pioneered
the concept, but now everyone has his own water
bag, each product promising to pound the crap out of
the competition in head-to-head testing. The gear world
is also flooded with tiny, superbright flashlights, rugged
backpacks and combat pouches in all sizes and shapes.
If the military can find a hole, industry will try to
plug it, hoping to win your hard-earned dollars.
This year is no different, with the buzz centering on
“high-performance FR T-shirts.” Flame-resistant, to
keep you protected. Moisture-wicking, to keep you dry.
The best of both worlds.
T-shirt fabrics generally do only one or the other extremely well. Polyester, favored by such performance
apparel makers as Under Armour, moves water like
Moses but melts and drips like wax when exposed to
open flames. Likewise, the best flame-resistant fabrics
— such as Nomex, long used to keep firefighters safe —
aren’t particularly comfortable for combat.
Though polyester has long been known to melt and drip
(it’s been banned in certain military specialties for years),
the issue of safe synthetic combat T’s didn’t come to a boil
until April. Marine Maj. Gen. Richard Zilmer, the forward commander of I Marine Expeditionary Force in
Iraq, ordered his troops — regardless of their jobs — to
stop wearing the shirts during operations outside of military camps there because of the fire threat from rocketpropelled grenades and improvised explosive devices.
That decision spurred the services to take a closer
look at their policies regarding synthetic athletic wear
in combat zones.
“We all have very aggressive schedules,” said Francisco
Martinez, a textile technology contractor at the Army
Soldier Systems Center in Natick, Mass. “This is something that has been taken extremely seriously. ... We’re
leveraging a lot of information among us. This is one of
those examples of everyone working together.”
But apparel companies and fabric makers claim to
have finally cracked the code on performance FR. Coming soon, to a tactical retailer or military exchange near
you, are dozens of new products promising to keep you
both safe and dry.
The verdict is still out on just how safe they are, but
sidestepping banned synthetic fibers definitely gives
them a leg up. Even as you read this, researchers from
across the services are busy setting perfectly good shirts
on fire, evaluating the claims made by the manufacturers. They’re testing the performance part, too, pushing
out some of the best FR products to troops in the field
for wear testing and feedback.
But those findings are still months away, and the
marketing blitz is coming now. So, in the interim, we
decided to see for ourselves what’s out there.
We tracked down a half-dozen new products and coming-soon prototypes from companies hoping to strike
gold in the performance FR frenzy. Then, we put them
through our own common-sense test and evaluation the
same way you would, checking them for performance,
fit and comfort.
See T-SHIRTS Page 34
32
Marine Corps Times
August 21, 2006
▲
With flame-resistant fabric, your
next T-shirt might save your skin
SMARTWOOL
Men’s Microweight Tee
www.smartwool.com
Retail price: $50.
Made of: 100 percent superfine merino wool, which sounds itchy but totally isn’t.
FR marketing pitch: SmartWool promises to thrash the competition in moisture-wicking and
comfort, but makes no claims with regard to flame resistance. Unlike a lot of companies, it’s not
trying to win big contracts with a tactical design line. It’s just trying to make good gear for active
people. We wouldn’t have even considered the shirts here, but we heard the Army gave them a
hard look so we decided to jump on the bandwagon.
Sizing: XXL SmartWool fits like XL Under Armour HeatGear.
Smell test: Did we even wear this yet? Good enough to go again.
Dry test: Moved more water than Perrier. We almost forgot we were sweating.
Colors: Decidedly not tactical, sorry — except for the black. These are
straight off the shelf, also available in royal blue, brick red and gray. But
they could probably be dyed coyote ugly if someone asked nicely.
Shrinkage: This thing dries so quickly, we probably wouldn’t even need to
put it in the dryer. But after 15 minutes on low heat, it was ready to wear
again. A little smaller than before, but stretchy, and nothing we can’t live with.
Availability: Like they say on eBay, buy it now. (Actually, we saw some on
eBay with a “buy-it-now” price slightly less than retail.)
Comments: Possibly the greatest T we’ve ever pulled over our heads. We’re
considering two each of the black and gray. Doesn’t bill itself as flame-resistant, but wool
is nature’s Nomex. Sports both a sizing tag and a “tagless” label — c’mon, pick one already —
but at least the little tag isn’t itchy. Flat seams are soft and supercomfy. “Made in Fiji” means
you’ll probably never be issued one (foreign products need a waiver), but these still rock.
Lifelines
HOW THEY SCORE
We gave each shirt a
rating in six individual
categories, along with an
overall rating, evaluating
them on a 1-10 scale
with 10 as the highest.
Here’s how they stack up:
Potomac Field Gear
9.2
Overall
Smell
XGO
InSport
8.7
9
Drying
8
10
Shrinkage
9
Comfort
9
Tactical value
$29.95
8
9
8
10
$44.99
6
Source: Times research
SAFETY SYSTEMS CORP.
driFIRE long-sleeve T-shirt
www.drifire.com
Retail price: $30 (short-sleeved version for $20).
Made of: Patented blend of 85 percent synthetic and
15 percent natural “dri-release” fibers.
FR marketing pitch: Company officials say their FR line is made from
an innovative fiber that is both flame-resistant and moisture-wicking,
plus UV-resistant, chemical resistant, hypoallergenic, anti-microbial
and anti-static. Still in the prototype stages, the company is
conducting a variety of independent lab tests and offering samples for
military-grade testing.
Sizing: Since it is in the prototype stages of development, things could
change. Our prototype large driFIRE fit like a large Under Armour HeatGear.
Smell test: Lost its new-shirt smell, but still lived to fight another day.
Dry test: Comfy during normal wear. Sogged up a little more than we’d like and felt heavy, but dried
quickly. Overall, not bad.
Colors: Coming in a full range of tactical colors, including foliage green, olive drab and desert sand.
Also coming in navy, white, ash gray and black, mostly to appeal to the civilian firefighter market.
Shrinkage: A spin in the dryer pulled it in like a Botox shot. We should have gone a size larger, laid
off the Cheetos, or hung it up to dry. Or all three.
Availability: Coming in September to a civilian retailer or military exchange near you.
Comments: Interesting fabric blend, a little thicker than the average cotton or polyester-blend T, with
little give. If you’ve got any love around the handles, you probably want to go a size larger. Odd
thumbholes at the wrist cuff (part of possible military specs for the new long-sleeve T) keep the
sleeves pulled down so you can tuck them into your gloves. Flat seams made for comfort in the gym.
5
10
10
$30
2
8
7
10
2
$90
3
9
6
10
Ops Technical Gear
4.5
7
7
9
10
SmartWool
7.2
6
9
9
10
Price
Safety Systems Corp.
7.3
8
8
5
3
$50
7
6
$55
5
OHN H
HARMAN
ARMAN,/S
JJOHN
STAFF
TAFF
OPS TECHNICAL GEAR
Wool base layer T-shirt
www.opstechnicalgear.com
Retail price: $55 for short sleeve ($60 for long sleeve).
Made of: 100 percent merino wool
FR marketing pitch: Aside from claiming not to “shrink wrap when it
burns,” Ops Technical Gear doesn’t offer many FR promises. The gear is
still in the prototype phase, but the materials are generally regarded as
fire-resistant by clothing standards.
Sizing: Large prototype fit like a large Under Armour HeatGear shirt,
only maybe a little shorter.
Smell test: Held up to odor better than the average cotton T-shirt, but
nothing to write home about.
Dry test: Kept us dry, but felt soggy and heavy during our two-mile run.
Colors: Our prototype came in olive drab. No additional colors
announced so far.
Shrinkage: What do you get when you toss an already short wool T in
the dryer? A rag to scrub your boots with.
Availability: Available Nov. 1 directly from the manufacturer.
Comments: Upstart company has interesting ideas about design and
fabrics for tactical outfits, but its wool base layers are better suited for
cold-weather climates. Supersoft, with sturdy flat-seam stitching that
didn’t rub or rip. Could be useful on a cold winter night, but didn’t do
much for us as desert combat wear. Still, keep an eye on the company.
Folks there are thinking outside the box.
PHOTOS BY RANDY DAVEY
CLOTHING MANNEQUIN COURTESY
OF WRIGHT’S FAMILY KARATE CENTER
IN JACKSONVILLE, N.C.
August 21, 2006
Marine Corps Times
33
Lifelines
From lab to Baghdad
Decisions on how to build the perfect tactical combat T-shirt are expected by the
end of the year from Army and Marine
Corps researchers, who are working with
industry officials to build a base layer that
will fight fire during firefights yet keep
troops as dry as a secret agent’s martini
when the temperatures soar.
Military and civilian researchers have
been studying the problem for months,
searching for the Holy Grail — a fabric that
wicks sweat away from skin, yet doesn’t
burn like kindling when it catches fire. The
issue is more complex than it sounds, as
most fabrics generally do only one or the
other extremely well.
The fabric testing will unlock the door to
a host of possible changes to the services’
individual clothing issue — particularly for
ground troops — including flame-resistant
T’s, balaclavas, neck gaiters, and possibly
even new utility uniform fabrics.
Already, the services are exploring T-shirt
options as part of the fabric evaluation.
“We’ll be looking at not only the material,
but the prototypes,” said Francisco Martinez, a textile technology contractor at the
Army Soldier Systems Center in Natick,
Mass. “So, we will be looking at the design
of the garments.”
Fighting fire with fire
Leading the Marine Corps’ effort is the
Flame Resistant Operational Gear program, a division of Marine Corps Systems
Command at Quantico, Va. Since April, the
FROG program has run dozens of instrumented burn tests, both with the Army and
alone, using such facilities as the DuPont
labs in Richmond, Va., and textile testing
facilities at North Carolina State University in Raleigh.
Leading the Army effort is Research, Development and Engineering Command.
Martinez works on a project sponsored by
the command’s Agile Development Center
to identify fabrics and designs for flame-retardant combat uniform items.
Data from Navy and Air Force researchers are being factored in, as well, to
ensure that any solution works for all
services. That effort is breaking new
ground for military fabric research.
“There is no current testing that
resembles the threat as we know it,”
Martinez said. “So we have taken a
firefighter system test and engineered it
T-shirts
From Page 32
Rather than hand them over to
the lab geeks and replicate the
bevy of tests your tax dollars are
already funding, we decided to
treat them the way you treat your
stuff — roughly. We wore them to
the weight room for 45-minute
lifting sessions, followed immediately by a two-mile run, then left
them on while we cooled down.
After the sweat stopped flowing
like the Mississippi, we peeled out
and let ‘em air dry in a pile in the
laundry hamper, giving them
34
Marine Corps Times
Phase 1 Tactical T-Shirt (FR)
www.xgotactical.com
for our purposes in the short term.”
That testing includes outfitting sensorequipped mannequins with clothes, then
exposing them to fiery blasts from burners
surrounding the dummies. The flame tests
can last a few seconds or more than a
minute, and are generally designed to see
how well the fabrics hold up to the flames.
The mannequins’ sensors record data related to hot spots. Sometimes, fabrics that
don’t catch fire still transfer enough heat to
the body to cause third-degree burns, researchers said.
Issuing underway
Since the Marine Corps issued its synthetic-shirt ban for combat in Iraq, the FROG
program has been busy, pushing quality
flame-resistant T’s out to the operating
forces while continuing the search for a solution. More than 20,000 Marines have
some version of a new FR shirt as a result,
with more coming in the next 90 days as the
group finishes its work.
“The only time I tell them to send something back is if it fails,” said Dan
Fitzgerald, program manager for infantry combat equipment at SysCom.
By year’s end, the Marine and Army
program officers hope to make a decision about the fabric and design of the
next tactical combat base layer.
Most likely is a long-sleeved shirt with
a high neck and thumbholes that hold the
cuffs in place over the wearer’s palms. That
design keeps the T-shirt sleeve from riding
up underneath the utility blouse sleeve —
it’s sort of like attaching your dress shirt
tails to your socks with shirt-stays — and
allows for easy tucking inside gloves.
The fire-resistant shirts won’t be part of
the regular clothing issue, said John Hernandez, a project officer for infantry combat equipment with SysCom. Instead,
units will pick up two or three shirts for
each member before deployment.
The FROG program testing consists of
three rounds of trials with up to 15 tests
per round. Shirts might excel in some
areas and fail in others. Beyond moisturewicking and flame-resistance qualities, researchers are studying odor-fighting properties, comfort and design by taking feedback from units wearing test materials.
“That’s why we can’t announce who the
front-runners are,” Hernandez said. “We’re
not done.” Ë
multiple sniff tests to see if they
made us gag. Then, we washed
them, ignoring the laundering instructions on the tags, and tumbled them dry on low heat.
Finally, we tried them on again
to see if they still fit. This test
might not win an eighth-grade
science fair or a Nobel Prize. But
it should help answer your most
essential questions before you
plunk down $50 or more of your
hard-earned cash for a tactical
T-shirt advantage.
In evaluating the shirts, we considered:
å Price. Are they worth the
money?
å Odor. How do they smell before
August 21, 2006
XGO
Retail price: $44.99 for short sleeve
($53.99 for long sleeve).
Made of: 80 percent modacrylic, 20 percent fire-resistant rayon called “Acclimate Dry.”
FR marketing pitch: Company officials say their product is built primarily from a proven
modacrylic fiber known for its flame-resistant properties. In fact, that fiber manufacturer
goes so far as to label it “flame-retardant,” XGO officials said, a step up the FR food chain.
While XGO isn’t calling it flame-retardant, officials did feel comfortable enough to send it to
an independent lab for further testing. They’re adding tags suggesting that it has FR
qualities, but they won’t promise it’ll save your life.
Sizing: XGO’s large fits like XL Under Armour HeatGear.
Smell test: Treated with “Scent Prevent” to kill odor-causing bacteria before they start, the
fabric passes the sniff test. You might not take it off for days.
Dry test: Sliding into it made us feel like Batman. Felt great dry, hung in there when the
sweat started to drip, dried fast after we took it off. Generally, we liked it.
Colors: The full military crayon box — olive drab, desert sand, coyote brown, black, white
and navy.
Shrinkage: No more than Under Armour, and both still fit fine.
Availability: Already shipped to civilian retailers and military exchanges, so keep an eye out
for ’em.
Comments: Pronounced “ex-gee-oh,” it’s a new line from the folks who brought you
PolarMAX — longtime faves of deployed troops for staying cool in the heat or warm in the
cold. Unique stitching design means no seams to rub on the shoulders, a definite plus.
Other seams were flat, which would’ve been nice if the thread weren’t so scratchy. Tight
collar felt like it was trying to choke us during the two-mile run. Visible logo on the sleeve
could be a problem in uniform.
and — especially — after wear?
å Performance. How well do they
wick sweat during a workout and
dry out after?
å Shrinkage. Can they survive a
run through the dryer?
å Comfort. Do the sleeves constrict? Do the seams rub your
skin raw?
å Tactical value. Do they come in
a variety of military-appropriate
colors? Do they have the right features for the field?
In the end, we dropped a few
pounds and jumped to a few conclusions.
For one thing, you’re not going
to get off cheap. If you want a $5
T, we hope you like cotton. FR
▲
performance T’s are going to run
at least $30 each, and sometimes
as much as $90. Luckily, most of
them also offer anti-microbial
properties, which help keep odorcausing bacteria in check, so
you’ll probably need only a handful to get through a deployment.
Should you pay this much for
performance? Honestly, some of
the prices are in line with what
troops are already paying for
quality moisture-wicking T-shirts
that offer little or no FR protection. To get the best of both worlds
for the same price is like having
your cake and eating it, too.
At least one FR model costs
three times as much as a stan-
dard performance T-shirt, which
really hurts the wallet. For that
price, it better download MP3s
and wash itself.
Our top pick comes from a group
called Potomac Field Gear. The
shirts fit right, they move moisture as well as top-end products
like Under Armour do, and the
company stands behind its internal testing for flame-resistance.
The Marine Corps liked the shirts
enough to ship them out to the
war zone for wear testing, where
after-action reports supplied by
the company claim positive results. Considering the price is at
the low end of the FR line, it
seems like a win-win.
Lifelines
POTOMAC FIELD GEAR
INSPORT
Lightweight FR Crew Neck T-Shirt
www.potomacfieldgear.com
Nomex Defender Tee
www.insport.com
Retail price: $29.95, though we saw them discounted 10 percent online.
Made of: 75 percent modacrylic fibers, 10 percent spandex, 10 percent polyester, 5 percent X-Static.
FR marketing pitch: When we first saw these guys at a gear expo in January, company president
Richard Bonin stuck a lighter to one to get our attention, something no other performance T maker
had offered to do before. The competition is playing catch-up here, as Potomac Field Gear continues
to rack up positive feedback reports from Marine units, Navy SEALs and more. They promote the
shirts as “flame-resistant, high-performance, wicking base layer garments” with the FR part up front
in bold. Sales have been so strong, and supplies so limited, the main supplier of the gear is giving
priority to unit and agency orders.
Sizing: XL fits like XL Under Armour HeatGear, only longer. Tall people, can we get a “whoop whoop”?
Smell test: Thanks to the X-Static, five out of every 100 fibers are bonded with pure silver, giving the
shirts anti-odor and anti-microbial properties. Johnson & Johnson uses the same fibers in some
bandages to help reduce infections. Suffice it to say, our little trip to the gym had little effect.
Dry test: Dries quick, right up there with some of the best performance T’s on the market.
Colors: Battlefield-ready in black, desert sand, foliage green, coyote brown, olive drab, Army brown
and navy blue.
Shrinkage: Dried on low heat, still fits fine.
Availability: Available now.
Comments: Thousands of troops are wearing these already, thanks to military and company testing
programs, so ask around for second opinions. Standard T-shirt construction means rounded seams
that aren’t doing you any favors but are by no means unbearable. Slightly longer than some other
brands, which means it stays tucked in. Scratchy collar tags need a pair of scissors taken to them.
If you’re looking for the clingy,
superhero costume feel of Under
Armour, the best bet is XGO. Its
shirts were neck and neck with
PFG until we considered price,
where the team at Potomac undercut XGO by 50 percent. With
most factors running a dead heat,
we favored saving $15 per shirt
over feeling like Spider-Man. It’s
a matter of personal preference,
and we prefer to spend our cash
on Red Bull and Copenhagen.
Honestly, our favorite T-shirt
came from SmartWool, which
doesn’t bill itself as FR and really
isn’t chasing the military dollar. It
just so happens that its blend of
100 percent merino wool is natu-
rally flame-resistant and comfy. It
wicks sweat like a dream, dries
fast and feels awesome. It’s also
$50, sized badly, and the closest
thing to tactical is Air Force black.
You’ll love it and find it absolutely
useless for most field conditions.
And that’s where the balance
comes in. Ultimately, you have to
fight for your lives in this stuff.
Flame resistance is a key, but so
are comfort, utility and price.
And bear in mind, you really
don’t need an FR T-shirt for the
gym. You need one for combat
missions.
Sometimes, your days go all to
hell. Unfortunately, that’s where
the flames are. Ë
Retail price: $90.
Made of: Body is 97 percent polyester, 3 percent
X-Static; sleeves are 97 percent Nomex, 3 percent Lycra.
FR marketing pitch: Company officials claim the Defender was designed for
use with the flame-resistant Interceptor body armor, proven to significantly
protect the torso of wearers. That’s why they think the polyester torso isn’t a
problem on the new FR shirt. The sleeves are Nomex fibers, long proven to
offer heat and flame resistance in extreme conditions.
Sizing: The torso of the InSport large fits like a short Under Armour large
HeatGear torso; its sleeves fit like an XL Under Armour LooseGear.
Smell test: Contains silver-bonded X-Static fibers for the anti-odor, antibacterial benefits, so you’ll stay fresh (contains about 40 percent less
X-Static than Potomac, however, if you’re keeping score at home). Different
fabrics for torso and sleeves have us wondering if different parts of the shirt
will begin to stink at different times.
Dry test: Uses a Polartec Power Dry blend with heat-resistant textiles in the torso, which pushed out sweat
and left us nice and dry. The Nomex sleeves felt like Ace bandages wrapped around our arms, which wasn’t
uncomfortable but wasn’t the coolest long-sleeve we’ve tried.
Colors: Comes with a green body and tan sleeves — an odd look, but one you won’t confuse with the
competition.
Shrinkage: On low heat, dried quickly without noticeable shrinking.
Availability: The Marine Corps recently ordered 11,000 for combat units. Coming Jan. 1 to retailers.
Comments: Unique blend of fabrics looks like a “Project Runway” reject, but whatever works. The wide cuffs
were awkward, but when we tucked our thumbs through the well-designed holes, the fabric covered our hands
nearly to the knuckles. Anyone who’s scraped a palm diving for cover will see an obvious upside. The Nomex
sleeves wouldn’t be our first choice for workout
wear, but the overall design makes sense.
Prevent the burn
Originally, we intended to burn
’em all.
Not to yield serious scientific results, mind you. That takes laboratories, instrumented mannequins, temperature-control
burners and the like.
Testing fabrics for flammability
is hard science, and it has to be
done right. Armed with nothing
more than a cigarette lighter and
a wire coat hanger, all we would
be able to determine is whether
these shirts billed as flame-resis-
suppliers that do the
same thing. In the
U.S., products must
conform to regulations
set by the U.S. Contant would melt or drip
sumer Product Safety
when we stuck a flame
Commission, which deto them.
termines minimum
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION
BY ALAN LESSIG/STAFF
The pros do the same
standards for apparel
thing, only on a larger,
flammability.
controlled scale. Apparel makers
Those standards are irrelevant
send their gear off to independent
for combat gear. The military sets
labs to have it charbroiled under
its own regulations, because the
close and highly regimented
severe conditions troops face on
scrutiny, hoping to call it “FR”
the battlefield are unique.
based on the length of time it
If your brain is hurting already,
takes for the fabric to go up in
you have a good idea as to why we
smoke.
Or they buy fabric from textile
See BURN next page
August 21, 2006
Marine Corps Times
35
Lifelines
Burn
From previous page
didn’t try playing with fire.
In military terms, FR means
that when the fabric is exposed to
flame for a short duration it won’t
catch fire, or it will self-extinguish
after catching fire without melting
and dripping. T-shirts that catch
fire after three seconds of exposure to a flicked Bic probably
aren’t the safest to wear when facing down rocket-propelled
grenades and roadside bombs.
Besides causing third-degree
burns, there’s the problem of
melted fabric oozing into wounds.
You don’t want the docs ripping
plastic out of charred skin before
they bandage you up.
So the backyard test doesn’t
offer nearly enough information.
It doesn’t take into account such
variables as “thermal protective
performance,” sometimes called
heat transfer.
Think about it this way: Shooting at a ballistic plate leaning
against a hay bale will tell you
whether the round penetrates,
but not the amount of internal injuries a wearer might receive
from the impact. Similarly, lighting a shirt on fire will tell you if it
melts, but not whether it stays
cool enough to protect the skin
underneath.
With that in mind, our weird
science didn’t seem so savvy.
Our fear was that, in offering
limited backyard burn results, we
Built for Battle.
Powered by:
with
Next-to-Skin
Comfort
Covered for Combat
ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY. Powered by an innovative, high-tech, fabric
that offers an unrivaled combination of moisture management, flame
resistance and comfort.
Ü MOISTURE MANAGEMENT. driFIRE’s patented moisture transport
system draws perspiration away from the skin and spreads the
moisture away from the body, allowing more effective evaporation.
PERFORMANCE WEAR
Moisture Management
Flame Resistant
Comfort
Ü FLAME RESISTANT. driFIRE’s superior flame resistance is
designed to protect against flash fire, giving you critical time to
escape hazardous situations with no melting or dripping.
www.driFIRE.com
Ü ULTIMATE COMFORT. driFIRE is extremely comfortable, due to the
patented, unique, blend of fibers.
www.SafetySystemsCorp.com
36
Marine Corps Times
August 21, 2006
▲
Made in USA
might give you a false sense of security. So we decided to let the
scientists do the heavy lifting and
wait for their results this fall. As
a result, we can offer no guarantees as to how safe this stuff will
keep you.
We can tell you this: Wearing
your body armor and ballistic
plates helps. Officials from the
Flame-Resistant Organizational
Gear program at Marine Corps
Systems Command in Quantico,
Va., said early testing indicates
that the gear protects against more
than bullets and shrapnel.
“Once you put body armor on,
you’ve raised the level of protection significantly,” said John Hernandez, a project officer for infantry combat equipment with
SysCom.
How significantly? During burn
testing, military researchers
learned how long a person’s skin
would have to be exposed to flame
to suffer serious damage.
The average combat uniform
fabric holds up to about three seconds of flames. Without the outer
tactical vest and small-arms protective insert plates, third-degree
torso burns would occur after
about four seconds.
With the plates and vest in
place, four seconds yielded no
third-degree burns to the mannequin’s torso.
Consider the possibility of being
trapped inside a burning vehicle.
Exposed to flames for 90 seconds
or more, as some mannequins are
during testing, even Kevlar begins to melt. Only the thick ballistic plate remains intact.
So what should troops take
away from that? There are times
when even a kryptonite T-shirt
can’t save the day.
But protecting yourself against
fire is often as simple as reducing
the number of exposed edges of
the fabric being worn, according
to researchers.
A few quick changes to the way
you dress for combat could mean
the difference between a bad day
and a terrible one.
This information comes from
the FROG program, but generally
applies to all service members:
å Roll down your sleeves, tuck
your jacket into your trousers and
tuck your trouser legs into your
boots or blouse them at the boot
top. Fewer exposed edges mean
less opportunity for the garment
to catch fire.
å Button the top button of your
uniform jacket and turn the collar
up. Minimizing the amount of exposed skin reduces the chances of
severe burns.
å Wear your outer tactical vest
and ballistic plates. The FR properties of body armor minimize the
chance of serious burns to the
torso, where most of your vital organs live.
“It’s all about protection,” Hernandez said. “There’s all these
things that you can do to help
protect yourself, and they’re
available to you.” Ë