[TML] Personal Armor Noise was Re: Current USAF fleet

[Tom B]

On Thu, May 1, 2008 at 5:57 PM, Kelly St.Clair <kellys at efn.org> wrote:
>  One of the interesting little details of my time in the SCA, which added to
>  my experience as a gamer, was finding out what chainmail feels like

When I went to GenCon in 1987, I got to try on chainmail (full
length). My observations were:

1) Hard to get into on your own (there is a lesson for combat armour
and battle dress lurking herein)
2) Be bald or else have a cloth cap. The links grab and pull out hair. Ouch.
3) The weight sits on the shoulders (40 lbs on the shoulders....
argh). You can do some neat tricks though, like gather up a 'chainmail
potbelly' and then tighten a wide belt around your waist which the
potbelly overhangs. This helps distribute some portion of the weight
to the hips.

I've worn chemical warfare suits and trained to fight in them, being
drenched in sweat within 10 minutes. I'm not sure what CES is like,
but sealed up it might really be just about this bad. I'm sure battle
dress and combat armour are only moderately more comfy than plate mail
or the like.

A pal in US 4th ID (a ginger-beer) once quipped to me:

"People always ask why the insurgents get away. Ask yourself what's
faster: A healthy North American with a rifle, full ammo load,
canteens, camelback, pack, grenades, first aid supplies, sidearm, LBE,
and 35-40 pounds of armour or some local in a cloth robe and sandals
with an AK and a mag or two. And who is more agile at scaling fences,
ducking into basement windows, fitting through narrow spaces, etc."

Another pal retired from US 5th SFG commented on Bravo Two Zero (when
the SAS guys went in carrying something like 120 pounds each): "They
went in overloaded and didn't do their homework on the comms front.
Carrying that much gear, they were asking for problems." (Even the
pros sometimes make less than optimal decisions about encumberance...
just like PCs....)