The convention floor at the Association of the U.S. Army conference in Washington, D.C., this week was a maze of futuristic machines where one could have been distracted from these ready-to-use, affordable items capable of making tours at supply-stricken outposts more tolerable. Here are a few accessories I spotted between the defense industry mega-booths that you might consider buying on your own dime before deployments if unit supply hasn’t already issued them. Note: Cheaper versions of the equipment with similiar innovations may be available on the Web. Revision’s Sawfly eye protection The salesman at the booth folded the ballistic lens…
Browsing: Outside the wire
At the Army Telemedicine & Advanced Technology Research Center’s booth at AUSA, it was hard to take my eyes off a prosthetic hand so lifelike it looked like there was dirt under the fingernails. Beneath its silicone flesh was a mechanical pincer that, manipulated by the motion of an amputee’s arm and shoulder, opens and closes the thumb, pointer and forefinger. But after filling me in on the hand, TATRC research scientist Jason Ghannadian wanted to talk feet. Since the start of the current wars, there have been more than 16,000 amputations across the services, an overwhelming number of which…
By SEAN D. NAYLOR — The Special Forces captain who worked with the first Afghan National Army Special Forces team had nothing but praise for his ANA counterparts during a talk at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual symposium. Capt. Mike Penn, who between February and August led a 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne) operational detachment–alpha, or A-team, in Kandahar province’s Khakrez district, said for the first three months his 20-person element had no Afghan partners as they tried to build bonds with the elders of the rural district. That all changed roughly halfway through his deployment. “Three months…
Katherine Hammack, one of the newest and probably the greenest Army official said the service is aiming toward “net-zero” energy and water usage at all installations. “We need to improve energy security, we need to become less dependent on fossil fuels and we need to do it now, and I’m proud to say our installations are stepping up our game, they’re becoming creative,” said Hammack, seated beside Lt. Gen. Rick Lynch, Commanding General, U.S. Army Installation Management Command, on an AUSA panel here. Appointed assistant secretary of the Army for installations and environment on June 28, Hammack has more than…
Your boss tells you what to do at work, but your B.O.S.S. tell you what to do with your free time. B.O.S.S. is Better Opportunities for Single Soldiers, a Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation program that provides single soldiers with wholesome recreation, like cookouts, deep water cruises and white water rafting trips. Though its not a new program (it was set up in 1989), one wonders how well it dovetails with the Army’s efforts to steer soldiers away from “risky behaviors.” B.O.S.S. looks like the Army-issued alternative to those behaviors–which may or may not seem cool to you. “We…
Global spending on counter-IED systems hit $7.7 billion in 2009, according to this report. But that amount is expected to decline. U.S. spending is expected to hit a decade-low by 2020, according to the report. This is due to a number of reasons. First, many projects will have been completed. Also, full withdrawal of 50,000 remaining troops in Iraq is expected by the end of 2011, and withdrawal from Afghanistan is also scheduled to start next year. And budget constraints always play a role. If the use of IEDs remained a constant, that might be true. But there is a…
Welcome to Outside the Wire, the Army Times’ new blog. We are covering all things Army in time for the largest gaggle Army conference of the year — the 2010 Association of the U.S. Army’s Annual Meeting and Exposition in Washington D.C. This blog is much more than a bunch of bureaucrats meeting inside the Beltway, though. We intend to cover everything from the new Multi-Cam uniform’s performance in Afghanistan to the best sights for your M-4 to Army leadership to the best way to get Copenhagen tins to a FOB. And everything in between. It doesn’t work without you,…
We were given exclusive access training at Fort Polk this week, as the Army honed skills that have endured necessary neglect for the past nine years. You can read the full report in Army Times’ AUSA Special Edition, which hits newsstands Monday, Oct. 25. In the meantime, Outside the Wire offers these few helpful hints for all soldiers who will soon partake in full spectrum training: 1. Bring a shovel Not because you’ll be knee-deep in a particular creek, but because you’ll be preparing fox holes and defensive perimeters – something the Army hasn’t done for nearly a decade. We…
Ring Tone The days of big jumps are back! The 3rd Brigade of the 82nd dropped more than 1,700 paratroopers into Fort Polk Monday night. It was the biggest jump since 9/11, and the largest in base history. The brigade suffered 64 injuries, 24 of which required evac. None were life-threatening. Outside the Wire couldn’t help but notice that everyone jumped with the T-10. The entire 82nd was supposed to already have the new T-11 static-line, nonmaneuverable parachute. The first 10,000 T-11 jumps have seen parachute-landing fall injuries cut by more than half. It cuts the PLF by 50 percent…
