Taking a Load Off

 

Submitted by Eric Daniel

You never know how much you miss having someplace to sit until they take your tank away.  For the first part of my career I was in Armor, and our motto was “death before dismount.”  Sure, we’ll complete the mission, but on the tank.  Then I went to the Scouts and we had trucks.  Granted, they were draftier, the heater didn’t work as well, and they leaked (well, ok, so did the tank) but, at least, there was someplace to sit.  Now, I’m a hapless leg, and all I’ve got to keep my butt out of the mud, or snow, or wet, is my k-pot.

No more.  After a little bit of research and a little trial and error, I have found Nirvana.  The Walkstool Comfort 22. 

Manufactured in Sweden, the Walkstool line of lightweight chairs is really quite impressive.  Made from a trio of aluminum tubes topped by a heavy duty mesh seat, the walkstool has two settings; collapsed and fully extended.  The one I opted for was the 22” model, where 22 refers to the chair’s fully extended height.  The feet on the stool’s three legs are large diameter and made from textured rubber so they provide not only low ground pressure, but good traction on unstable surfaces.  The stool is black in color, though the leg extensions are silver (may get around to painting them so it’s more “tactical”) and in the case of this particular model, the weight rating is 495 pounds.  Now, I have to admit, when I was looking for a combat chair, most of the ones I say that even listed a weight rating, were all in the 175-250 range, so if ever I was going to use the thing, I was going to have to strip all my gear off, so when I saw the stool’s was rated to nearly 500 pounds, that pretty much closed the deal – I could take this thing anywhere and it was never going to break on me.  Naturally, Walkstool makes a number of “ultra light” models, with lower weight ratings, but given that this “monster” only weighs 33 ounces and collapses to the size of my Thermos, I concluded it was money, and weight, well spent.

Check out the Walkstool field chairs here.

The Fodder is Always Tastier on the Other Side

Submitted by Eric Daniel

A couple months ago I remember seeing a story about Gordon Ramsay helping the British MoD develop a cookbook for use by military cooks in the field (by way of explanation British soldiers are issued either individual 24 hour rations (when they’re on the go) or squad sized, ten-man 24-hour rations (for when they‘re not.).  Unlike American T rats, with the ten man rations there’s some actual cooking involved.)

This got me to thinking about all the informal MRE recipes we came up with or passed around, as well as experimenting with foreign rations when we trained with other countries (for the life of me I’ll never understand how the French can call dry toast and coffee “breakfast“.)  Even now, I look back fondly upon the tinned “indische kip” (curried chicken) I picked up from the Dutch CAT team in 1991 (it was probably the best tasting “field” food I’d ever had, but absolutely had to be eaten warm, otherwise it was just scary) and German black bread and butter was always good in the morning (in addition to the regular mermite delivered green eggs and ham of course.)

Since then, food in the field has gotten real complicated.  It seems that every 6 months they're coming out with a new ration which is better than the last (last I heard, the Army was fielding an "assault" ration for use during the first 72 hours of combat.  What are you supposed to do if you end up fighting longer than 72 hours, wait for different issue?)

I’ve a trip to the Ukraine coming up, and I’m thinking this might be a good opportunity to take along a couple MREs and see if I can’t do any trading with the locals (not sure yet if we’re bringing our own snacks yet or eating on the economy as it were.)  With all the multinational action going on, especially in Afghanistan, anyone try anything noteworthy?

Mustering for Grog

Submitted by Eric Daniel

Way back a long time ago, while I was tanking with the Washington National Guard, my unit had a Dining In following our annual training.  What made this event memorable was the fact that there was a representative from our “sister” armoured recce unit from Canada, and he brought with him something I’d never seen before -  1.5 liters of government issue 151 proof ration rum.  As the Sergeant explained, the Canadian government authorized the issuance of a rum ration to soldiers in the field for a period of 30 days or more.  Now, I know the Royal Navy used to issue rum to its sailors up through 1970, and I know there’s at least one German fallschirmjäger company out there with a bar in the basement (run by the First Sergeant) but this was the first I’d ever heard of government issuing honest to god alcohol to its joes.

Needless to say, that bottle was tipped into the grog to the detriment and enjoyment of all.  This was all ten years ago and I’m curious if this is still the case; while I can remember drinking beer in the unit run canteen when I was in the field at Graf, I haven’t seen beer in the field in ages and I know it’s expressly forbidden to American soldiers now, but I was curious if the Canadians still issued rum (or if any one else has a similar program) or has this tradition also died on the altar of political correctness?

Shure SE110 Sound Isolating Earphones

 

Submitted by Tom Weber

I have had a set of Shure E2c Headphones for four or five years now and they are the best portable music accessory I have ever owned. I prefer their earpieces to the softer ones used on the Bose in-ear models. They came with a handful of different sized ear pieces to give a semi custom fit. The ones I found best for sound isolation were the orange compression foam version. The sound quality is excellent and I have found that I get better battery life out of my iPod since I don't have to turn the volume up as high to compete with outside noise. The cord is shielded with some nylon braiding and they came with a handy little zippered pouch that will go in a pocket or be clipped inside a bag. Shure now make an updated model called the SE 110. The assortment of earpieces is a little smaller, but still gives a good range of fits, the cord is still braided, but now made as a modular unit for use with remote controls. And as a bonus, there is a microphone adapter available, allowing you to use it as a complete hands free kit for any phone/PDA with a 3.5mm jack.

Check out the Shure SE110 earphones here.

Etymotic Research Headphones

 

Submitted by Jason

When you buy Bose, you're paying for their advertising budget, which is massive. Any other speaker in the same price range will be superior, since other manufacturers put their money into... the speaker. Notice that the 901 page gives more details about the composition of the cabinet than the drivers? That there's no frequency response graph or even specs? There's a reason for that. The "reflection" "technology" is just added reverb, which does indeed replicate a live concert... held in a gym. Reflections smear the sound, leading to a loss of clarity. That is why recording studios have foam on the walls at the reflection points between the monitors and the engineer's chair. Good concert halls are also designed to control reflections, and sound-absorbing acoustic panels are one of the cheapest and easiest upgrades you can make to your stereo.  (If you want reverb, most stereo receivers these days have a number of "hall" or "concert" settings which will add reverb. But can still be turned off any time you want to hear that jazz singer as though she were sitting right across from you.) It's a little harder to mess up in-ear headphones, but there are still better brands for the money.

Check out the Etymotic line here.

Sound off

 

Submitted by Eric Daniel

In the Army, it seems to be a rite of passage that troops use their first paycheck right out of Basic Training to buy the biggest, most expensive stereo they can find at the PX.  While I won’t say I was immune to the temptation (after all, I was single, had no bills, and was flush with disposable income) I did curb the urge to go right out and get one.  After all, I was on day 120 of a 4 year commitment, so I had plenty of time.  Besides, with three other roommates, who had all succumbed, there was more than enough stereo to go around.

Anyway, long story short, just before I ETSed, I made my stereo purchases, and of all the equipment I bough on the way out, the only items still in use are my Bose 901 speakers.  Though they can be a bit demanding on how they’re set up for optimal sound, properly deployed I think they are some of the best speakers available.

Well, while on deployment, I started thinking how nice it would be to be able to take my mind off the fact that I was trying to sleep in a non-air conditioned brick oven.  As with garrison duty, there were quite a few folk who had purchases stereo equipment and had it shipped in theater.  Well, I decided there was no way in hell I was going to try and go that route; the combination of sand, dust, heat, and wind is pretty destructive to electrical equipment over there, and besides, I wanted something portable.  In addition, I didn’t want anything that had to compete with ambient noise, since I couldn’t turn the war off, I was going to have to go with something that generated sound closer to my ears, namely headphones.  Well, the one thing I didn’t want was a CVC sized unit taking up space on my head, and in my bag, so if I was going to get headphones, they would have to be small, and easy to pack up.

Going back to my experience with Bose, what I settled on were the Bose triport, in-ear headphones.  Simply put, for their size, these little earpieces put out the best sound quality I’ve experienced.  While larger units might produce better range, these are usable anywhere (though granted, I still use cheap, “disposable” headphones when I’m at the gym or what not) and will fit in my pocket.

Check out the Bose in-ear headphones here.

Running on Sunshine

Submitted by Eric Daniel

While having a wall charger for my iPod Shuffle (and the Nano for that matter) gave me the flexibility to charge the units in something other than a computer (which, in turn, needs its own power source) what I was ultimately looking for was a way to sever the power cable link all together.

It wasn’t until someone sent me a reference on solar chargers that I thought about going that route, but once I did, it finally cut my dependency on generated power completely.

The charger I settled on was the Solio Classic universal charger.  The charger itself is a collapsing three bladed affair.  To charge the unit you spread out the three nested solar panels (much like the spreaders on a camo net pole) and set the unit in the sun.  It takes about 8 hours to fully charge the unit, after which you can plug it into your device and transfer the power.  The battery in the Solio will hold its charge for about a year, and in the event you have wall power, you can plug the unit into the wall to charge it in only a couple of hours.  With no moving parts, the Solio is very durable, and has a wide operational temperature range (-4 to 131 degrees F.)  Finally, it is adaptable to charging a variety of mobile phones, including Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, and LG.

Check out the Solio charger here.

Doing the iPod Shuffle

  
Submitted by Eric Daniel

One day, in January of 1991, while I was sitting in a tent outside the Saudi port city of Jubail waiting for our tanks to arrive, our battalion CSM stopped by, congratulated me, and handed me a box.  Inside the box was a Sony walkman (one of thousands Sony had donated to the troops during the Gulf War.)  While this was all good and well, I had neither tapes to play in it, nor batteries to run it.  Well, I managed to scrounge some batteries for it, and while I waited for tapes to arrive, I whiled away my time listening to the BBC during radio watch.  Unfortunately, as luck would have it, one day, a gust of wind knocked my walkman from it’s perch atop the TC’s .50 mount and it fell to the turret floor, breaking into several pieces (to add insult to injury, I got a box of tapes a week later.) 

Nearly 30 years later, I once again have tunes.  This time, I’m using an iPod Shuffle (and yes, it's pink, the better not to lose it.)  While I have both an iPod Nano (a birthday gift) and the Shuffle, the Shuffle is the one I travel with.  It’s small, easy to use, durable, and lasts a long, long time.  It is also capable of surviving falls from altitude, and is easy to squirrel away.

I initially had reservations about using an iPod product though. While iTunes is great and wonderful, and it does allow me to copy music I already have on CDs into its format to load onto the player, I wasn’t a big fan of the fact that you had to plug it into a computer to charge it.  I could go without updating my song lists if I had to, but there had to be a better way of charging it (generic MP3 players, on the other hand, though less durable and larger, could run off of AA batteries, which are more plentiful now in 2009 than they were in 1991.)

Ask and you shall receive they say, so a little looking around turned up a plug in charger.  Made by Belkin (part #F8Z240),  the charger has collapsible prongs, so it takes up less storage space, and has a rotating head, so that you can shoehorn it into tight spaces.  In addition, the charger is equipped with two USB ports for charging multiple units. Yes, Apple offers a wall charger for their iPods, but it's the same price, lacks the dual ports, swivel head, and the collapsing prongs.  The Belkin charger lists for $29.

Check out the iPod Shuffle here.

Have Coffee, Will Travel

Submitted by Eric Daniel

Ok, here’s the situation.  You’re a coffee junkie who happens to be a NASA astronaut, not to mention having a doctorate in chemical engineering, trapped in a weightless environment where the lack of gravity makes it impossible to enjoy that mandatory cup of joe in the morning.

Solution?  Fabricate yourself a zero-g coffee cup out of a piece of overhead plastic from your handy dandy shuttle flight data file book, which is exactly what NASA astronaut and engineer Dr. Donald Pettit did.

The problem in space is that, with a lack of gravity, there’s no way to draw the liquid out of the cup (if you think about it, one normally brings the cup up to the mouth and tilts it to either “pour” the liquid into the mouth, or in the case of hot fluids, such as coffee, bring the surface of the liquid close to the mouth where it can be sipped.)  In space, no matter how you tilt the cup, the liquid is not coming out.  This is why astronauts have traditionally consumed fluids from pouches, using straws to draw the liquid out.

Well, Dr. Pettit, having worked with Los Alamos labs on a variety of experiments, including reduced gravity fluid flow and problems in detonation physics (yes, he’s a rocket scientist) applied the same technological concepts to his coffee cup design that rocket designers do to their zero-g fuel tanks.  Zero-g fuel tanks are shaped like a traditional aircraft wing (airfoil), with a large rounded edge (the leading edge) and a sharp angle on the other (trailing) edge.  As Dr. Pettit explains in this video, “If the angle (of the trailing edge of the airfoil “cup”) is less than 2 x (90-contact wetting angle), then the fluid will be drawn up out of the coffee ( by wicking action created by the interaction between the fluid and the angled surface of the cup.)  This will allow you to sip, not suck, a fluid out of the cup as the wicking action will continue to draw more fluid up from the bottom of the cup.

Granted, this little discovery isn’t on the same order of criticality as the “Franken-filter” NASA engineers had to come up with for the lithium hydroxide CO2 scrubbers on the Apollo 13 lunar module, but it’s still pretty slick.

Drano Drops

Submitted by Eric Daniel

I like breathing.  Call me a wimp, but the fact is, I’m not worth a flip during the day if I can’t breathe.  Well, one day, when I was feeling particularly sickly and stuffed up on a trip to The Netherlands I was introduced to Fisherman’s Friend lozenges.  The Dutch girl I was dating at the time said they were, “strong, drop strong.”  Now, for those of you uninitiated to the concept of “Drop”, the uncrowned national candy of Holland, Drop are a cross between black licorice and Clorox, with an emphasis on the Clorox part.  Never in my life have I experienced anything more foul and disgusting than drop, but if she said these FF things were strong, maybe they’d unplug my nose and let me breathe normally again.

The effect was instant and immediate.  Sucking on one of those little brown Drano drops cleared my nose right up and got me breathing again.

That was 1989 and Fisherman’s Friend drops are still a standard part of my field gear.  I’m told they come in a variety of flavors, but the ones I keep using are the originals, which still do the trick.  If you are looking to take them to the field, I’d suggest you hit up a drug store and get the tin and then buy packs in bulk and just refill the tin as you go.  Be forewarned though, they are NOT yummie (unless you like Drop that is…)

Get yourself some Fisherman's Friends here