My dad was deployed to Vietnam during the war, and my husband has been deployed to Iraq twice in the past couple of years; so I'll list the differences from a soldier's perspective.
During Vietnam, American troops wore flak jackets or vests. The term "flak" comes from the German word "Fliegerabwehrkanone" which literally means "antiaircraft gun." You can see why GIs shortened it to "flak"! The jackets had plates sewn into pocket-type areas to stop bullets, shrapnel, etc. They were heavy and bulky, but they are not actually as heavy as the current armor that soldiers wear. The helmets during Vietnam were basically the same shape, but they were made out of steel.
Today's soldiers still wear versions of the flak vests, but they have easy-to-remove Kevlar plates. With the plates in and with full armor on, a soldier can weigh upwards of 60 pounds more than his normal weight. Part of this is because the armor has different parts to attach to the vest and even some leg armor. The helmets look similar, but instead of being one colored, they are camouflage and made out of Kevlar. Soldiers can put padding (much like the kind that goes in a football player's helmet) inside the helmet to make it fit better and to make it more comfortable. The theory in switching from steel to Kevlar is that it supposedly stops shrapnel better, and since IEDs have become the weapon of choice for many insurgents and enemy combatant, that is highly important.
One last note, soldiers in Vietnam had a lot more lenency about whether they wore their armor. Part of this is because it was so hot and humid in Vietnam. Modern-day soldiers do not have such a choice and, with the advance of weaponology, would probably choose to wear the armor anyway anytime that they are outside the wire.
No comments:
Post a Comment