Airborne: A Guided Tour of an Airborne Task Force

Clothing/Body Armor

We’ll start our examination of soldiers’ personal gear with what they wear on their heads: the helmet. Back in ancient times, the Roman legionary’s head was protected by a bronze or iron helmet, often decorated with distinctive plumes or a horsehair crest so that officers could identify their own men in the confusion of battle. It provided a minimum of protection against the shock of being clubbed or chopped at, and would hardly do on the battlefields of today.

Today’s standard American “Fritz” or “K-Pot” helmet is made of Dupont Kevlar, a synthetic fiber material stronger and lighter than steel. It greatly resembles the helmets used by German forces throughout this century, and provides the best level of cranial protection available. There is an elaborate internal suspension system of straps and padding, and a replaceable fabric cover that provides for attaching camouflage to make the soldier more inconspicuous in battle. The K-Pot weighs about 31b/1.35 kg, and is secured by a chin strap. For the paratroops, this is tightly fastened before a jump. (This is one piece of gear you don’t want coming loose in a 130-knot slipstream!) Many armies have issued special paratroop helmets (designed with extra padding, or special compact shapes to reduce fraying or possible interference with parachute shroud lines), but the U.S. Army considers the standard infantry helmet, correctly worn, to be perfectly good for jumping.

There are two other items of headgear carried by paratroops. The soft cotton Battle Dress Uniform (BDU) hat is normally worn outdoors in non-combat situations. The other hat is the famous maroon airborne beret, made of wool felt and adorned with a regimental badge. This is typically worn on formal or ceremonial occasions, or in barracks. The floppy but dashing beret is the traditional hat of the Basque people, tough mountain folk who live in the Pyrenees between France and Spain, and was adopted long ago as a distinctive emblem by elite French Alpine troops. When the first British parachute regiment was established in 1940, it selected the maroon beret as its symbol (the Royal Tank Regiment already wore black berets). U.S. Army Airborne troops adopted the custom after World War II.

Moving down from the trooper’s head, we want now to examine the clothing worn into battle. At first in Roman times, the legionary’s legs were usually bare in all weather. But in the 5th century AD, the Romans adopted trousers from their barbarian foes and allies. Since that time, uniforms have evolved from a ceremonial decoration to a practical device for providing both protection against the elements and a bit of stealth for the infantry.

The modern U.S. BDU is the product of decades of research and engineering. There are three weights, depending on climate, and several camouflage color schemes: forest green, desert tan, and brown (the troops call them “chocolate chips”); white and gray for mountain/arctic conditions; and a dark, rarely seen night/urban pattern. The lightweight shirt and trousers are 100 percent cotton; the heavier weights are 50 percent cotton/50 percent synthetic fiber. BDUs are cut large for easy movement, so they look baggy. Airborne units, though, with their tradition of pride in looking sharp, manage to wear their BDUs with a little more style than most Army outfits as a result of tailoring and starching.

The BDU shirt, usually worn over a cotton undershirt of standard Army olive drab, has reinforced elbows, adjustable cuffs, and four button-down “bellows” pockets for ammunition, food, and other essentials. The trousers have two roomy side pockets, along with the usual front and back pockets. Adjustable waist tabs and drawstring ties at the ankles ensure a tight fit around the boot tops. In general, the BDUs are quite comfortable and wear well. In more temperate climates, troops carry the wonderful 4-1b/1.8-kg “field jacket,” a comfortable and versatile garment with an optional button-in liner and an attached hood that stows inside a clever zipped pouch.

Based largely in the muggy southern United States, with much of its recent operational experience in desert and jungle conditions, the U.S. Army has been slow to develop good cold-weather equipment. Back in the savage winters of the Korean War (1950-53), the Army’s outfits were inferior even when compared to the crude quilted jackets and fur hats worn by the Chinese Communist forces. Most cold weather injuries and fatalities are not due to frostbite, but rather to hypothermia (excessively low body core temperature) caused by loss of heat through wet garments. The new U.S. Extended Cold Weather Clothing System (ECWCS) finally reflects the lessons learned by the Army in Alaska, the U.S. Marines in Norway, and generations of research and development by civilian mountaineering and camping equipment suppliers. Much of the credit for the success of the new ECWCS clothing goes to a remarkable synthetic fabric called Gore-Tex. This lightweight material “breathes” through microscopic pores (9 billion per square in/1.4 billion per square cm), allowing body moisture to escape, but keeping warm air in and cold out. A layer of Gore-Tex is sandwiched between layers of nylon to make up a light but warm outer garment. The Inuit (“Eskimo”) peoples of the Arctic discovered this principle centuries ago, wearing their superbly crafted multi-layer fur garments with the fur on the inside to wick moisture away from the body. The ECWCS includes a hooded parka, gloves, and outer trousers. Gloves are a tough design challenge, since the soldier needs to be able to fire his weapon, operate a radio, and perform other precise tasks without losing any fingers to frostbite. The current standard cold- weather gloves are made of leather, in three sizes, with separate woolen liners.

To a soldier, any soldier, there is no more important piece of personal gear than boots. You can be stark naked, and still live to fight another day if you have boots to protect your feet as you walk to shelter. The legionary’s feet were shod with leather sandals, studded with iron hobnails for traction. Two thousand years later, there is still no more flexible and durable base material than leather for footwear. This means that most boots still have leather “uppers.” However, the modern rubber-soled jump boot does have a steel insert for protection against punji stakes and similar battlefield hazards.[22] The highly polished black jump boot is the revered symbol of the U.S. Airborne forces, even more than the beret or the winged parachute emblem. Any non-airborne-qualified soldier who appears in public wearing jump boots will be politely asked (once!) to remove them. The current jump boot is tall, providing strong and heavily padded ankle support. This is vital in helping heavily loaded paratroops avoid serious injuries during landings. Like a hockey skate, it is tightly bound with “speed laces,” secured by blackened brass fittings. A pair of jump boots weighs about 41b/1.8 kg, and several highly regarded manufacturers, including Danner and Corcoran, produce them.

It is a matter of some interest that the only really “new” piece of personal equipment that has been issued to the infantry in the last half century is body armor (the famous “flak jacket”). Back in the old days, our legionary’s torso was protected by thirty pounds or more of flexible armor, the lorica (originally made of chain mail, later from segmented steel plates fastened to a leather harness), which was worn over a padded linen or woolen tunic. Today’s flak jacket protects the same vital areas with less weight and greater effectiveness through a combination of advanced synthetic materials (mostly Kevlar) and metal/ceramic inserts.

As the name suggests, flak jackets were originally developed in World War II to protect bomber crews from antiaircraft shell fragments. An improved model was widely used by American troops in Vietnam, where it was credited with saving thousands of lives. The current protective vest weighs about 20 1b/9.1 kg, and is designed to stop a 7.62mm round at short range. The bullet may knock you down, or even crack a rib (it will definitely leave you severely bruised!), but you will be alive. Airborne troops do not normally jump wearing flak jackets — the weight is simply too great. The troops’ protective vests are dropped separately, and are normally worn on patrols or when close combat is expected. The greatest complaint about the current vest is that it is torture in hot weather, since it does not “breathe.” For these reasons, the Army is continuing research and development toward lighter, more breathable protective gear.

The design of effective body armor depends on a profound understanding of the gruesome science of “wound ballistics.” Unlike a tank, it is not practical to protect the soldier’s body with a thick mass of dense, rigid material. However, you can make a flexible (though binding vest) by building up dozens of layers of Kevlar fabric running in different directions, reinforced with overlapping metal or ceramic plates at key points. This spreads out the impact energy of a bullet or fragment over a wider area, preventing a potentially lethal penetration. Body armor is particularly valuable in peacekeeping and “operations other than war,” where the hazards are sim-ilarto those encounters by civilian law enforcement. Just ask any city cop if he thinks protective vests are for sissies!