Proper Military Apparel

http://www.urgentcustomessays.com/blog/2011/07/proper-military-apparel/Proper Military ApparelEssay Blog

Indoctrination and instilling the sense of organization and order has always relied on clothing and uniforms in our military. This is why the Russian Armed Forces have always assigned a special role to military uniform. Alongside its purely military function, it requires military people to be disciplined, tidy, smart and bear with dignity the honorable name of defenders of Motherland, prize the honor, valor and glory of its Armed Forces. Military clothing and related gear constitute a set of pieces of military clothing, footwear and gear designed to be worn by members of the military and standardized with regard to their outward signs. Military clothing and military footwear are called uniforms. The essential outward signs of pieces of military clothing and uniform include: their design and color, decorative and distinguishing elements of appropriate colors (piping, trouser strips, cap bands, central strips on shoulder boards), accessories of authorized design, shoulder boards and tabs. Worn with military uniform are government decorations, insignia, distinctive devices and other military heraldic symbols established under prescribed regulations.
Today, the total number of names of clothing and related gear runs into more than six thousand. They include: 1,500 names of outer clothing; 500 names of footwear and individual gear; 2,000 names of special clothing and footwear; 1,500 names of other articles. Supplies to the military of the above over recent 10 or 15 years were affected by severe financial constraints (at the rate of nearly 20 percent of the minimum requirement). Provision of clothing and related gear for our military was thus an uphill task. At the same time, the main problems involved in the provision of clothing and related gear to the military were resolved in 2001-2003:
* There was a timely transition to wearing seasonal military clothing and uniforms in a timely manner and without any disruptions or breaking into the emergency supplies;
* All categories of military personnel are provided with field clothing;
* Every year, the industry manufactured around 30,000 sets of service uniforms for officers and at the same time Voyentorg [Commissary] tailors made service uniforms (20,000 sets);
* Records are kept of backlog money due to military personnel for undelivered clothing and related gear and the payment of refunds began in 2003 at the rate of 2.05 billion rubles with a total of another 2.4 billion to be paid in 2004 (this means, we will pay off the clothing and related gear backlog during 2004-2005).
In compliance with the RF President’s instructions, we have studied the question of providing in 2004 of service uniform articles to all members of contract-based service personnel. Up for approval are draft edicts of the RF President “On Military Uniform, Insignia and Distinctive Devices of Military Personnel” and of a government resolution “On the Rate of Supplies of Clothing and Related Gear, Bath and Laundry Services for Military Personnel in Peacetime” both of which call for optimization of service rates. Members of military personnel should be provided with the usual sets of clothing and uniforms to keep up their outward appearance in line with corresponding traditions of the Russian Army and Navy and to make them feel comfortable operating in various climatic and weather conditions. In accordance with the draft edict of the RF President “On Military Uniform …,” a new order of the day of the RF Defense Minister is being drafted “On Regulations Governing the Wearing of Military Clothing and Uniform by RF Armed Forces Personnel” which will specify types of military uniform: army uniforms for Ground Forces personnel and navy uniforms for members of the Navy, each of which (with the exception of uniforms for seagoing personnel) are divided into dress uniforms, service uniforms and field uniforms. Military clothing of the Navy is further divided into three varieties: shipboard clothing, clothing for shore troops and other troops comprising shore troops, the Air Force and the Air Defense of the Navy. Regulations specify the wearing of a standard field camouflage clothing as service uniform for sergeants and ordinary soldiers of the Ground Forces, navy petty officers and sailors serving on the contract and draft basis in shore troops and units of the Navy. At the same time, dress uniforms for the Navy are also standard and they will be made of black woolen fabric. Thus, it will be possible to preserve the traditional appearance of servicemen and reduce the number of varieties of sets of clothing for the Ground Forces from 36 to 14 and for the Navy, from 55 to 21.
The main rates of clothing and related gear supply will be determined by the above resolution of the RF Government and the order of the day of the defense minister. On the whole, the proposed regulations governing the supply are going to reduce cost by 700 million rubles and most certainly preserve intact the quality of articles of military clothing, footwear and personal gear. Over the last three years the following new items of clothing and related gear have been adopted for general issue: a special winter suit for military personnel who service and maintain military equipment, special-purpose boots, frame tents, a special poncho, summer and winter suits for traffic control and regulation service units, etc. Work is in progress to improve on existing field uniforms for combat in mountainous terrain, being prepared for issue (after successful performance tests) are a mountain climbing costume and tent, special cold-proof boots for especially cold climates. Being upgraded are knitted wear for all categories of military personnel to lend it better thermal insulation properties. Work continues on advanced models of clothing and related gear with performance characteristics that are appreciably higher than those currently issued.
Developed and adopted for issue have been: tents for three and four persons (M-3 and M-4) to house in field conditions crews of combat vehicles (folded up and packed, they can be carried with ease by one serviceman), tents M-10 and M-30 (for units of 10 and 30 men accordingly) mounted on light metal frames. The latter is designed so that it can be used as a module for putting it back to back with similar tents for increased living space. Work continues to further improve military footwear and methods of its manufacture. Manufacturers have adopted the advanced technique of attaching the bottom part of footwear by the method of casting. Boots using the method of casting now weigh 1.6 kg instead of 2.1 kg and are much more resistant to wear and tear. One of the important conditions of maintaining high combat readiness of the RF Armed Forces is to upgrade personal gear and equipment of personnel. The experience of regional conflicts, emergency situations and peacekeeping confirms the need for rethinking the prevailing tendencies in developing military clothing and footwear and adopting new models. The focus should be on upgrading clothing, footwear and personal gear and equipment for troops performing special missions under a variety of conditions as well as on modernization and standardization of articles of military clothing, footwear and personal gear and equipment.
Thus, standardization of military clothing and uniform and materials needed to manufacture them will reduce development, manufacture, servicing and mending costs because the same articles of military clothing and uniform can be used by several services and arms of the military and newly developed models can use elements and units and components already used in manufacture that have proved to be highly reliable under military conditions. The leadership of the RF Armed Forces Central Clothing and Related Gear Directorate and clothing and related gear services of the military districts and fleets have come up with appropriate proposals on developing military clothing and uniforms. It is advisable to focus scientific research first of all on improving creature comforts of troops under field conditions, developing and upgrading articles of military uniform and personal gear and equipment of military personnel, creating articles of special clothing that use novel design solutions, advanced techniques and materials. With this purpose in mind researchers are developing lightweight winter clothing with enhanced thermal insulation properties and a fundamentally new set of clothing and footwear using membrane polytetrafluorethylene which is very water resistant while vapor permeable. It is necessary to say in conclusion that activities currently underway in the Rear Services of the RF Armed Forces will make it possible to improve provision of members of the military with clothing and related gear of new and improved quality.
Clothing made of monolithic materials is currently being used to protect emergency responders or military personnel, who are at high risk of exposure to extremely hazardous gases and chemicals, but these nonporous materials offer no breathability. To achieve comfort, these materials are often used in a suit that combines a respirator, an air system, and a cooling vest. For first responders and military personnel who risk exposure to less-toxic materials and who require higher agility and endurance, protective clothing made of microporous membranes can be considered. With this goal in mind, Obendorf’s team launched an exploration of a family of microporous membranes made of polymers other than fluorocarbon. “We took another hard look at the features that would give a material both comfort and protection,” Obendorf recounts. “It really comes back to pore size. Pore sizes smaller than can be attained by conventional nonwoven and woven textiles are necessary to provide the level of chemical and biological protection required for first responders, medical personnel, and chemical workers. Polymer films with micropores or fibrous webs made with nanofibers can provide the desired range of pore sizes. So we decided to try our hand at electrospinning.”
Electrospinning is an effective technique for producing fibers with tiny diameters, says Obendorf. She describes the end product of electrospinning as “an ultrathin membrane-like web of extremely fine fibers with very small pore size.” The technique has a lot to offer, including the simplicity of making fibers with a small apparatus that sits on a table in a lab and doesn’t require an elaborate manufacturing process. Unlike conventional fiber-forming methods that rely on mechanical forces, electrospinning uses electrical forces. When high voltage is applied to a droplet of a polymer, a thin jet of the liquid polymer is pulled with it toward a grounded target. The resulting fibers, nanometers in diameter and continuous in length, can be collected into a metal plate. The tiny diameter of the fibers gives them a high surface area, low volume, and high porosity that enable them to capture more contaminants. A study Obendorf conducted with former graduate student Seungsin Lee found that when one gram per square meter of electrospun fibers was added to a nonwoven fabric, pesticide penetration of the fabric decreased significantly.
One new avenue of research Obendorf mentions is spraying electrospun fibers directly onto three-dimensional forms so that the thickness of the fiber web could be varied at different locations on a garment, offering zones of protection where needed. Layering electrospun nomvovens has proved successful at achieving a level of air permeability and water vapor transmission comparable to typical, woven, work clothing. In addition to controlling the physical structures of the materials, scientists can engineer the surface chemistry of a fabric. Recently, Obendorf’s lab successfully grafted a hydrophyllic material on a Hydrophobic membrane to create a novel microporous polyurethane membrane with tiny pores that open and close in response to moisture stimuli. These hold great promise for protecting medical workers from bloodborne pathogens such as hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HIV. They have also found that when one of the N-halamine family of disinfectants is added to electrospun nylon membranes, the modified fibers exhibit significant antimicrobial properties. The same N-halamines will also decompose some classes of pesticides. “If yon can decompose the pesticide when it hits the textile, then you will increase protection,” Obendorf says. “One of the biggest issues in doing this is to make sure you are not making things that are equally or more toxic. And, with nanoscale fibers, cleaning them for reuse is a challenge.”
Most people don’t know that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ranks indoor air pollution among the top five environmental risks to public health. EPA studies show that the levels of many airborne pollutants may actually be two to five times, and as much as 100 times, higher indoors than outdoors, and that 80 to 90 percent of human exposure to pesticides occurs indoors. Also, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration estimates that approximately one out of three Americans working in nonindustrial buildings such as offices, schools, and hospitals are exposed to poor indoor air quality in their workplaces — excluding the influence of tobacco smoke. For more than 15 years, the College of Human Ecology’s Department of Fiber Science & Apparel Design (formerly called Textiles and Apparel) has collaborated with the Department of Design and Environmental Analysis to study how indoor air quality can be adversely affected by an array of contaminants, including volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by common household cleaning products, paints, and pesticides. A recent study of 41 households in central New York State conducted by Obendorf and Ann Lemley, of Fiber Science & Apparel Design, and Alan Hedge, of Design and Environmental Analysis, showed that carpeting, curtains, and other fabrics used in built environments collect and hold indoor air contaminants, and available filtration systems are not effective in controlling them.
Although this is not good news, it has led fiber scientists in the college to consider putting the adsorbent properties of textiles to use in purifying, rather than polluting, the air. Postdoc Dionysios Vynias, a fiber scientist from the University of Manchester, United Kingdom, has been working closely with Margaret Frey, the Lois and Mel Tukman Assistant Professor of Fiber Science & Apparel Design, and two student interns on developing and testing nanofibers that can be embedded into conventional textiles and used as highly sensitive filters. Incorporated into wall coverings, upholstery, draperies, canopies, or office partitions, these filters would fit unobtrusively into a variety of indoor settings.

Reference:

Guttman, Jon. Military History, Mar/Apr2008, Vol. 25 Issue 1, p21-21, 1p;

Ulrich, Clare. Human Ecology, Nov2007, Vol. 35 Issue 2, p18-21, 4p;

Smith, Clive Stafford. New Statesman, 10/29/2007, Vol. 137 Issue 4866, p34-34, 1p, 1c;

Preventive Maintenance Monthly, Sep2007 Issue 658, p26-26, 1p;

Morrissey, James A.. Textile World, Sep/Oct2007, Vol. 157 Issue 5, p12-12, 3/4p;

Rodie, Janet Beater. Textile World, Sep/Oct2007, Vol. 157 Issue 5, p98-98, 1p;

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