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More Super Soldier stuff. I was reading in a book by a Green Beret who served in Vietnam, where he mentioned a new type of grenade launcher they received that h
by themodelplumber 13y ago
More Super Soldier stuff. I was reading in a book by a Green Beret who served in Vietnam, where he mentioned a new type of grenade launcher they received that had a faster rate of fire than the standard one. I thought, "oh this is going to be exciting, he's leading up to something here" but what the author lead up to was a description of the extreme strain on the guy who was lugging the thing around through the hot jungle. First he begged to be allowed to bury the extra grenades and then after doing that asked (IIRC) if he could just leave the weapon behind--they were being pursued by Viet Cong. Ever since I read that, I look at the Super Soldier stories in a different light. These guys are alpha-testing stuff that could just as easily get them killed. Having worn contacts I can only imagine the type of reaction this might get from someone who has served in dusty or polluted areas.
Edit: Didn't mean to sound grouchy :D
- MetaCosm 13y agoTo be fair, the military did learn the weight / strain lesson fairly well in the 50s and 60s. A lot of current research is to decrease "operating strain". This includes like auto-adapting auditory / visual restrainers, exo-skeletons, etc.