more about the military and socks

ELABORATE

I just published an article titled “insanity” which I believe is what the military is approaching with respect to how best to keep a soldier’s feet warm or better said from freezing while operating in cold or arctic conditions.

Those responsible for providing the soldier with appropriate footwear specifically socks for starters either have no knowledge of what they are looking for or if they do, they avoid using that knowledge.

Since I was in the army and issued cotton socks that were miserable, they have changed to wool socks. As I said each year for the past 3 years, I am a where of a new award that has been made to a different company. I believe the reason is solely because what they purchased previously did not work.

These people do not understand, nor do they want too that wool is an excellent absorber of moisture! Of course, as I have further stated surrounding the socks on your feet with goretex lined boots assures that the moisture is not going to move away from the skin surface of the foot assuring moist feet.

What I do not understand is why the Marine Corp having spent probably a million dollars, I really do not know how much, doing a study to understand why their Marines where experiencing cold feet with sores accept these new wool socks each winter. The Marines learned the cause of problems was wet feet! I believe there are new Marine officers moving up the ranks with these responsibilities who are as ill-informed as those they are replacing. I also know the new civilians that take over at Natick are also ill informed about what they should know to do their jobs.

My activity with Natick Labs starts in 1968 when Celanese introduced them to Polar Guard. Over these many years I have seen people come and go and the new people are less knowledgeable than those they replace. What I have also noted is that the new people become more and more adamant with their position and the position they take is “IF WE DIDN’T INVENT IT, IT IS NOT GOOD”! in your face.

When I wanted the Marines to pull the Muk Luk award to outdoor research a marine spoke to Natick about my Muk Luks and when I tried to speak to the individual at Natick, he chose not to speak with me. Today both are persona-non-grata as far as I am concerned.

Over the years it has become very clear to me that the welfare of the soldier i.e. grunt is not in the forefront of the minds of those charged with the responsibility of keeping the soldier comfortable in all weather conditions, specifically their feet. They apparently do not know, and I mean KNOW that feet are easily the most important part of the human body to take care of.

The people at Natick who are new to their positions chose not to rock the boat and those who have moved into these positions in the military do get their information from Natick. I have over the years been told that they go along with Natick information.

There is one simple action a soldier can take, and that is to buy my socks. My socks were actually a major up grade of a quilted sock that was issued to soldiers about 10 years ago. I know this because I was quilting the materials for two boot manufactures. The only problem was the quilt pattern was a 1x ½ inch diamond, the fabric on each side was a very tightly knitted material and the filler was thinsulate so moist had no way to get out of the socks. The fabric was stiff and uncomfortable against the skin. I started selling them and my customers were not impressed so Kok and I made what we sell today. Lamilite socks are comfortable with proven performance by my customers not any laboratory tests.

So again, I ask soldiers to do what is in their best interest because those in charge of doing this are in my opinion based on my knowledge will not. My socks will also help to ward off the problems of goretex boots.

I can assure you if I had gone to Natick they would NOT have listened, and of course, if I were ever to go to Natick, they would not listen to anything I had to say. However, that will never happen.

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This morning I sat at my computer to find 4 emails with attachments to the article that Bob Gore died. So, I looked at them to see what new information I could learn about him. There was the personal stuff as you could imagine and glorification of his creation of a non-functioning product. What follows is their explanation of what Bob Gore made. Also, I have included comments where applicable.

“Gore-Tex is typically placed between an outer fabric and an inner lining. The material allows moisture to pass easily from one layer through the next, a process known as wicking. [Whoever wrote this obviously has no knowledge of what wicking action is. Since all materials involved with the manufacture of goretex are synthetic so they are in capable of doing what natural fabrics such as cotton can do, and that is wick moisture.] This, and a polymer coating that increases the ability of the fabric to repel water, [ Only for a short period of time.] reduce the chance that the wearer will become damp, cold, or a victim of heat loss. [Again, the write exhibits a lack of knowledge, all of the actions the writer mentions do happen.] In 1989, Gore began to license manufacturers to use the Gore-Tex material and label: however, products must survive rigorous testing in the Gore company's rain room, abrasion tests and washing machines to be authorized for market release.[gore in my opinion probably passed any and all companies that wanted to by their film.]

It is my belief that Bob Gore has gone to his grave knowing that goretex was the biggest lie ever perpetrated on the textile business in my lifetime working in the textile business