Army Base Research Articles

Electronic Cigarette Use and Related Factors among Active Duty Service Members in the U.S. Military.

Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) are increasingly used in the U.S.A. by young people. As young adults serve as the primary recruiting pool for military, active duty service members in military may be susceptible to using e-cigarettes. However, factors related to e-cigarette use in military population have rarely been studied. We aimed to identify factors associated with e-cigarette use and factors related to duration of use among active duty service members. Subjects (N=2,467) from Fort Bragg Army Base, North Carolina and Lackland Air Force Base, Texas completed a self-administered questionnaire during July 2015 to May 2016 time frame. The questionnaire collected data on demographic and military characteristics, tobacco use (including e-cigarette use) and other information. Stepwise logistic regression was performed to identify significant factors associated with e-cigarette use. Stepwise linear regression was performed to identify factors associated with duration of use. A total of 356 (14.4%) study participants reported ever use of e-cigarettes. There was no significant difference in prevalence of use between the two military installations (15.6% at Fort Bragg vs. 13.2% at Lackland, P=0.097). Increased use of e-cigarettes was associated with young age (20-24years old) (OR=1.98, 95% CI=1.22-3.22), enlisted military rank (E1-E4: OR=2.45, 95% CI=1.36-4.40; E5-E9: OR=1.88, 95% CI=1.10-3.21), low perception of harm (OR=5.18, 95% CI=3.65-7.34), former (OR=9.12, 95% CI=6.29-13.22) and current (OR=13.24, 95% CI=9.22-19.02) cigarette smoking, and former smokeless tobacco use (OR=2.07, 95% CI=1.33-3.22), former (OR=2.62, 95% CI=1.42-4.85) and current (OR=2.82, 95% CI=1.82-4.37) cigar or pipe smoking. However, serving mainly in combat unit during deployment was associated with decreased odds of use (OR=0.57, 95% CI=0.34-0.97). Among e-cigarette users, the number of years using e-cigarettes was significantly longer among the participants with lower perception of harm than those with higher perception of harm (0.82 vs. 0.22, P<0.001), and the duration was longer among subjects who used e-cigarette with nicotine than those without nicotine (0.79 vs. 0.49, P=0.003). Finally, reasons for use differed markedly by cigarette smoking status. Never smokers used e-cigarette for the taste or flavor, while cigarette smokers used e-cigarette to help quit tobacco or reduce tobacco use. Young age, lower military ranks, other tobacco use, and low perception of harm were associated with increased odds of using e-cigarettes, while serving in combat unit was associated with decreased odds of use in active duty service members. Low harm perception and using nicotine-containing e-cigarettes were associated with long duration of use. The reasons for using e-cigarettes differed by cigarette smoking status. Our study provides clues for future hypothesis-driven studies.

Evaluation of the energy performance of a net zero energy building in a hot and humid climate

In the past 20 years, the U.S. Army has made significant progress in making their facilities more energy efficient. Currently, the Army is required by law to eliminate fossil fuel use in new and renovated facilities by 2030 and to reduce overall facility energy usage 30% by 2030. As part of this on-going energy efficiency effort, the U.S. Army has designed and constructed a Net Zero Energy Building (NZEB) at the Fort Hood army base in Texas, which is currently being tested as a prototype. In order to achieve net zero performance and reduce the energy demand, several low-energy building technologies were designed and built including high-efficiency heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system, a high-performance building envelope, energy efficient lighting and a solar PV system. This paper presents the results of an evaluation of the net zero energy performance of the office building at the Fort Hood army base using measured data. The analysis methods applied to the building include: an un-adjusted, measured energy use comparison of both portions of the building; a weather-normalized, change-point linear regression to estimate annual energy savings; and calibrated building energy simulations with thermostat schedules and occupancy conditions of both portions in the building. The results show savings of 37–50% for the renovated portion of the building (i.e., NZEB) compared to the un-renovated portion depending on the method of analysis.

Transpacific Camptowns: Korean Women, US Army Bases, and Military Prostitution in America

Abstract Military prostitution has been a staple of US–Korea relations since the 1940s, contained in the so-called camptown communities surrounding US military bases in South Korea. But during the 1970s, as the US military steadily reduced its troop presence in Asia, camptowns were thrown into a chaotic state. Facing tremendous social disorder and economic upheaval, establishments that depended upon GI patronage began sending their madams and sex workers to domestic military sites through brokered marriages with US servicemen. These women arrived in the US South, a region housing the vast majority of America’s military. Consequently, southern bases like Fort Bragg in Fayetteville (NC), Fort Campbell in Clarksville (TN), and Fort Hood in Killeen (TX) saw the proliferation of military prostitution, which took form in illicit massage businesses catering to the sexual needs of local troop populations. By the 1980s, the Korean American sex trade would spread from these southern military towns to elsewhere in the United States. Highlighting the transpacific circuits among camptowns in South Korea and military bases in the United States since 1945, this article develops a portrait of the US South as a transnational militarized terrain, the camptown as a transpacific phenomenon, and Korean immigrant community formation as deeply intertwined with the happenings of US militarism abroad. In doing so, it explains how the proliferation of illicit massage businesses witnessed by southern military communities in the 1970s was a transnational outgrowth of military prostitution encouraged by the US military in South Korea.

The combined effect of phytostabilization and different amendments on remediation of soils from post-military areas

Army bases and battle fields are areas of high pollution due to the chemicals released there. Soils in these areas suffer from these uses of the land, and ecosystem services are affected. Although, in the 20th century, the production of bombs and the locations of battle fields and army bases were widespread, there is little research on the impact of war on nature. Moreover, there is a need to rehabilitate the disturbed soils. The contents and ecological risks of Cu, Ni, Cd, Pb, Zn, and Cr in the topsoil from a post-military area (north-eastern Poland) were investigated. In addition, a vegetation experiment was performed with the technique of aided phytostabilization on soils from the study area. The novelty of this study is the assessment of the usefulness of soil amendments (chalcedonite, limestone, activated carbon) in heavy metal (HM) phytostabilization in contaminated soils from post-military areas. Soil samples were also examined for pollution quantification indicators, including the index of geoaccumulation (Igeo), contamination factor (CF), and degree of contamination, and subjected to the Ostracodtoxkit test. The mean contents of the tested HMs were higher than those stipulated in soil environmental quality standards. The highest Igeo (7.38) and CF (346) values were those of Cr and Zn, respectively. The highest increase in soil pH was observed after the application of limestone to the soil. The greatest reduction in Cu, Ni, and Cd contents was caused by addition of limestone. The contents of HMs in Festuca rubra were higher in its roots than in its above-ground parts.

1970년대 초 한국소설의 미군기지(촌) 재현 양상 연구

1970년대 초 한국소설의 미군기지(촌) 재현 양상 연구

Blast Load Assessment: RC Wall Subjected to Blast Load

The evaluation of the pressure produced by blast load on the structure surface and selected location around with the aid of hydrocodes is studied in this paper. The existing knowledge of predicted blast pressure has been embraced in this paper for initial design in engineering application. The acquired blast parameters from numerical results are compared with blast test data and empirical methods. Besides the comparison, the effects of mesh distribution and air volume size on pressure are also studied. The numerical simulation initially conducted in 3D free air explosion and followed by the consideration of an obstruction structure on the blastwave propagation. The numerical peak incident overpressure indicated, the pressure of 0.51 MPa at 4.62 msec is approximates the overpressure recorded in the explosive test carried out at Fort Leonard Wood Army Base. It is revealed numerically, the overpressure at the bottom part on the wall surface experienced the higher overpressure.

Lead seals with tetrarchic busts from the imperial palace in Sirmium

In the course of archaeological excavations of the north section of the imperial palace in Sirmium (locality 85), conducted in 2015, as many as 39 lead seals were found to the south of column IV of the polygonal structure encountered in 2014. Nine specimens of imperial seals with a representation of four busts, i.e. images of the tetrarchs, are particularly interesting in this group. These seals appear in three iconographic variants (a-c) depending on whether the four busts are positioned in two rows or in a single row and whether they are of identical size. The discovery of imperial lead seals with the busts of tetrarchs bears witness to the importance of Sirmium at the time of the tetrarchy, not only as an army base for Diocletian?s wars against the Sarmatians, but also as a commercial centre where the deliveries of various products also arrived. They were, among other things, intended for building and decorating the polygonal structure used for celebrating the imperial cult.

Without Being Taught

Without Being Taught Elizabeth Miki Brina (bio) I am eleven years old. I am lying on my stomach on the living room floor, too close to the television, watching an episode of Beverly Hills: 90210. My father summons me to the dining room table and I can hardly hear what he says as Dylan declares his love to Brenda, or Brandon declares his love to Kelly, while leaning against a motorcycle or sitting in the backseat of a Cadillac convertible, on a cliff's edge, the city of Los Angeles twinkling below them. Somehow the stories of these characters seem so complex, so compelling, even with everyone leading generally pleasant lives and reciprocating love for each other. My father waits until the commercial, as soon as Noxzema promises to dissolve oil without over-drying. "Elizabeth?" he asks again. "This better not take long." I join my parents at the head of the table, with my mother and father on either side of me, with my back turned toward the television, but I can still hear what Brenda or Kelly will say next if I stretch my ears to listen. My mother sits with her knees bent close to her chest, her nightgown pulled around her legs, her toes clutching the cushion of the chair. Her eyes are wet. My father, as usual, reveals nothing. His shoulders are relaxed, his hands clasped. He gets directly to the point. [End Page 147] "Your mother met a man who is very nice to her …" I wake up, just a little, at that moment. And a wakefulness carries through, just a little, beyond that moment. From now on, I start to pay more attention. I start to watch my own life more carefully. But I won't understand most of it, not for a long time. My mother won't let him finish. "No, stop … Just forget it … I don't want you to say anything else." My father doesn't say anything else. My mother wipes her eyes. I ask, "Can I go watch TV now?" ________ His name was Sonny. And we never spoke of him again, not out in the open like that, with all three of us sitting together at the dining room table. I never saw him at the house again after that conversation. I'd had no idea they were even talking about Sonny until many years later. I remember his long hair and thin mustache. I remember he wore a black leather jacket, which I thought was cool. I remember he took me to Chuck E. Cheese and Ground Round for dinner, won giant stuffed animals for me, twisted balloons into silly shapes for me, bought Aerosmith and Guns N' Roses cassette tapes for me, because the music he blasted through his car stereo made me smile at the breeze out the open window and think I was cool. But the most significant detail about him, a detail I hadn't considered as a child, had to be that he spoke Japanese. Sonny and my mother spoke Japanese. They were two of the few people who spoke Japanese in a small suburb of a small city in upstate New York, where people who spoke languages other than English were scattered across miles and surfaced only occasionally. Sonny and my mother found each other at a restaurant, a Japanese restaurant, where he worked as a sushi chef and she worked as a waitress. My father couldn't speak Japanese. He never learned. Not when he was stationed in Okinawa for a year, in between tours of duty in Vietnam and Korea. Not when he met my mother at a night club, just outside the army base in her hometown of Kadena. Not when he asked [End Page 148] her to marry him, and certainly not when he brought her to the United States to live with him. My father never learned, so I didn't either. Even now, I can't truly appreciate the immediate intimacy she must have felt with Sonny—after spending the majority of her years as wife and mother fumbling for words—to finally be able to converse with someone with ease and grace...

24X7 Lifeline Chip for Soldiers

Abstract Soldiers spend a tough and risky life in battlefield. During an emergency situation they fight without any backup for saving their life. This causes the country to lose huge number of soldiers due to lack of technology rather than enemy attack. Location tracing of a soldier during such panic situation is required to get information of soldier’s current situation. High end technological devices have been produced to help them manage various situations during their mission. In the current study one lightweight wearable device is developed that embed existing small devices onto a Chip (SoC) which piecewise integrate these devices to develop a user-friendly watch or batch or helmet. The proposed system enables a communication with the army base station to track the location and health status of soldiers. This is done through embedding GPS (Global positioning system) module with low power wireless body sensors in the system. Communication is set up two way: using antenna and using a GSM module. This improves reliability of the communication and makes it more fault tolerant. Hence the risk of non-functioning of the system in case of a failure in one part is reduced. Another important feature of this device is that it supports SDR (Software Define Radio) radio communication system used in Indian army.

Complicity and Rape

The case of R v Clarkson (1971) concerns the complicity of three non-participating observers to a vicious gang rape. The observers were charged with ‘encouraging’ the rape, but this was rejected by the Court of Appeal on the ground that two of them had been ‘mere’ observers, and there was no evidence that they had encouraged the perpetrators by word or gesture. This case is regularly cited to this day, without critical comment, as a limit on complicity under English common law. In this article, I want to challenge the Court of Appeal’s judgment and argue that the two observers should have been found complicit. My argument is based on the special nature of rape, and the capacity for a male observer to compound the female victim’s humiliation by their mere presence. My argument is even more justified in the case of Clarkson, I argue, because it took place on a British army base abroad.

Impact of Human Activities on the Distribution, Abundance and Diversity of Phytoplankton in the Calabar River System, Cross River State, Nigeria

The impact of human activities on the distribution, abundance and diversity of phytoplankton in the Calabar River System, Cross River State, Nigeria, was investigated for six months (March - August, 2015). Results were pooled for each of the seven stations: Tinapa, Export Free Trade Zone (EFTZ), Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Army Base and Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Jetties, including Creek Town Entrance (CTE), where facilities such as recreational, oil, water transport, security, warehouse are located and vessel movements common, unlike Adiabo Bridge Head (ABH) area, which was used as control station, where such facilities are absent. Twenty-nine phytoplankton species belonging to five families (Bacillariophyceae, Cyanophyceae, Pyrophyceae, Chrysophyceae and Chlorophyceae) were recorded. Total of 588 Bacillariophyceae were encountered with 308 Cyanophyceae, 427 Pyrophyceae 286 Chrysophyceae and 362 Chlorophyceae. In general, the control station had more phytoplankton with 377 individuals, with 229 individuals at station 1, 203 at station 2, 243 at station 3, 225 at station 4, 222 at station 5 and 229 at station 6. Phytoplankton species such as Synura among the Chrysophyceae, and Microsterias among the Chlorophyceae were observed to occur at all the stations, while others were station-specific. Species abundance was observed to vary at each station and ranged from 20-25 with 20 at station 5, 21 at stations 3, 4 and 6 and 22 at stations 1 and 2, while the control station had the highest number of species with 25 individuals. Margalef’s, Shannon-Wiener and Evenness indices were also observed to vary at each of the stations. These variations are discussed in relation to the impact of human activities on the phytoplankton community in the river system.

Trajectory of Postconcussive Symptoms 12 Months After Deployment in Soldiers With and Without Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: Warrior Strong Study.

We analyzed data from a cohort of recently deployed soldiers from 2 US Army bases, Fort Carson and Fort Bragg (2009 to 2015). Soldiers with and without a recent history of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) on deployment were evaluated within days of return and at 3, 6, and 12 months. Those with mTBI were more likely than those without to endorse ≥1 postconcussive symptom as "severe" and/or "very severe" (47% vs. 21%, baseline; adjusted relative risk (RR) = 1.71, 95% confidence interval: 1.51, 1.93, all time points), which remained significant after adjusting for posttraumatic stress disorder (adjusted RR = 1.34, 95% confidence interval: 1.20, 1.50). Prevalence and relative risks for 3 of the most common baseline symptoms remained constant over time: sleep problems (RR = 2.19), forgetfulness (RR = 2.56), and irritability (RR = 2.73). The pattern was slightly different for headache (baseline, RR = 3.44; 12 months, RR = 3.26), due to increased prevalence of headache in those without mTBI. The prevalence of clinically relevant postconcussive symptoms remained relatively constant over 1 year of follow-up, whether or not symptoms were associated with concussion. Service members with recent mTBI reported more symptoms than those without at all time points.

The Weather Conditions for Desired Smoke Plumes at a FASMEE Burn Site

Weather is an important factor that determines smoke development, which is essential information for planning smoke field measurements. This study identifies the synoptic systems that would favor to produce the desired smoke plumes for the Fire and Smoke Model Evaluation Experiment (FASMEE). Daysmoke and PB-Piedmont (PB-P) models are used to simulate smoke plume evolution during the day time and smoke drainage and fog formation during the nighttime for hypothetical prescribed burns on 5–8 February 2011 at the Stewart Army Base in the southeastern United States. Daysmoke simulation is evaluated using the measured smoke plume heights of two historical prescribed burns at the Eglin Air Force Base. The simulation results of the hypothetical prescribed burns show that the smoke plume is not fully developed with low plume height during the daytime on 5 February when the burn site is under the warm, moist, and windy conditions connected to a shallow cyclonic system and a cold front. However, smoke drainage and fog are formed during the nighttime. Well-developed smoke plumes, which rise mainly vertically, extend to a majority portion of the planetary boundary layer, and have steady clear boundaries, appear on both 6 and 7 February when the air is cool but dry and calm during a transition between two low-pressure systems. The plume rises higher on the second day, mainly due to lighter winds. The smoke on 8 February shows a loose structure of large horizontal dispersion and low height after passage of a deep low-pressure system with strong cool and dry winds. Smoke drainage and fog formation are rare for the nights during 5–8 February. It is concluded that prescribed burns conducted during a period between two low-pressure systems would likely generate the desired plumes for FASMEE measurement during daytime. Meanwhile, as the fire smolders into the night, the burns would likely lead to fog formation when the burn site is located in the warm and moist section of a low-pressure system or a cold front.

Smokeless Tobacco Use and Related Factors: A Study in the US Military Population.

ObjectivesThe prevalence of smokeless tobacco use in the US military is alarmingly high. We aimed to identify factors related to smokeless tobacco use among active duty service members. Methods Participants (N = 2465) from Fort Bragg Army Base, North Carolina and Lackland Air Force Base, Texas completed a self-administered questionnaire. We performed stepwise logistic regression analysis to identify factors statistically associated with smokeless tobacco use. Results The prevalence of use was higher at the Army base than the Air Force base (32.6% vs 11.6%). White race, cigarette smoking, low perception of harm, and family history of use were significant factors identified at both sites. Compared with users from the Air Force base, users from the army base tended to be current heavy users with longer duration of use, and who started at an older age after joining military and made less effort to quit. Current Department of Defense (DoD) cessation resources were not being utilized by active duty service members. Conclusions We identified statistically significant factors related to smokeless tobacco among active duty service members. The non-utilization of the DoD cessation resources calls for a cessation strategy that meets the special needs of military personnel.

Lovers of God’s Law: The Politics of Higher Law and the Ethics of Civil Disobedience

ABSTRACTWhen Sister Cynthia Brinkman took the stand at her 2004 trial for trespass, with apocalyptic imagery and a theatrical sensibility she spoke of her love of God’s law and the binding force of relationships of solidarity that compelled her to “cross the line” onto the US Army base at Ft. Benning. Brinkman and her fellow agitators justified their actions through appeals to a higher law. I argue that implicit in these appeals are two heuristically separable accounts of the higher law, natural law and messianic. These two modes of theo-political reasoning are implicit in activists’ trial statements and I make them explicit through critical juxtaposition with Vincent Lloyd’s account of black natural law and Ted Smith’s messianic political theology. I demonstrate that such an exercise not only imparts a better description of moral action but through immanent critique can generate a normative evaluation of perennial issues confronting civil disobedients.

Bureaucratic and Governance Issues in Bandung

Bandung known as the capital city of west Java, Indonesia and also known as Parijs van Java that might be called that way as well as becoming the third place in numbers, of art deco housing designed in the world after Miami in the United State of America and Paris, France (Bandung Heritage Society). Art Deco or it could be said as Art Decorative, is one of the truly International Architectural styles, using flowing curves and naturalistic motives. Bandung or Parijs van Java was built in about 1810 as it was stated in a letter of Herman Willem Daendels (1808-1811), the governor general of Dutch Indies dated on September 25, 1810. That day, then, declared by after he said while he spotted the area;” Zorg, dat als terug kom hier instand in gebouwd”. Someday if I have my time, it should be a city here, he said. Meanwhile, Daendels had been running the road progressed from Anyer, West Java to Panarukan, East Java, through the city. The city, then, is called, I suppose, Parijs van Java, according to conditions of architectural designed as well as mentioned above. Therefore, the city is built as Daendels to do it so that he was a Governor on its area of Bandung. He, actually was sent by Louis Napoleon, King of France (Wikipedia, Indonesia) and is being ordered in defending the land against English. The city of Bandung, therefore, built as well as the needs of the Dutch during that time and later on. The army base and airforce base is also located in the area at all to protect the residents. The city performed four difference social class or it could be said four castes. First, Europeans, Vreemde Osterlingen, Vreemdeling and Inlander. Those four social classes are placed from the north area, down to south area. The city, nowadays and its heritage, it assumes, performing the ranks in difference way, but still exists the old ways in its variants.

Prescription opioid misusing chronic pain patients exhibit dysregulated context-dependent associations: Investigating associative learning in addiction with the cue-primed reactivity task

BackgroundAssociative learning undergirds the development of addiction, such that drug-related cues serve as conditioned stimuli to elicit drug-seeking responses. Plausibly, among opioid misusing chronic pain patients, pain-related information may serve as a conditioned stimulus to magnify opioid cue-elicited autonomic and craving responses through a process of second-order conditioning. MethodsWe utilized a novel psychophysiological probe of pain-opioid conditioned associations, the Cue-Primed Reactivity (CPR) task. In this task, participants were presented with images as primes (200 ms) and cues (6000 ms) in pairs organized in four task blocks: “control-opioid,” “pain-opioid,” “control-pain,” and “opioid-pain.” Opioid-treated chronic pain patients (N = 30) recruited from an Army base in the Western United States were classified as opioid misusers (n = 17) or non-misusers (n = 13) via a validated cutpoint on the Prescription Drug Use Questionnaire (PDUQ; Compton et al., 2008). Opioid misuse status was examined as a predictor of HRV, craving, and mood responses on the CPR task. ResultsHRV increased to a greater extent during the pain-opioid block compared to the control-opioid block for non-misusers compared to misusers (p = .003, η2partial = 0.27). In contrast, craving increased to a greater extent from baseline to the pain-opioid block for misusers than for non-misusers (p = .03, η2partial = .16). ConclusionsFindings suggest that opioid-treated chronic pain patients exhibit Pavlovian conditioned responses to opioid cues strengthened by an associative learning process of second-order conditioning when primed by pain-related images. This pain-opioid contingency appears to become disrupted among individuals who engage in opioid misuse, such that opioid-related stimuli elicit motivational responses irrespective of pain-related contextual stimuli.

Reproductive Strategies Matter for Rare Plant Conservation: Pollination, Phenology, and Mating in an Endemic Plant of the Sky Islands of Arizona,Erigeron lemmoniiA. Gray (Lemmon's Fleabane) (Asteraceae)

Abstract. Erigeron lemmonii A. Gray is extremely rare, but not endangered. There are fewer than 1000 individuals, but they compose an apparently stable, heterozygotic, diploid (2n = 18) population. The plants are perennial and endemic to one small location (about 0.5 km2) in Scheelite Canyon, Huachuca Mountains (Cochise County), Fort Huachuca Army Base, part of the Sky Island region, Arizona. Erigeron lemmonii grows from crevices in cliffs, ledges, and rock faces where it can form mats by spreading vegetatively from the roots as they proliferate, especially in microsites where soil accumulates. Our goals were to (1) investigate floral anatomy for reproductive structures (inflorescences, florets, and pollen), (2) record flowering phenology, and (3) determine the species' breeding and mating system. Inflorescence anatomy and development are typical for Erigeron with ray (pistillate) and disc (bisexual) florets. Stigmas of the disc florets do not fully exsert and reflex, though they do present and expose the...

Intertitles, history and memory in Spring in My Hometown

ABSTRACTLee Gwang-mo’s 1998 film Spring in My Hometown (Areumdaun sijeol) tells the story of the tragic impact of the Korean War on the children of a village servicing a local US Army base. One of the film’s distinctive formal features is a set of intertitles in the style of silent film title cards that frame the beginning and end of particular sequences of the film. Each intertitle provides a running commentary of historical and fictional events occurring contemporaneously in the Korean War and in the village. The film’s stunning cinematography has attracted academic attention, but was also criticized for creating an aesthetic spectacle that could be enjoyed by spectators while eliding the brutal history of the war. This paper makes use of publicity materials, reviews, and research on intertitles in silent film to demonstrate that the use of intertitles is central to the film’s foregrounding of tragic history. The film places the audience into a more uncomfortable viewing position than other Korean War films of the period by implicating them in the violence. It also explores the complex relationship between memory and the recording of history, and gives voice to unheard testimonies of the conflict. In this way, Spring in My Hometown accomplishes something quite singular in distinction with narrative Korean War films either before or since.

Acute gastroenteritis outbreak associated to norovirus GI.9 in a Portuguese army base.

Gastroenteritis is considered a major illness within the military settings being caused by foodborne enteric pathogens that are particularly easily spread in the crowded conditions of military camps. Gastroenteritis outbreaks caused by norovirus usually affect a great number of soldiers due to the low infectious dose, copious viral shedding, and environmental stability. The present study describes the investigation of an outbreak of acute gastroenteritis that occurred in April 2015 in a Portuguese army base, focusing on the study of the epidemiological curve, symptoms experienced by the affected soldiers, and results of food, water, and stool microbiological analysis. From a total of 938 military personnel stationed on the base 46 soldiers developed acute gastroenteritis. Stool analysis of seven cases showed to be positive for norovirus GI.9 that was the probable cause of the outbreak. This report shows that genogroup I norovirus can also cause considerable morbidity in healthy young soldiers, affecting the operational effectiveness on the military forces. J. Med. Virol. 89:922-925, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.