Flak Jackets Research Articles

GENERALIZATION OF EXPERT PRACTICE IN THE ASSESSMENT OF CERTAIN TYPES OF MILITARY PROPERTY – FLAK JACKETS

The article presents the results of the generalization of expert practice in determining the market value of personal protective equipment for servicemen, namely, flak jackets of different protection classes. The need to calculate the market value of military property is a key task in determining the material damage caused to the state, as a result of negligence towards the entrusted military property or its intentional damage or theft, as well as the destruction during a combat engagement with the enemy. In the course of consideration of this topic, the authors made a compact description of the design of flak jackets on the main types, different classes of protection, with examples of typical samples for each type of personal protective equipment. The basic classifiers used by manufacturers of flak jackets all over the world are given. The possible ways of selection of analogue for the assessed personal protective equipment, price information in the domestic market of Ukraine is absent, but a conditional comparison of protection classes relative to the national classifier is given. On the example of the described classification systems the substantiation of impossibility from the technical point of view, absolute comparison of flak jackets protection classes of different manufacturers is given. In addition, there is a brief description of the most common synthetic materials that are used in the manufacture of standard flak jackets (outer covers, inner frame, fillers and additional ballistic packages) with the indication of their basic physical properties and description of the features in different environmental conditions (humidity temperature, intensity of ultraviolet exposure). Taking into account the analysis of the information from open sources, as well as the information provided by national manufacturers, it is necessary bear in mind the degree of wear and tear of a particular product depending on the actual period of operation of the investigated object in specific operating conditions – in the area of combat or in the rear. There is also a variant of possible definition of the market value of personal protection equipment, the appointed resource of which has expired, is also given, however they are used not by armies, but by individuals for their intended purpose. Key words: military property, expert assessment, flak jackets.

Моделирование электронной структуры композитного материала графен-поливинилиденфторид

AbstractTheoretical models of shockproof composite materials based on two-layer graphenes and multilayer polyvinylidene fluoride C_124H_40 + n (H–(C_2H_2F_2)_5–H) ( n = $$\overline {1,\;8} $$ ) are constructed. The electronic structure is studied using the semiempirical PM3 method that is one of version of the molecular orbital method. The orbital energies, ionization potentials, total electron energies, strength, and other properties of the considered material are calculated based on the theoretical models. The outlooks for application of these materials in the military field for manufacturing superstrong and lightweight flak jackets are considered.

Simulation of the Electronic Structure of Graphene–Polyvinylidene Fluoride Composite Material

Theoretical models of shockproof composite materials based on two-layer graphenes and multilayer polyvinylidene fluoride C124H40 + n(H–(C2H2F2)5–H) (n = $$\overline {1,\;8} $$ ) are constructed. The electronic structure is studied using the semiempirical PM3 method that is one of version of the molecular orbital method. The orbital energies, ionization potentials, total electron energies, strength, and other properties of the considered material are calculated based on the theoretical models. The outlooks for application of these materials in the military field for manufacturing superstrong and lightweight flak jackets are considered.

REVIEW: Journalists’ voices explore dangerous times

IN HIS memoirs of his life as a foreign correspondent, British journalist Richard Beeston recalled: "We went to wars and revolutions in our drip-dry suits and button-down shirts— armed with a note book and an Olivetti portable typewriter. For us there were no steel helmets, flak jackets and armour plated cars...in those more innocent days we somehow managed an amateur and neutral status and were unlikely to become the target of hostage-takers or the victims of religious fanatics. The twenty-first century is a more dangerous time." (Beeston, 2006)

Books: Night In Gaza

Night in Gaza Mads Gilbert Skyscraper Publications, 2015, PB, 190pp, £16.00, 978-0993153365 Modern warfare has become increasingly impersonal, with high-tech weaponry that can be dispatched from great distance by pressing a button, but the consequences for casualties and health professionals are as dramatic and as devastating as ever, if not more so. Mads Gilbert is a Norwegian professor of emergency medicine who, in each of the last four Israeli military attacks on Gaza, has worked in Al-Shifa Hospital, the principal emergency receiving hospital in the Gaza Strip. In this book of 21 short essays, he documents his 15 days at Al-Shifa in July 2014, with a mixture of narrative, clinical experiences, pen portraits, over 120 photographs, and data from official reports. It is an insider’s tale, providing perspectives not covered by Western journalists in their helmets and flak jackets. When the hospital received casualties from an overnight attack on Shuja’iyya, a district on the eastern edge of Gaza City, the Israeli Defence Forces told all foreign journalists to stay at …

Continuing to be somebody

Continuing to be somebody

Keyholders and flak jackets: the method in the madness of mixed metaphors

The law in England allows that both parents and competent minors concurrently have the right to consent to medical treatment of the minor. This means that while competent minors may consent to treatment their refusal of consent does not act as an effective veto of treatment and treatment remains lawful if given with parental consent. This approach has been heavily criticized as inconsistent with the House of Lords decision in the Gillick case and damned as ‘palpable nonsense’. In this article, I examine these criticisms and conclude that, far from being illogical, it is entirely consistent with the essential asymmetry between consent to treatment and refusal of treatment. I examine the two metaphors of keyholders and flak jackets used to explain this approach and I suggest that both have value but only when used in combination. I also explain why, contrary to the criticism, it is consistent with Gillick.

Introduction: Teaching Post-Colonial Literatures in the Age of Empire

Introduction:Teaching Post-Colonial Literatures in the Age of Empire Linda Dittmar (bio) and Pepi Leistyna (bio) Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 2] Are colonialism and imperialism over and done with? On its face this would seem to be the case, at least as measured by the United Nations' membership roll call. From Martinique to Angola, Tasmania to Lebanon, Cambodia or Zanzibar, previously colonized countries throughout Africa, Asia, South America, and Europe are now independent. After all, past colonies now fly their own flags, have their own economies, civic institutions, military and police, postal services and, when they can afford it, their own national airline. They also have their own borders and border wars, their own economic troubles, their own classes and ethnic tensions (and sometimes wars), and their own gender inequities, just like us. Indeed, when national flags billow in the breeze and national anthems are blared with gusto, how can one doubt the rhetoric of independence? As many now claim, our world has entered a new, post-colonial mode of national self-determination. This notion of newness, underscored by the "post" of "post-colonial," has a distinctly optimistic ring to it, suggesting that a qualitatively different era has begun, while global geo-politics and economics argue the opposite. Once we pause to consider the wars and depredations now in process worldwide, mostly led or exploited by the United States, it is hard to argue that we have in fact moved into a new era. The external trappings of colonization may have changed-the military hardware, the verbiage, the deceptions, the funding, the media, and the ways outsiders extract wealth. But the wars, exploitation, governing institutions, and cultural hegemony that made European empires and their colonizing arms possible up to and through their heyday in the nineteenth century persist, even if in new forms. While the old stereotype of men in khaki, boots, and topi hats has given way to that of men in flak jackets, helmets, and camouflage ochre, with the supple swagger sticks of bygone days now replaced by metal strapped to belts and hoisted on shoulders, the same realities persist: the national product that is controlled by outsiders, the local populations that are kept in misery, the military arm that enforces all this, and the foggy ideology that aligns the interests of the privileged few among the colonized with those of the colonizer while suppressing the discontent of the masses. In this sense, the "war on terrorism," covert operations, and global flows of capital, labor, and culture have effectively become coercive forms of colonization. The modes of control are being newly configured, administered, and labeled so as to distance nation-states from the direct acquisition and management of territories, as seen in Britain's giving up its control of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) for example, France its rule in Senegal, or the United States its hold over the Philippines. But these are surface changes. In practice, the economic gains and power relations that originally defined empires and their colonizing arms persist, even if in new forms. They are to be found in corporate multinational transactions, in the control by outsiders of precious natural resources (notably oil and gas), in the globalized flow of "human resources" (i.e. workers), and, most violently, in the military operations that enforce and guarantee such powers. This continuity between the old forms of imperialism and colonialism and new ones becomes clearer once one pauses to consider what these concepts mean. Specifically, in our (the editors') use, "empire" refers to the control of the physical and human resources of given territories by external forces, while "colony" stresses the settlement of such territories by outsiders-that is, settlements by outsiders on lands held by the "empire." In this sense "empires" extract while "colonies" involve a residential commitment to interacting with that territory and its people. Though colonial settlement is always, inevitably, implicated in extractive, exploitative agendas, it also recognizes the need for long-term intentional investment, including the development of a civic infrastructure. In this sense, the building of an electric power dam, the training of workers for outsourced labor, or support for educational and cultural institutions that disseminate...

Risk of the View Through the Keyhole: There Is Much More to Physician Reactions to the DEA Than the Number of Formal Actions

“The Risk of Action by the Drug Enforcement Administration Against Physicians Prescribing Opioids for Pain,” by Jung and Reidenberg, highlights important issues relating to physician fear of regulatory and legal scrutiny. While they clarify that few cases are ultimately brought to final action by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), these physician fears are not necessarily based on exact calculations of prosecutions or regulatory actions. It seems that all you may need to change physician behavior is to simply advance intimidating policy statements or even initiate a few physician investigations that begin with a visit from DEA field agents dressed in flak jackets who carry weapons. Physician fear of regulatory scrutiny may not always be based on real threats, but they lead to real changes in prescribing behaviors that can substantially impair the treatment of patients in pain. The authors' usage of the term “action” in regard to the formal and final regulatory process that leads to revocation or arrest represents a semantic problem. The term may be technically correct when it comes to DEA protocol, but it is certainly not limited to this when you consider the experiences of many physicians who have directly or indirectly felt the actions of the DEA. These actions must be factored into any assessment of DEA impact, irrespective of whether or not they went on to revocation or arrest. The authors state that during just the first three quarters of 2003, 557 investigations were begun, but there is no mention of the impact of these investigations on the targeted physicians and the greater community during this relatively short period of time. These data suggest that it is possible that there may be significant risk of DEA intervention of some kind for a physician who prescribes sufficient opioids for many patients in chronic pain. …

Urologic injuries in the Gulf War.

This study aims to compare the urologic injuries treated at Kuwait during the Gulf War with those recently reported by the United States urologic surgeons. Gunshot caused the majority of the injuries (58%) on our side of the battle compared with fragmentation injuries (83%) on the other side. We had statistically significant higher renal and ureteric injuries (14/35 compared with 5/30; p<0.04, Chi-square). This difference can be explained by the use of the flak jackets on the other side or the difference of the type of weapons used. Our management had a similar preservative approach. Only 4/12 of renal injuries (33%) had nephrectomy. Two ureteric injuries were missed by general surgeons which were successfully managed by the urologists. This study supports the presence of urologists within military surgical teams.

More on Pleiku Jackets in Vietnam

I would like to remark on the interesting article on souvenir jackets worn by some Americans in Vietnam (C. Kurt Dewhurst, Pleiku ackets, TourJackets, and WorkingJackets: 'The Letter Sweaters of War', JAF 399:48-52). In particular I would like to caution that such jackets were seldom purchased by combat soldiers, and therefore say something about a subculture within the military, not about all American personnel in Vietnam. Readers should note that such jackets were sold primarily to rear echelon personnel with little exposure to war. Those personnel had much greater access to souvenir stores and tailors than did combat veterans, and perhaps sought to dramatize their service. Dewhurst takes too seriously the almost universal slogan on tour jackets, When I die I'll go to heaven, because I've spent my time in hell, followed by the city in which one served and the years of one's tour. The irony apparent to a Vietnam veteran is that Danang, Pleiku, Saigon, and the other cities commonly found embroidered on such jackets were generally extremely safe. Soldiers whose tours might be described as hellish did not, in my experience in 1967-68, turn to the self-dramatization of such slogans. Dewhurst notes that tour jackets served as statements of group (p. 49). In contrast, combat soldiers employed material statements of their individual identities. The personalization of combat uniforms, tolerated in proportion to the soldiers' involvement in combat, works in an opposite direction to the tour jackets' affirmation of identity within a military unit. The combat soldier's modifications affirmed his essential self-image as a civilian. Soldiers penned slogans on cloth helmet covers and flak jackets that were either antimilitary (peace symbols or F.T.A., for fuck the Army) or overtly civilian (e.g., declarations of being short, i.e., having little time left before one's tour was up). Some combat soldiers personalized their gear with the nicknames they used in Vietnam, perhaps a gesture toward preserving their civilian name and nature: the self that was in Vietnam was not John Smith but Smokey or Motown or Cowboy.

The Shielding Capacity of the Standard Military Flak Jacket Against Ballistic Injury to the Kidney

An animal model was designed to evaluate the ability of the standard military flak jacket to protect the kidneys from direct ballistic trauma. Yorkshire swine were anesthetized and their flanks were protected by flak jackets. Ballistic insults ranging from a low-velocity handgun to a high-velocity rifle were evaluated. The results demonstrate that a flak jacket provides adequate protection against low- and mid-velocity projectiles since none of the animals from this group had evidence of internal trauma and because only minor superficial surgical attention would have been required. Survivability in each case was considered to be excellent. The flak jacket failed to provide any protection against several types of high-velocity bullets. These weapons caused severe internal injury to the genitourinary system as well as to other major organ systems. Survival would have been unlikely.