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thedrifter
10-10-06, 02:18 PM
October 16, 2006
Corps copies Army, moves to padded helmet design

By Christian Lowe
Staff writer

First, soldiers adopted the Corps’ mantra that everyone should be trained as a rifleman. Then, they designed a new uniform suspiciously similar to the Marines’ “digital” cammies.

Now, it’s the Corps’ turn to take a page out of the Army’s book.

In an Oct. 5 announcement, Corps officials said that from now on, all combat helmets must be outfitted with padded suspension systems that mirror Army efforts to reduce head injuries from blunt impacts that typically occur during roadside bomb explosions. The Army has been using a padded interior in its Advanced Combat Helmet for about four years.

Late this summer, the Corps reversed its original position to stick with the sling suspension system in its new lightweight helmets after congressional officials and civilian advocates lobbied for a change to a system of semisoft pads they said was safer for troops encountering more blunt-force impacts to the head than ballistic hits.

In August, officials with Marine Corps Systems Command in Quantico, Va., issued guidance giving Marines the option to use the standard sling suspension — which uses an adjustable leather headband and mesh barrier to keep the helmet from resting directly on a Marine’s head — or the foam pads.

Marine officials argued that ongoing Pentagon and Marine Corps studies would find out which suspension method was best. And now they’ve found it.

“Early results of testing between the pad suspension system and the sling suspension system for Marine Corps and Army helmets indicate pads offer more protection,” SysCom stated in an Oct. 6 release. In follow-on, congressionally mandated tests conducted this year, “the pad system demonstrated greater non-ballistic blunt-impact protection.”

Marine Commandant Gen. Mike Hagee told lawmakers in a late-June letter that the service was trying to get a handle on how the Corps’ lightweight helmet could withstand various threats against it, including the helmet’s ability to stop projectiles, withstand the 360-degree force of an explosion, and absorb and disperse concussive shock waves.

Analyzing blunt-force trauma is similar to measuring the ability of shock waves to penetrate the helmet and rattle a Marine’s brain, SysCom officials have said, adding that padded helmets offer more protection from shock waves. But the pads come with trade-offs in comfort.

“We in the Marine Corps are very open,” said Dan Fitzgerald, program manager for infantry combat equipment at SysCom. “We did get the data to substantiate a change. It wasn’t knee-jerk.”

So far, the Corps has purchased about 90,000 padding kits for Marines to retrofit their helmets. Leathernecks with I Marine Expeditionary Force and II MEF have already been issued about 40,000 padding kits, with roughly 50,000 more still to be distributed between those commands. SysCom has ordered an additional 50,000 padding kits to be used for the modification, with officials stating firmly that only Corps-issued kits will be used.

The announcement was welcome news for former Navy flight surgeon Dr. Robert Meaders, who told lawmakers at a June 15 hearing that the pad system offers substantially better protection against brain injury from impacts resulting from explosions such as rocket-propelled grenade attacks and roadside bomb ambushes.

Meaders — whose grandson is a Marine — heads a nonprofit organization dubbed “Operation Helmet” that has raised $1.7 million in nearly three years to buy padding kits for troops in the field who request them.

“Our goal once we got started [was] to have all service branches provide the protection for this new form of warfare that we’re facing,” Meaders said Oct. 5, commending the Corps for its latest move.

Fielding the padding kits is “hopefully going to prevent an epidemic of traumatic brain injury that’s creeping up on us.”

Ellie

Future-USMC-LT
10-10-06, 04:48 PM
YES, It's about time we got rid of the POS suspension system!!!!!

sirmess1
10-10-06, 08:59 PM
what the hell are they talking about? padded? I liked the new lightweight kevlars just fine, the best part is the 4 point straps

thedrifter
10-11-06, 06:14 AM
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Marines to get helmet pads
Pendleton Marine's grandfather tried for years to convince the Corps of benefits.
By VIK JOLLY
The Orange County Register

Responding to new studies – and a concerted effort by family members – the U.S. Marine Corps has reversed its policy and ordered protective inserts for its standard-issue combat helmets.

By year's end, the Corps will be fielding 139,000 pad kits, which it now believes offer better head protection from bomb blasts, and new helmets will come with the pads built in.

Test results, following a congressional hearing in June, showed that the padded helmets give superior protection from blunt-force trauma, a Marine spokesman said Tuesday. Earlier, the Corps had argued that there was no scientific evidence.

"The Marine Corps made (the policy) decision based on that," said Capt. Jeff Landis, a public affairs officer at Marine Corps Systems Command in Quantico, Va. "That's what we really needed to make the best decision for the welfare and safety of our troops."

The Corps had previously insisted that the pads actually reduced protection from bullets. A test now showed little difference in protection from bullets, Landis said.

The Iraq war is yielding a higher percentage of brain injuries than any previous U.S. conflict, according to researchers. While some families took comfort in buying pads themselves – and manufacturers pushed the product in publications aimed at military audiences – the Marine Corps never endorsed them for its latest helmets.

Bob Meaders, a retired Navy doctor and grandfather of a Camp Pendleton Marine, launched Operation Helmet in 2004, aiming to get liner kits sent to his grandson, Justin, and other Marines.

To date, the group has shipped more than 27,600 helmet inserts – at $100 each – to Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"When you are finished, it's a great feeling," said Meaders, 72, in a telephone interview from Glen Rose, Texas, about 70 miles southwest of Dallas. "That was a feeling of relief, knowing that the Marines on the front lines will have the best protection available."

The organization's biggest contributor, with a donation totaling $300,000, was singer Cher, who sat behind Meaders at the June congressional hearing at which legislators urged the Corps to supply the pads.

Hundreds of troops and Marines families wrote to Operation Helmet seeking the pads, and Meaders persistently wrote the Marine Corps arguing that data was available to show the pads were better.

He was chastised by some in the chain of command and was even told that e-mails would be blocked, he said. On Thursday, the Marine spokesman thanked him for his input.

"What it did was made all of the services take a harder look at protection and our decisions based on testing and results," Landis said. "They in essence allowed us to look a little deeper and order more tests and prove which was the better, more effective protection."

The U.S. Army and the Marines once used similar helmets. Then the Army issued the Army Combat Helmet, costing $306 each and manufactured with the pads already incorporated for Iraq-bound soldiers.

The Marines also issued new helmets but without pads.

In August, the Marines allowed optional use of pads. Then, last week, the Corps made the pad-suspension system the only one authorized for use with the standard helmet.

The authorization couldn't have come sooner for some Marine families.

"Had they listened in the first place and been more open-minded about it and done their testing a couple of years ago, who's to say how many lives we could have saved and how many could have been less severely injured with added protection," said Shannan Limon, formerly of San Clemente. Operation Helmet helped her husband, Philip, get a pad insert before he was deployed to Iraq in January from the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms.

Landis said the studies only recently became available.

"Anytime you're going to have a war, you're going to have … studies to better protect (troops), and the technology and the intelligence is getting that much better," he said.

More about the helmet

Recently completed government laboratory testing of six commercially available pad suspension systems for the Marine Corps combat helmet demonstrated their exceptional performance against non-ballistic blunt force impacts. While these tests were underway, the Marine Expeditionary Forces, in coordination with Marine Corps Systems Command, procured 39,000 sets of padded helmet suspension systems to meet immediate operational needs to I and II Marine Expeditionary Force. MARCORSYSCOM has purchased an additional 100,000 sets of pad suspension systems. 50,000 have already been delivered to the Consolidated Issue Facilities (CIFs) and the Critical Asset Rapid Distribution Facility. The remainder will be delivered by December.

The Marine Corps participated in the Congressionally directed, independent, non-ballistic tests through the Department of Defense. Separate Marine Corps tests conducted by the University of Virginia showed no significant difference in ballistic backface trauma between the sling suspension system and the pad suspension system. However, the pad system did demonstrate greater non-ballistic blunt impact protection, according to tests conducted by the U.S. Army Aeromedical Research Laboratory.

Tests were completed 31 August by the University of Virginia and 6 September by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory. The UVA “Ballistic Behind Armor Blunt Trauma” study assessed the risk of ballistic induced backface trauma for the Marine Corps helmet sling and pad suspension systems. The study found no significant difference in ballistic backface trauma between the systems. The USAARL study compared the effectiveness of the suspensions systems to non-ballistic blunt trauma. They tested six commercially available pad systems along with the sling system. Data received from early results showed greater non-ballistic blunt impact protection for the pad system. The official USAARL results will be made available later this month.

In light of these positive results, the Marine Corps is changing suspension systems for the combat helmet from the sling suspension system to the pad suspension system. Only pad systems purchased by the CIF or via the official supply system are authorized for use with the lightweight helmet. Unauthorized pad systems are being immediately replaced with approved systems due to lower performance in tests.

The Marine Corps’ decision to buy 89,000 sets of combat helmet suspension pads for immediate fielding and an additional 50,000 order is a direct result of previous tests for ballistic and non-ballistic blunt trauma. Testing started with the Univ. of Virginia in March 2006. Marine Corps Systems Command testified to the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces in June 2006 that a decision would be made after the results of this test. Congress asked DoD to conduct additional testing, and it was after the results of both sets of tests that the Marine Corps made the decision.

We appreciate the effort of Operation Helmet and their true concern for Marines in combat. The Marine Corps is committed to providing the best possible protective equipment to the warfighter in combat, and this includes providing the best helmet protection possible. When the Marine Corps became aware of a possible improved suspension system thanks to individual Marines, the House Committee on Armed Services including Chairman Curt Weldon, and Operation-Helmet.org, the Marine Corps Systems Command immediately heightened its investigation of combat helmet suspension systems. As such, the Marine Corps was more than happy to participate in the Congressionally directed, independent, ballistic and non-ballistic tests.

The Corps authorized Marines to use the padded suspension system in MARADMIN 362/06 (Leightweight Helmet Suspension System and Implementation Guidance) on Aug. 1, 2006 and defined the requirement and policy change for Marines to have the padded suspension system in MARADMIN 480/06 (Pad Suspension System in theLightweight Helmet) Oct. 5, 2006.

Source: Marine Corps spokesman, Capt. Jeffrey A. Landis

http://www.ocregister.com/newsimages/news/2006/10/11helmets_em.gif

Ellie

drumcorpssnare
10-11-06, 09:12 AM
What! Why don't we still use the old WWII style steel pot that was threaded on the inside, and just screwed onto a Marine's brain housing group???
Man...it's tough keeping up with modern technology.:banana:

sirmess1
10-11-06, 10:57 AM
oooooooooh, ok, so basically the only thing they are doing differently is just adding pads to the lightweight helmets.Because they stopped issuing the Pasgt a few years ago and started issuing the lightweight helmet. So the helmets weren't news, now they just added pads. I didn't know it was such a big deal, I personally didint think it made a difference, although I was lucky enough to never having to find out. So now adding pads makes the lightweight helmet the same weight, guess thats why they are now calling it the combat helmet. thanks for the pictures and the article.

Echo5November
10-11-06, 06:47 PM
For those of you that have not actually tested it out, the difference of the pads and the suspension in it make a difference of about 5000 times over. How many times have you done a squad rush only to have your helmet come flying over your face. And if something hit your head, I bet you can say you didn't feel a thing and didn't have a f**kin headache for the rest of the day. Personally, I think its one good move that the Corps took from the Army. Remember, the Army has all the money and all the good supplies. We get all the ragamuffin hand-me-downs. Take what you can get, and if they make it better, then take two.