Re: [OT] Imperial Storm trooper

The thing that would make me nervous the most is the helmet.  I would
want a helmet with a wide visor, so that tha edges are outside my
peripheral vision, and doesn't distort my ability to hear what's
happening around me.  If there were integral electronics with
report-dampening capabilities, that'd be fine, so long as they gave a
true stereophonic picture of what the sounds around you were.  It wasn't
for nothing that we would occassionally practice "listening halts" in
Korea, where the squad would take a new and the front and rear guys
would take off their Control Domes to listen carefully to what was
happening around us.

The other big issue (and this is part of the consideration for a helmet
with integral electronics), is batteries.  All these GPS gadgets,
laser-range finders, and whatnot, are fine in training or in LIC
situations where you have a ready re-supply of batteries.  But when your
ultra-expensive TVS-5 Starlight scope quits on you because you can't
find the right lithium cell to put in there, you'd better have practiced
your lightfighting skills, 'cause now you're no better off than than
that Mujahadeen teenager with an old SKS.  Maybe worse off, because
you're lugging around loads of equipment that isn't worth anything when
the batteries die.

We squawked about this issue in the late 90's when the Corps of
Engineers replaced all of our old friction-driven blasting machines
(what you use to set off electrically-detonated demolitions) with fancy
new ones where you just pushed a button -- the problem being that the
fancy new ones all required a 9-volt battery!  I hope that Our Friend
John in Irag isn't suffering because the DoD decided to try and get
high-tech (probably out of another fit of Air Force envy - they get all
the cool toys).  The old blasting machines put out as much current as
you could produce by pumping the hand crank, a sustainable solution that
would serve any force well in extended operations.  Thinking of some of
the Twilight: 2000 scenarios we used to play, consumables become your
highest priority when facing extended amounts of time in the field.

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