> http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2005-11-20-back-pain_x.htm
>
> Posted 11/20/2005 10:15 PM
> USA Today
>
> Soldiers in Iraq carry extra load
> By Elizabeth Weise
>
> More than half of U.S. soldiers who have been medically
> evacuated from
> Iraq and treated at two of the military's large pain treatment
> centers
> suffer not from battle wounds but from bad backs, researchers
> report.
The average load carried by a rifleman is said to be 96 pounds "most
of the day." No wonder they have back pain.
<blockquote>Standards developed for the Army field manual titled "Foot Marches" printed in 1990 list maximum weights troops should carry for a fighting load, approach march load and emergency march load, figures determined with help from research at the Natick Soldier Center and U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine.
A fighting load is everything worn or carried except a rucksack and should be held to less than 48 pounds, according to the field manual. The next level, approach march load, adds a light rucksack and should not exceed 72 pounds. In the worst-case scenario, emergency approach march loads require a larger rucksack, raising the total weight to 120-150 pounds.
Past research has provided more insight into combat loads. A British study from the 1920s concluded that the fighting load should not exceed 40-45 pounds, and S.L.A. Marshall, author of the 1950 book "The Soldier Load and the Mobility of a Nation," advised that the combat load should remain less than about 40 pounds.
Viewed another way, the load should not exceed 30 percent of a person's body weight when carrying an approach march load. Dean's team weighed and photographed troops at every level, from wearing only their basic uniforms and boots to what they carried for their emergency approach march loads for 29 different positions in rifle companies.
After reviewing the data, the average rifleman's fighting load was 63 pounds, which meant he was carrying on average 36 percent of his body weight before strapping on a rucksack. The average approach march load was 96 pounds or 55 percent of average rifleman's body weight, and the emergency approach march load average was 127 pounds or 71 percent of average rifleman's body weight.
Riflemen carried less weight than some soldiers, such as 60mm mortar squad leaders who on average carried emergency approach march loads of 142 pounds or 97 percent of the average mortar section leader's body weight.
Soldiers wore an approach march load most of the day, according to Dean, and even when not carrying a light rucksack, their fighting load at all times averaged more than 30 percent of their body weight.
("Study Says Combat Load Too Heavy," RDECOM Magazine, March 2004, <http://www.rdecom.army.mil/rdemagazine/200403/itl_nsc_combat.html>)</ blockquote>
Yoshie Furuhashi <http://montages.blogspot.com> <http://monthlyreview.org> <http://mrzine.org>