Joanna
Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
> Michael posted:
>
>> 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>
>
>
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