Unarmored Soldiers

During Dawn's birthday party, a police officer friend showed up straight from work waring a vest. He didn't look like he was warring body armor. The vest was thin enough to be concealed for the most part under the uniform. I noticed it was uncomfortable at some points. He didn't want to eat too much because it required a readjustment.

While watching the videos of the Georgian Russian conflict (read war), many men fighting were not waring noticeable body armor. Perhaps some of these men were 'irregulars', but not all. The funny thing is the soldiers clearly warring armor were the ones ducking behind things. Someone suggested the Russians substitute vodka for body armor.

A couple of years ago, I saw a video that was Russian soldiers hazing new recruits.  The elders were basically kick-boxing the newbies as they marched by and the newbies were unable to fight back. This was to toughen the rockies up I assume. They are headed to war for goodness sake. I have no idea how effective it is. It looked like this was all just part of standard training. I do not know if the video was of some special forces type group, or regular army.

Now, I firmly believe the availability of body armor is limited in many armies around the world. I have no idea what the supply of body armor is like in the Russian or even Georgian militaries. Perhaps this toughness mentality sticks around to the point troops on the front line do not want to ware body armor. I believe the U. S. army is one of the best supplied in the world and there are still issues with body armor supplies making it to the front line in mass and on time.

There was a threat made at the birthday party that if someone is killed because they were not waring their armor, the person making the threat would send a clown to the funeral with happy birthday balloons. A gentle hint that we want this person to stick around regardless of the danger of their job.

If I had to go into combat, I would want to hide behind the Stay-Puffed Marshmallow Man.