Read this in USA Today and am flabbergasted... Nomex has been in use by firefighters for a couple of decades now. It's in the General Services catalog that the Federal govt. uses as one of its sources for supplies. NASCAR drivers use this stuff. Why were we not using this earlier in Iraq? It's not like IEDs are some new form of warfare... they've been killing people for a few years now. It takes a freaking grandmother to get the damn Pentagon to order protective clothing for the troops? You've got to be kidding me. And this knucklehead of a spokesman is bragging about how responsive they are? Unbelieveable. Furthermore, the cost seems a bit off... admittedly, the article is ambiguous as to whether the $70 million covers the existing and/or new gear or whether the 70,000 is part of the 160,000, but I read it as if it is paying for only 160,000 uniforms. If that's the case, it works out to about $440 per uniform for pants, shirt, gloves, and hood... Firefighter pants...$179.00 http://www.firecache.com/prodinfo.asp?number=10.1995.K Shirts (colored)... $78.50 http://www.firecache.com/prodinfo.asp?number=10.1920.R Gloves...$27.25 http://www.firecache.com/prodinfo.asp?number=10.6840 Hood...$27.50 http://www.firecache.com/prodinfo.asp?number=20.2058 That makes a total of about $315.00 to equip your basic wildland firefighter with all the nomex gear needed. It doesn't cost that much more to make them camo or add a few extra pockets. Plus, you should be getting a great discount for the volume. So, $315... OK, I'll be generous and say that the Army puts in new requirements that bump up the costs by 25%... so, about $395 per outfit. That means someone is making at least $45 per soldier ($7.2 million total) and probably significantly more. If this is anywhere near correct, it's outrageous.
