Soldiers Call for Engineering Tech Support

chuckfucter writes "Wired news writes that soldiers in the battlefield now have their own army of geek advisers whom they can contact whenever they need technical support. The stakes are much higher here, with troops asking about the structural integrity of bridges, roads, dams and airfields: Can this structure be safely used after sustaining damage from bombings?"

Comments

Re:Just wait...

[erick99]

While corporate America likes to outsource overseas, the armed forces do not and they are not likely to allow their contractors to do so either. The last company I worked for handled only military contracts and we couldn't even get clearances for an engineer from India that was in the U.S., much less one that was still in India. For battlefield support, it isn't going to happen.

"Now has?" They've been there all along

[poptones]

These are the same folks who designed most of the dams under the TVA. They designed the steel mesh "tires" on the MOON ROVER, for pete's sake! I'm 40 years old and even I was a kid when that was happening.

It's a way cool place to tour if you're in the area. Don't know if they still have the hangar-size scale model of the san francisco bay but if they don't there's sure to be something equally impressive occupying that space.

Re:Open Source and Military abuse!

[jlanthripp]

If it means anything to you, there is at least one Congressional Medal of Honor recipient who was a Conscientious Objector, and served the military as a field medic. At some level he decided that helping his fellow soldiers live to go home was of some merit, as long as he wasn't actually pulling the trigger.

Desmond Doss, a medic and Conscientious Objector from Rising Fawn, Georgia, received the Medal of Honor on 12 October 1945 for actions on 5 May 1945 at the Maeda Escarpment, Okinawa with Company B of the 77th Infantry Division. He disregarded heavy enemy fire and lowered between 50 and 100 (Doss claimed it couldn't have been more than 50, while the men of his unit said it was 100) wounded men down the escarpment on a rope, using a tree stump as a pulley.

He was wounded twice on 21 May 1945. The first wound was received when he stepped on a grenade that had been thrown into the foxhole he shared with 3 other men. The second wound, a bullet to his arm, was received as he helped another wounded soldier to safety.

He also received a Bronze Star for actions at Leyte earlier in the war.

PFC Doss went on to donate his $100/month MoH stipend to the Civilian Defense Rescue Service of Walker County, Georgia.

BTW, I live in Walker County, Georgia and had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Doss a few years back. I had to shout into his hearing aid for him to hear me. You'll never meet a nicer man.