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British Soldiers Get Germ-Fighting Undies
Ant writes "Yahoo! News reports that British soldiers will be getting germ-fighting underwear. The antimicrobial underpants have been introduced by the Ministry of Defense as part of a new desert uniform for soldiers. They are the first undergarments issued to British troops, who traditionally have had to supply their own.
Military officials said Thursday the unisex trunks were made from artificial fibers for comfort, with silver particles woven into the material to prevent sweating.
"It is coated to prevent bacterial infection, and we have tried to arrange the seams so that they don't chafe," Col. Silas Suchanek, who led the team that procured the new equipment, said Thursday."
WTF? I can understand unisex "outer" uniforms, but the idea of unisex underwear is plain stupid. Is the British Army trying to pretend that men and women are exactly the same, even "down there"?
From the picture, the underwear look like standard men's boxers, except without the front flap. Why leave out the front flap in men's underwear? Probably because they had to make a concession to these being "unisex", and a flap is clearly a male-only feature. Also, what about guys who prefer briefs?
The end result is that men will have a harder time freeing willie to irrigate the desert, and women will be forced to wear what are essentially men's underwear (and, I would imagine, are less comfortable for women--correct me if I'm wrong).
The site I have the pictures on is down, but hopefully I can give a detailed enough explanation of what happened to me last year to make folks realize the importance of anti bacterial undies.
:) http://www.scvi.net/activex/tv19.htm
I was sittin on the toilet one day and noticed a swollen ingrown hair to the right of my right testicle. I tried to pluck the hair out, followed by squeezing the little bastard. Nothing was coming out, so I said, "fuck it" and just left it at that.
During the week, it developed from an ingrown hair to a very painful boil. It got to the point where I could hardly walk anymore and had to see the doctor.
Soon as the doctor saw it, he said "We're going to have to lance it". Kaiser usually doesn't give out painkillers if they can avoid it (once had a broken toe and they refused me pain meds) Luckily I had a male doctor, and I think that fact made him more sympathetic to my pain.
He numbed the spot up, then poked the spot with a scalpel, probably going in about 2-3 centimeteres, followed by some very painful squeezing to get all the crap out of the bacterial playground that had formed next to my nutsack.
I thought that was it, but nope. The doctor said "We have to leave a wick in there so it heals right" A wick? WTF? Basically a wick is a peice of cotton gauze stuck in the hole where the boil used to be. This prevents the opening of the wound from sealing up, and allows the hole to heal from the bottom up.
For the next month, I had to make daily trips to kaiser to have the wick removed, and replaced. The first wick was over a foot in length! Every week the wicks got shorter and shorter until they finally told me it no longer needed a wicking.
I can totally see these types of bacterial infections knocking out a soldier for a month. For me, I could not walk without popping 2 or 3 vicodin after they inserted the wick. At least I had the luxery of my house, high speed internet, and cable TV (not much interneting during this ordeal, as it was very hard to sit)
--toq
OH Ps, im typing this live while i'm at work at the karaoke bar, watch the live stream here and say hi
Alright, it's a relevant story, so in the interest of fairness, I propose a compromise. Repost the story as follows and we'll all try to talk the mods into upping it.
<T0qersHell Version=2>
The site I have the pictures on is down (You didn't want to see it anyways), but hopefully I can give a detailed enough explanation of what happened to me last year to make folks realize the importance of anti bacterial undies.
I was sittin on the toilet one day and noticed a swollen ingrown hair. [Yes, it was where you think it was]. I tried [several things]. Nothing was coming out, so I said, "fuck it" and just left it at that.
During the week, it [got really bad: doctors, needles, etc].
I can totally see these types of bacterial infections knocking out a soldier for a month. For me, I could not walk without popping 2 or 3 vicodin [for awhile]. At least I had the lux[u]ry of my house, high speed internet, and cable TV (not much interneting during this ordeal, as it was very hard to sit)
</T0qersHell>
How long before the US Army follows suit?
I enlisted four and a half years ago in the Army National Guard, and in two weeks time I'm actually leaving for Iraq. As per the regulation, we are supposed to wear the Army issue briefs. That's what we did during Basic Training - but God knows those things aren't made for comfort. They chafe, and once you've been in the field for a few weeks - well, let's just say that the risk of infection increases. Which is why it pays to carry a lot of baby wipes and Gold Bond.
I actually wear boxers instead of the standar-issue briefs now and it is definitely more comfortable. But anyway, now that I'm headed for the desert, I wouldn't mind having this nifty new underwear - I hope the US Army takes up this good idea. You don't realize how much you take the little things for granted until you're out in the field and out of clean pairs of underwear.
Vivin Suresh Paliath
http://vivin.net
I like
Athletes will probably enjoy anti-chafe undies as well. At the moment the best alternative is the UnderArmor brand's line of underwear. The difference in comfort is considerable. After 2 or so hours of running I'd normally come back with painful rashes, 3 hours and they may even bleed slightly. The sleek underarmor fabric keeps things sliding painlessly and kept this from happening, as opposed to normal cotton boxers.
The problem is the $20 dollar pricetag per pair! Even if it isn't really better than the UnderArmor, at least it'd provide some competition to drive the prices down a bit for performance underwear.
Why leave out the front flap in men's underwear?
Not trolling, but seriously, does anybody actually use that thing? When I go to a public urinal, I want speed and stealth i.e., a commando raid. The last thing on earth I'm looking for is to get caught playing fabric origami just to access the plumbing. Or is the purpose actually to act as a squeegee during retraction to minimize the chances of..er..having to shake your leg afterward?
Conversely you'd be amazed how miserable chafing underwear and sweaty socks can make you, and how quickly.
An infrastructure for supplying the troops with clean underwear, silver magic or not, is second in importance only to supply of food and ammunition (well, communications and...well, it is quite important).
If you don't change underwear regularly you are bound to get very nasty rashes in just a few days (which will put you out of any useless service). If you leave it to the individual serviceman to supply his own trunks, then there is a high risk some won't change them often enough.
I would guess that underwear lasts longer in desert climate than in more temperate climates due to that the sweat evaporates faster and leaves less time for the germs to grow, but all the same anti-germ underwear seems like a good idea. You increase the underwear changing interval which means you can cut back on the supplies organization (and the individual soldiers don't have to carry as many pairs of underwear).
I have just the solution for the female soldier on the go -- http://www.shenis.com/
Athlete's foot is one of the more common problems while infections may occur as a result of untreated injuries. (untreated fungal infections may also lead to bacterial infections if not properly treated.)
You actually don't want to get rid of all bacteria, since some bacteria are actually good for you and helps keeping the bad bacteria out.
Another issue is that there is a risk of getting multi-resistent bacteria that is harder to treat if you expose bacteria to antibiotics for a prolonged time. This is one reason why you shouldn't treat virus infections with antibiotics - it has no effect on the virus.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
Don't believe everything you read in the tabloids. I serve with the British Army, and when it comes down to it, we get what we need, and what we do get is damn good.
Heh.
/. need these pants more than the British soldiers. [rimshot]
TBH though, I think the majority of people on