At Modern Day Marine, we saw a friend at Elite Defense wearing a unique copper bracelet. When we asked about it he told us about Hero Bracelets. It turns out that the one he was wearing was the Aegis Style – Legion HeroBracelet stamped with the name of a friend, lost in combat.
Available in polished or patina finishes, the Aegis starts life start as a 1/4″ thick solid copper bar. It’s individually cut, formed, hand-stamped, smoothed and polished. And, because there are three sides, you can have them customized on each side; front, top and bottom. It becomes a one-of-a-kind memento to honor a fallen comrade or loved one. Additionally, Hero Bracelets has several other styles including the more traditional band.
We received a phone call from our friends at Ares Armor on Friday afternoon. They told us that we had saved a life. “A life?” we asked. And then they told us this tale.
“During my last deployment to Afghanistan I was assigned to a embedded partnership platoon, whose primary duties we’re running an ANA NCO leadership course. One night the students invited us to a dinner consisting of fresh dead goat that expired due to gunasyphilaids and bread that is made with their feet. We were not taking our weapons to the event to be respectful and to show that they can be trusted, but I myself never wanted to be unarmed in hostile country so I decided to take my Rad pack with a pistol holstered on the inside, but more importantly along with the pistol I was able to fit 20 rip it cans to wash the diseased meat out of my mouth.
As the “dinner” night consisting of foot bread and diseased goat wore on, one of the Afghans started to become more and more hostile towards one of the other Americans. Till one point he walked out of the room yelling and then returned a few moments later with an AKM that he was wildly pointing around the room confronting my team mate with whom he had the altercation. I knew that I had to do something before rounds started to fly. So I stood up from my corner while running and deploying the rad pack at the same time.
In 3 seconds I have my front plate deployed and I’ve drawn my pistol. At this point I have my beretta shoved in his face “politely” asking for his compliance to get on the ground. Everyone in the room was not only surprised by the force of violence I was able to apply but the that I had a plate carrier/ pistol the whole time along with the sheer number of “rip its” that we used to wash the taste of meat that only Borat would love. The look on the perpetrator’s face was priceless, his mouth dropped open and his eyes were wide. He thought he was the only one in the room with a weapon… He was wrong. He brought a gun. I brought a gun, armor, and the element of surprise.
Your RAD pack’s shock and awe ability saved lives and stomachs that day.
Also, let Soldier Systems now that I learned of this product on their site and special thanks to them for that!”
In the end we thanked the folks at Ares Armor for being the guys that built the product that made it possible for one of America’s finest to save a whole bunch of lives. Ultimately, one man at the right place at the right time, did the right thing. He is the hero and he saved lives. Fortunately, he is a reader of SSD and found out about the RAD pack on our site. He then purchased a RAD Pack from Ares Armor and then USED it as it was intended. There isn’t much in life that can be better than that. THIS is why we do it.
Thank you anonymous American for doing the right thing, and thank you Ares Armor for building great products!
UK-based Intelligent Armour has informed us that they have launched a new French language website to better serve their Franophone customers. In a statement, Intelligent Armour CEO Alex Bomberg told us, “I am very happy that the website launch has gone very well with no technical issues. It has taken nine months of planning and work and over 9000 technical translations to be able to provide our French speaking clients with their own website.” He went on to add, “Having been selling to mainland Europe for the past number of years, and although we have French nationals as part of our sales and management team, this new website enables us to provide a far higher level of service.”
It was just another day in Iraq, after a few months everyday seems the same. Truly a Ground hog” day. I was walking back from the Tac Center to my hootch when I heard that loud whistling overhead roar that’s either a low flying jet or incoming round (we didn’t do out bound from Al-Asad). Before I could actually figure it out, I felt the ground shudder and then heard the familiar dull thud of an Iraqi rocket landing about 1/4 mile to my left. Right after that, another overhead “Whoose” and another thud, only this time closer and to my front. I didn’t wait for the third (which came a few seconds later) I was hauling ass for the building. It may be the fastest 100 yards I ever ran on my life. I don’t think my feet actually touched the ground. LOL. Luckily no one was hurt from that barrage, the rockets mostly landed in a nearby helo parking area. The point of this lame “war story” is that sometimes you just have to run to save your ass. I only had to run a little way in that case but the fact is as a member of the military, those in law enforcement or firefighting, your very survival could easily be determined by how fast, or how far you can run. In my opinion, running is the single best fitness exercise there is. I also don’t think there is a better way to burn calories to help keep your weight in check. Plus, you can do it almost anywhere. In my book Corps Strength I outline how to include running in an effective overall fitness plan. I know many people don’t like to run, and some will tell you that running is bad for you. Well I have been running almost daily for over 30 years and while I sometimes feel every minute of my 51 years I have no physical problems from it, and I will continue to do so until that big rocket finally catches up with me. Until then I’ll keep going and I highly suggest you do the same.
Tactical Fanboy has posted an interesting find; the Hornaday Zombie Ammo video. Considering how many rounds the “hero” had to put into those Zombies to take them down and the fact that he isn’t in the end of the video tells us that that ammo may need some work. Or…maybe it’s just the shooter and his gun.
Here is TF himself wielding the Mossberg 500 Chainsaw Shotgun.
Viper Headwear was founded by an Army SF veteran. Here, Viper introduces their new cap, the “Quiet Professional” – “A fitted MultiCam cap for Operators.”
Interestingly, the Quiet Professional is constructed from Cordura’s 50/50 Nylon/Cotton material which is a pretty lightweight fabric with No Melt No Drip properties. Natuarrly it’s Multicam and features a 2″x3″ Velcro loop on the front for rank insignia, flags, team/unit patches, or your favorite morale patch and 1″x4″ Velcro loop on the back for nametapes.
According to Viper, they also have Khaki, Digital Desert, and Digital Woodland patterns coming soon. Made in USA!
