Measuring 54″X10″ the Springfield Armory Waterproof Rifle Case is made from 500D PVC material paired with weathertight water resistant zippers.
Springfield states the Exterior Shell has a Waterproof Rating of IP 67 (immersion up to 1m). They also claim it will float and since it’s lined with removable foam padding, I don’t doubt it. Just to be safe, I’d just count on this rifle bag being weatherproof rather than waterproof, based on the terminology Springfield uses.
Self-adjusting fin straps are one of the best ways to don and doff your fins. It also makes it easier to use different size booties. Steel spring straps are a relatively new product for fins. It was invented by cave divers that didn’t want their rubber straps breaking on them in the middle of a cave. So, they took screen door springs and made fin straps out of them. Typical rubber straps also have a chance of breaking at some point. If you are lucky, it will happen when you are putting them on before a dive, not in the middle of one. I had a strap break on me in the middle of a dive. Lucky the suction between the fin and my booties kept the fin on.
I noticed that the fin was slightly lost, but we only had about 30 minutes left in the dive, so I just went with it. I was also lucky that I wanted to drive and hang out and make sure we didn’t run into anything. I did have a very small bungee that I used to hold the fin on. It wasn’t great, and I should have tried it in the pool before I was out doing a combat swimmer dive. It would help if you always carried a spare strap on you. Replacing a strap can be a pain in the middle of a dive. So, as I said before, and I have said this a lot in the articles I post, always practice things before you are in the field.
The self-adjusting strap helps avoid most of these problems. You can find them for almost every type of open-heel fins. The spring straps typically attach using rust-resistant metal hardware. SCUBAPRO Steel Spring Straps are available for SCUBAPRO Jet fins, Twin Jet Max, Veloce fins, and the Seawing Nova fins. They are made from High-grade marine steel. These straps can replace the traditional fin strap with the added benefits of being easier to don and doff, and they will compensate at depth for the pressure underwater. The flexible nature of the spring strap tightens as you descend to compensate for the crush on your boots, meaning your fins stay on at the exact tension you set them to at the surface. They are also a lot less likely to break when entering the water from a helicopter. The Steel Spring strap for the SCUBAPRO Jet fin has also been added to the 2020 Naval Aircrew Systems State of the Art Catalog. This allows SAR swimmers the ability to start using the Spring heels on their fins.
Spring straps are strong springs with a rubber or nylon heel cover for comfort. Instead of adjusting the tension every time you put them on like with traditional straps, you simply stretch the spring over your heel. This decreases your time and energy spent putting on and taking off your fins before and after a dive. Several fins models now come with pre-installed spring straps, but they can also be added to many other fin models.
The other type of self-adjusting straps is made from quality marine-grade bungee designed for years of reliable use. Marine-grade bungee is design and construction, making it ideal for prolonged exposure to saltwater, sunlight/UV radiation, and the general wear and tear that fin regularly go through. A denier Dacron polyester cover is thick and long-lasting, repelling water and resisting abrasion better than nylon.
This bungee is made from a top-quality first extruded latex rubber with a consistent 100% stretch and high modulus that won’t lose its elasticity as many others do. Like the steel spring, the bungee is self-adjusting at depth. Upon ascent, they decompress, keeping fin straps comfortable throughout the dive. Straps have a large rubber finger loop to aid in donning and doffing. Marine bungee is highly reliable and has a very low percentage of breaking. All this being said, I know you can break it if you “test it” to try and prove me wrong. They come standard on the SCUBAPRO Go (Barefoot fin) and GO Sport fins (Boot fin).
They are made from 100% Monprene construction avoids de-lamination problems, broken blades, and torn foot pockets that tend to plague average thermoplastic fins. This enables the Go Sport to stand up to long-term, heavy-duty use.
The Go fin excels in strength, comfort, and convenience, but where it shines is in kicking performance. The Go is built with a 25° pre-angled blade with a central power panel that provides longitudinal rigidity and channeling effect. Power bars on the underside of the rails prevent over-flex; this helps maintain the optimum angle of attack under high load conditions. The result: you get a lightweight fin that delivers speed, power, stability, and maneuverability with a minimum of effort.
The Go Sport fin is genuinely one of the best fins I have ever used. I have giving them away to a lot of people. This is because when I let someone uses them, they usually won’t give them back. I have used them diving in a strong current, swimming over the beach, pushing a ruck, and for surface swims. I have never had a cramp while using them. They are light and do not take up too much room, making them the ideal river and stream crossing fins. I am 6’2″ 225, and they push my big butt around.
Vietnam War Journalist extraordinaire Joseph Galloway, 79, passed away last week due to complications from a heart attack.
He was a giant among men, unafraid of heading into the fray with the forces he meant to cover. In fact, during the battle of Ia Drang Galloway saved a Soldier’s life and was eventually recognized decades later by the Army with a Bronze Star Medal for his heroism under fire. A witness to the action, it was so intense, he armed himself. During his ceremony, MG Joe Kellogg said of Galloway, ““He was a soldier in spirit, he was a soldier in actions and he was a soldier in deeds.”
He wrote a book about that battle, along with retired LTG Hal Moore entitled, “We Were Soldiers Once … and Young” which was later made into a movie.
He remained a journalist his entire career, covering everything from the local seen to international politics.
May He Rest In Peace.
Paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division’s Immediate Response Force prepare personnel and equipment for a deployment to the U. S. Central Command Area of Operations. The Immediate Response Force is charged with remaining ready to answer the Nation’s call to deploy to anywhere in the world at a moments notice.
The Group Foundations Course is a two-week course designed for Green Berets new to 10th SFG(A). During this two-week process, the new Special Forces Operators learn about the history of the group and cover the fundamentals of being an Original – which includes combatives, pistol and rifle marksmanship, physical fitness and in-depth military vehicle familiarization.
It’s early March 1988 400 miles north of the Arctic Circle, a small team of special operations guys are loading into the torpedo tubes of a diesel submarine to lock out and conduct a mission sinking a small craft. Climbing into the tube taking care not to hit our dive rigs and gear on the lip or rails, we work our way deep into the dark tunnel. Situated in the tube, cold steel closing in all around us the loading door is sealed shut just before the tube fills with arctic water. Pitch black, water fills the tube and pressure equalizes with the outside depth. The exit door opens, and we escape to the open water. The water is cold like an ice cream headache, we can feel it thru our dry suits but there is something else… wetness slowly expanding around my right knee. As the dive continues, I get wetter and wetter…. soon my whole clothing system is soaked with seawater.
This may not be your normal occurrence for the hiker or climber but getting wet and needing to maintain body heat is. This is where a little discussed thermal value comes to play called “Wet CLO”. Let’s segment that a little, starting with CLO. The CLO Value is a measurement of warmth and can be used to characterize apparel items including garments, gloves, headwear and footwear. 1 CLO is the amount of insulation that allows a person at rest to maintain thermal equilibrium in an environment at 21 degrees Celsius or 70 degrees Fahrenheit. This is said to be equivalent wearing a three-piece business suit with undergarments at that temperature. When we discuss Wet CLO, we talk about the insulation value degrading because of the water content. That water can come from sweat, rain, condensation, etc.
Let’s look at the insulation spectrum starting with Down which can have a super high Dry CLO value of 1.68, but a super low Wet CLO value, near zero! Please note, that the Dry CLO value is dependent on garment design, and grade and thickness of the Down. The high differential in thermal capability is problematic to the novice adventurer and most military folks, as they do not get to pick a blue bird day to execute a mission.
Air is one of the best insulators for apparel systems. Most insulated apparel systems work by trapping air next to the wearers’ body. When an insulation becomes wet, the trapped air within the insulation is replaced by liquid water. This can lead to huge decreases in in warmth or CLO value, as air is 24x more insulative than water. As you can see from the graph below, even a little bit of water pick-up can lead to a huge decrease in CLO value.
If the water in the insulation later freezes, the impact is even worse, as air is 90x more insulative than ice. On top of decreasing the CLO value of the insulation, water inside insulation can evaporate, causing cooling. This is similar to how our bodies cool ourselves by sweating on a hot day. But in a cold environment, this can be dangerous. In some wet situations, having wet insulation can be worse than having no insulation at all!
Wool has been a baseline measure for years; we have all heard the ‘warm when wet’ moniker. Today’s insulation world has been inundated with synthetics from Primaloft to Thinsulate, Climashield to Gore Thermium. These insulations have been developed to deliver the highest CLO value per gram, be hydrophobic and feel comfortable inside the garment. Ultimately, the easiest way to reduce the impact of water on the CLO value is to minimize the amount of water that the insulation can pick up in the first place! This can either be done by changing the properties of the insulation itself (ex., making it hydrophobic), or by protecting the insulation from water exposure (ex. by utilizing a GORE-TEX barrier to prevent rain ingress). Some insulations, like Gore Thermium, do not pick up any moisture, therefore the CLO value does not change when exposed to water. Thus, minimizing the water content within the insulation is key to effectively closing the gap between wet CLO and dry CLO.
Today, there is no standardized test method for measuring Wet CLO across the outdoor industry, but engineers and scientists are working to characterize this phenomenon as it an important issue in protective apparel. Primaloft has worked on this issue since the early days of PCU and developed Primaloft Gold, their best performing insulation is 97-98% clo value when wet.
Our goal in the military and those that ‘GO’ when duty calls is to build clothing and sleep systems with the narrowest CLO differential dry or wet possible. With a narrow CLO differential, the user can select an insulation for the appropriate temperature range and the moisture content of the clothing system has little to no effect on warmth. USSOCOM made a deliberate decision to build their clothing and sleep systems to complement each other, remain unaffected by moisture and be ‘continuously drying’.
Back to my story, upon exiting the water in soaking wet clothing we had to make every attempt to walk for the next twelve hours to dry the clothing system out as it had little insulation value wet, was hard to dry and made for a challenging night above the Arctic Circle. No teammates were injured during this event.
How do you know you’re getting wet after 2-3 days in the field? Your sleeping bag just doesn’t fit the same as when you left the house, your jacket is a little heavier, all signs that moisture is in the system, you just don’t feel it next to skin. That moisture degrades your comfort and warmth. So the next time you’re out for a trip weigh your kit before and as soon as you return… check your water weight!
Scott Williams, NSW (ret), Former OIC Naval Special Warfare Center, Det Kodiak, USSOCOM Cold Weather Equipment Project Director. Currently at the Wing Group leading Defense efforts.
INDIAN HEAD, Md. (AFNS) —
Explosive ordnance disposal and bomb squad experts in the Department of Defense and civilian sector tested the latest EOD robotics and emerging capabilities during the Eastern National Robot Rodeo and Capabilities exercise Aug. 2-6.
The Robot Rodeo, in its fifth year, was back after more than a year-long hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The event, conducted at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head Division and town of Indian Head, brought together experienced EOD operators and public safety bomb squads to evaluate EOD capabilities in real-world operating environments and provide real-time feedback to industry partners.
“Everyone – sponsors, vendors and participants – was excited about the 2021 ENRR-CAPEX, especially after having to cancel the 2020 event due to the COVID pandemic,” said Dr. John Olive, deputy director of the Air Force Civil Engineer Center’s EOD Division and Air Force EOD subject matter expert.
The rodeo is extremely important to AFCEC, which is responsible for central procurement of equipment for the Department of the Air Force’s 1,700 Total Force operators at 84 locations around the globe.
“The rodeo showcases technologies under development from various industry vendors and has a direct impact in putting the absolute best tools in the hands of our EOD and public safety bomb squad operators, and international partners,” he said.
While all CE missions are critical to the Department of the Air Force and mission platforms, EOD is perhaps the most dangerous.
“Having these technologies that give our operators the ability to do more standoff investigation, interrogation and mitigation of hazards, keeps our warfighters out of harm’s range and enables them to do things more efficiently,” said Col. John Tryon, AFCEC Detachment 1 commander.
AFCEC in general is always looking to push the envelope and do things smarter and more efficiently, Tryon said, with EOD in particular always being on the cutting edge.
“With new threats it won’t be one or two unexploded ordnance we’ll be dealing with in future, it will be hundreds or thousands of UXOs and we have a limited number of EOD operators. We need technologies that we can leverage, that are force multipliers, so we can achieve the result that we need,” Tryon said.
In addition to the equipment showcase, ENRR included a multi-day, multi-event technical competition to include potential real-world scenarios like a swarm of unmanned aerial systems employing explosive devices, and clearance of a homemade explosive laboratory, while integrating emerging technologies such as advanced radio graphics and multi-shot disruption off from existing robotic platforms.
“Participating multi-agency teams were given one hour to train on new equipment, then given three hours to complete a scenario that challenges that new technology,” Olive said. “Operators provided vendors direct feedback, which shapes future development of that technology in-line with the Chief of Staff of the Air Force’s accelerate change or lose initiative.”
The rodeo directly allows AFCEC to build relationships with industry partners, public safety bomb squads and various other agencies, Olive added, to shape future tech development and “enable us to better support our nine core mission areas for the Air Force EOD program.”
“Getting military and civilian bomb techs together is vital to the overall success of defeating hazardous devices,” said T.J. Brantley, a member of Plano Police Department’s Bomb Squad in Texas. “You get the opportunity to talk about different tactics and procedures other teams are using. Meeting with vendors and getting hands-on training with the latest and greatest technology available helps us do our job safely. Hands down (Robot Rodeo) was one of the best training opportunities I have been to.”
During the event’s distinguished visitor day, Brig. Gen. Bill Kale, director of Air Force Civil Engineers, said he appreciated the opportunity to meet with industry.
“I think it’s very important, as civil engineers, that we stay on the cutting edge of technology,” Kale said. “We need to make sure that whatever we decide to procure, or what we’re looking at, that we can use it or innovate it to improve our readiness.
“We have quite a challenge ahead of us with near peer competition with some of our adversaries and we need to use every tool in our toolkit to make sure we make it challenging for them to even think about trying to come after the United States or our interests,” Kale said.
The Air Force Civil Engineer Center’s Readiness Directorate was one of four sponsors for the event, but it was a joint effort with Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head Division and the town of Indian Head as hosts, and the United States Bomb Technicians Association as a core partner.
“We very much appreciate the NSWC hosting ENRR and the opportunity to come together with the different vendors that provide the robots, sensors and different technologies that EOD teams can employ now and in the future, and for them to interact with our Air Force and joint partner warfighters,” Tryon said. “Actually getting some stick time and providing direct feedback with the vendors is valuable for them not only on how to adapt their technologies, but also for us being able to see what we want to add to our arsenal going forward.
By Debbie Aragon, Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center Public Affairs
West Bend, WI (Aug. 19, 2020) – Delta Defense, LLC is pleased to announce that Inc. magazine ranked the organization No. 3,127 on its annual Inc. 5000 list, the most prestigious ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies. The list represents a unique look at the most successful companies within the American economy’s most dynamic segment—its independent small businesses. Intuit, Zappos, Under Armour, Microsoft, Patagonia, and many other well-known names gained their first national exposure as honorees on the Inc. 5000.
As the service provider for the United States Concealed Carry Association (USCCA), Delta Defense, LLC saw an astounding amount of growth over the past three years. As the world grappled with unforeseen circumstances, Delta Defense, LLC continued to grow its organization in 2020 and rounded out its three-year growth at 120%. On top of the national ranking, Delta Defense, LLC ranked No. 30 in top Wisconsin organizations.
“We are honored to be a part of the Inc. 5000 for the tenth year in a row,” said Tim Schmidt, CEO of Delta Defense, LLC. “To be an organization that has been ranked annually for a decade is a testament to the mission and employees at Delta Defense, LLC. We are proud of what this organization has been able to accomplish in the past decade and look forward to continued success while providing USCCA members world-class service.”
“The 2021 Inc. 5000 list feels like one of the most important rosters of companies ever compiled,” says Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Inc. “Building one of the fastest-growing companies in America in any year is a remarkable achievement. Building one in the crisis we’ve lived through is just plain amazing. This kind of accomplishment comes with hard work, smart pivots, great leadership, and the help of a whole lot of people.”
Complete results of the Inc. 5000, including Delta Defense, LLC’s profile and an interactive database, can be found at www.inc.com/inc5000. The organization will also be featured in the September issue of Inc., available on newsstands on August 20.
To learn more about Delta Defense, LLC, visit deltadefense.com.
