The photo is a little tongue-in-cheek, but the thought process behind it is a very serious part of SOTECH’s innovation process. As an avid military historian, SOTECH’s CEO Jim Cragg encourages his staff to study weapon development and soldier load carriage throughout history to spur the creative juices in developing SOTECH’s designs for the Future Warrior and Future Enforcer. Pictured above, Jim attends the week long U.S. Cavalry School on the Little Big Horn battlefield. The school teaches riding with period equipment, cavalry tactics, and use of period weapons, as well as a mounted military history staff ride. As one point of interest, in 1876 most troopers of the 7th Cavalry didn’t have a quick-draw ammunition belt, so they put their bullets in piles on the ground, many leaving them behind when ordered to fall back. In a history repeating itself moment, LA Sheriff’s Dept SEB Sniper Cadre approached SOTECH in 2001 asking for an ammunition harness because they had set their rifle ammo on the ground in position and found it cumbersome to police up their rounds and radio when ordered to shift positions. Some things never change. Jim is pictured testing SOTECH’s new VIPER plate carrier system while Lt. W.W. Cook (Ron Glasgow) and a trooper (Gary Newton) are sporting Hellcat kits.
Check out www.USCavarlySchool.com if you are interested in experiencing the way our forefathers fought. The school culminates with a reenactment on the yearly anniversary of Custer’s Last Stand. And yes, Jim was ingloriously scalped by a Native American warrior with a Nerf war club.
