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| Iraq |
| Someone Built a MUCH Better Sandbag... |
| 2004-01-22 |
| More cool stuff for our troops, picture at link: One of the less heralded life-saving, and labor saving, devices in Iraq is the HESCO barrier. This is a collapsible wire mesh container with a heavy duty plastic liner. Open it up and use a front end loader to fill it with sand (dirt or gravel) and you have a protective barrier to protect personnel and equipment from enemy fire (or bombs). Originally designed for use on beaches and marshes for erosion and flood control, the "HESCO Bastion" as it is officially known, quickly became a popular security device even before September 11, 2001. The device is named after the company that developed it over a decade ago, a British firm called HESCO. For anyone who has filled sandbags, this is a dream come true. The labor saving angle is very popular with the troops. Before the HESCO barriers, troops filled sandbags, which was slow. One soldier could fill about 20 sandbags an hour. Troops using HESCO barriers and a front end loader can do ten times the work of troops using sandbags. The HESCO barriers come in a variety of sizes designed for military work. Dimensions of these are (high, wide, long); 4â6âx3â6âx32â(costing $651), 2âx2âx4â ($46.50), 3â3âx3â3âx32â ($493), 3â3âx5â0âx32â $740), 2âx 2âx10â ($98), 7â3âx7âx91â ($3,500), 4â6âx4âx32â ($665), 3â3âx2â6âx30â ($445), 7âx5âx100â ($3,700). Seems a bit pricey, bet they are hand made with high labor costs. High volume production should bring that down. There is also a special "bunker kit" for building bunkers. Most of the barriers can be stacked. The barriers are shipped collapsed and very compact. You quickly pull them open, then fill with sand or dirt. Filled with sand, 24 inches of barrier thickness will stop rifle bullets and shell fragments. It takes five feet of thickness to prevent penetration by an RPG round (although these usually do not hit at the right angle to need that much thickness, but just explode creating a lot of fragments.) About four feet of thickness will protect against most car bombs. The HESCO barriers have prevented hundreds of casualties among US troops and done wonders for morale. Neat. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #24 I forgot. Has a sales rep contacted Kofi yet? Last I remeber I think he has some of the same problems. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-1-22 8:57:26 PM |
| #23 Won't this breakthrough render as obselete the life'work of several crack NK scientists? Well, another slug of Juche and on to the next project. It can happen when you surf the cutting edge of scientific research. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-1-22 8:55:34 PM |
| #22 Euroboy is fun, don't lose him! He provokes some of the greatest commentary from Rantburgers that I have seen. Nice job folks. |
| Posted by: Rafael 2004-1-22 5:36:20 PM |
| #21 To return to the topic, I have filled sandbags, and at a lot faster rate than 20 an hour. Four pointy-nose shovel-fulls of clean sand per bag, I would say about 4 bags a minute would be a good pace. Fred, Euroboy is already a major pain in the arse. Can you lose him please? |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2004-1-22 4:28:58 PM |
| #20 Thanks, Highlander. Just 993 more to go. |
| Posted by: whitecollar redneck 2004-1-22 3:16:56 PM |
| #19 Mock, mock, mock. Mock, Mock. Mock. Mock. |
| Posted by: Highlander 2004-1-22 2:49:33 PM |
| #18 Euroboy, if Vietnam won so greatly, why are they desperate for American money, American investment, American _CAPITALISM_? *shrugs* I don't think you even WANT to understand, child. You want some nice socialist world where we're all living equally. A world where no one is rich, no one is poor, we're all identical, and identically treated. Well, Fuck that, son! I'm a killer, the son of killers, the grandson of killers, and the descendant of killers. I've just decided to not kill _TODAY_. Tomorrow, I might change my mind. I might not. But I have the RIGHT to make that change anytime I like. "The cowards never started, and the weak died along the way..." A line from a famous poem about the settling of the American West. If you lose, you're weak. Sorry about that. Ed. |
| Posted by: Ed Becerra 2004-1-22 2:49:21 PM |
| #17 I hope you're not right AC. I wouldn't want us to have to take Normandy back again. Where are all the prickly French and German rednecks? (are any left)? They did exist as I am decended from the German variety. They should be taking their countries back from the city folks. |
| Posted by: whitecollar redneck 2004-1-22 1:39:52 PM |
| #16 In the short run Iraqi nationalism will defeat Pan-arab nationalism. Hopefully after that Iranian nationalism will defeat Shia fundamentalism, Pakistani nationalism will defeat Wahabi fundamentalism and Pashtun tribalism, and Egyptian nationalism will defeat pan-arab nationalism. For Saudia and Syria im not sure. Dont see any real alternatives to Wahabism in Saudi, or to pan-arab nationalism in Syria. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2004-1-22 1:27:00 PM |
| #15 I'd bet on "both". |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2004-1-22 1:21:03 PM |
| #14 My fellow euroboy doesn't give a shit about the vietnamese, about the arabs, or anyone else for that matter : he just wants the USA to fail, and doesn't care who has to pay the price for that failure. Trouble is, so far, only mud people suffered, while the Great White European Man pleased Himself with progressive ideologies, and enjoyed safely the glory of self-hatred. Now, the Great White European Man is under siege, the mud people have come to His home, and fully intend to overcome His Way Of Life with their. And they are succeding at it, too. Still, the Great White European Man is stuck in His time loop, and longs for the USA to be defeated, just like in Viet Nam, good ol' times. Only, this time, if the USA fail, the Great White European Man is going to pay the price, not the mud people. My view of the future (10-20 yrs) of western Europa, specifically France (I'd say euroboy is a fellow countryman)? Fascism, either the ordinary type, or the muslim one, or both. I'm serious. |
| Posted by: Anonymous coward 2004-1-22 1:07:11 PM |
| #13 "Or, Pan-arabic patriotism will conquer American greed and colonialism. Just like the Vietnamese and Koreans peasants on bicycles won big-time over the worlds greatest superpower." So tyranny is better than liberty? Yeah right. |
| Posted by: Korora 2004-1-22 1:04:19 PM |
| #12 What the hell is "pan-Arabic patriotism"? I think he meant "pan-Arab nationalism", which in its most visible forms is known as the Baath party. Kinda lets you know where his sympathies lay, doesn't it? |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2004-1-22 12:47:46 PM |
| #11 What the Vietnamese are doing today? They live in opression. That is all those who haven't been killed after torture. I simply cannot stand the leftist scum who is ready to have millions of Vietnamese, Cambodians or Iraquis totured and killed as long as the leftist can get a hard-on burning an American flag gaves |
| Posted by: JFM 2004-1-22 12:45:32 PM |
| #10 Way cool--I wonder if these will be modular and interlocking, too? It sounds like with the "bunker kit" you could interchange kits and create some slick variations to accomodate geography and threat levels. Euroboy--What the hell is "pan-Arabic patriotism"? The only thing pan-Arabic is Islam as a religion and the Jews as a scapegoat. Did you fall for that media lie about the "Arab Street" that was supposed to uprise after the invasion and throw the US out of the Middle East for good? |
| Posted by: Dar 2004-1-22 12:40:21 PM |
| #9 You will soon be undergoing the procedure called "Death by 1000 Mocks". |
| Posted by: whitecollar redneck 2004-1-22 12:39:42 PM |
| #8 Who let the trolls out? WOOF WOOF WOOF. Trying to release your inner Dean EB? Let's hear is now.... YARRGGGGGG! |
| Posted by: whitecollar redneck 2004-1-22 12:38:22 PM |
| #7 who let the trolls in? Wife huh? You mean your right hand? Who said the trolls could procreate - there oughtta be a law against that! |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-1-22 12:10:20 PM |
| #6 Wow, your ignorance and prejudice is baffling! -> nimrod, naturally, everyone who opposes your right to bomb anyone, anywhere, is a jew-murdering nazi. Throw enough shit and some of it may stick? (For the record, my wife is jewish, which also means my children will be) ->Robert, regarding my monicker, yes, it is ment as a satirical snipe at the euro-bashing rednecks who seem to think all "euros" are the same (evil terrorist jew-hating frog-eaters). And boy, do y'all live up to my expectations! -> BMNN, my point here is that every dead US soldier or wrecked vehicle (in Vietnam, Korea or Iraq) is a huge cost for the US military, at the price of a 50$ black market RPG fired by an illiterate shepherd/farmer/whatever. The longer the US stays in one place, the higher the costs and lower the morale. As in Korea and Vietnam. I do not deny that it was the NVA regulars who actually won, but one can not discount the importance of the VC, who actually were peasants on bicycles. |
| Posted by: euroboy 2004-1-22 11:44:27 AM |
| #5 And what are those Vietnamese "winners" doing today, euroboy? Trying to rent Cam Ranh to the US Navy and get in on the US export market. If you think the Viet Cong won the war in Vietnam, why did it take NVA tank columns to enter Saigon? |
| Posted by: BMNN 2004-1-22 11:17:29 AM |
| #4 I beginning to think "euroboy" is actually very subtle satire. The name conjures up a super hero's sidekick, and the rhetoric is so ignorant it reeks of stereotyping. Euroboy! So ignorant his merest utterance causes others to go into shock! |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2004-1-22 11:05:16 AM |
| #3 Hey, eunochboy... shouldn't you be out rounding up some Jooooooooos? |
| Posted by: nimrod 2004-1-22 11:02:56 AM |
| #2 Or, Pan-arabic patriotism will conquer American greed and colonialism. Just like the Vietnamese and Koreans peasants on bicycles won big-time over the worlds greatest superpower. |
| Posted by: euroboy 2004-1-22 10:50:01 AM |
| #1 Western inginuity will trump Islamofacist violence in the end. Hopefully their end. And soon. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2004-1-22 10:39:54 AM |