New Face Paint Equals No Pests
by Karen Fleming-Michael Standard staff writer
Fort Detrick, Md. Spring 2003
Soldiers from an infantry company in Korea test a prototype of combined camouflage face paint with DEET.
Soldiers from an infantry company in Korea test a prototype of combined camouflage face paint with DEET. The diseases insects carry—malaria, dengue and leishmaniasis to name a few — are real health threats in the field, which is why soldiers are issued insect repellent. They’re also issued camouflage face paint because they’re expected to be able to hide in plain sight — without giving away their position by swatting at insects.
Yet, until recently, soldiers who needed to use repellent and camouflage face paint at the same time ran into sticky situations.
"If you applied the repellent first and then the face paint, the paint hindered the repellent’s effectiveness. If soldiers reversed the order of application, the repellent made a gooey, smelly mess ... and soldiers weren’t using it," said Col. Raj. Gupta, a medical entomologist who’s worked on fixing the face paint and repellent problem since 1989.
The idea to unite the two was a soldier-driven initiative, said William Robertson, a combat developer with the U.S. Army Medical Department Center and School in San Antonio, Texas. Through the Soldier Enhancement Program, which allows troops to weigh in on anything they wear, use or carry, soldiers told the Army they needed the two products to be combined.
"Soldiers, in some cases, weren’t using the Army-available products, but were attempting to purchase their own products from the civilian world [to resolve the problem]," Robertson said. "Soldiers should not have to spend their own money to do their job."
Offering a solution to the problem, Gupta and other researchers at the now-closed Letterman Army Institute of Research and the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research blended camouflage face paint with a controlled-released formulation of DEET, the repellent issued to soldiers since 1990.
A soldier applies a prototype of combined camouflage face paint with DEET.
A soldier applies a prototype of combined camouflage face paint with DEET. "We were only successful because of very vibrant and active basic research that established the physical parameters and theoretical framework that led to the development of these products," Gupta said. "The knowledge we gained from active basic science research essentially cut in half the time to create prototype candidates."
The two new camouflage face paints compacts — the brown one has DEET, the green one doesn’t —have five colors for soldiers to use when they hide in plain sight. With the new compacts, warfighters will have all the colors they need for a deployment anywhere in the world.
The plastic compacts contain 20 applications of green, loam (a dark, greenish brown) and sand and 10 applications of white and black, a new color for the military.
"When we talked to soldiers, we found that they really wanted the black color to produce shadow effects and to match their BDU [battle dress uniform] colors," said Scott Doughty, a biomedical engineer and product manager for the face paint for the U.S. Army Medical Materiel Development Activity.
Since 1996, Doughty and a team from Fort Sam Houston, Texas; Fort Benning, Ga.; Fort Belvoir, Va.; and Natick Soldier Systems Center in Natick, Mass., have helped guide the two products through advanced development by working with the manufacturer, the Food and Drug Administration — because face paint is considered a cosmetic — and the Environmental Protection Agency — because it controls products that contain DEET.
Developing both the DEET and non-DEET versions was a "happy coincidence" for researchers, Gupta said.
"When we started looking at adding DEET to the face paint, the ‘Big Army’ took notice and said that creating a better face paint that has thermal protection was something they planned to do, so they turned over developing the non-DEET product to the team as well."
Textile technologist Anabela Dugas has tested the two formulations for their visual and near-infrared protection at Natick since 1998. Just as she does with all military camouflage items, she used a color spectrometer to determine each paint’s reflectant properties, ensuring the readings were within acceptable minimum and maximum ranges for visual protection as well as for defeating night vision goggles.
Once the paint color passed that test, soldiers smeared on the paint and headed for the camouflage evaluation facility that has arctic, woodland, urban and desert scenes. There, researchers donned night vision goggles to confirm if the spectrometer’s readings were accurate.
"What you see through night vision goggles is light, so the sand properties should be the same as the sand face paint so you blend in to the sand background," she said. The numbers the spectrometer gives for minimum and maximum levels are required specifications for documentation, Dugas said, but seeing through night vision goggles really is believing.
Because the product ultimately belongs to soldiers, researchers took it to the field to see if soldiers liked it. Gupta brought the product to an infantry company in Panama in 1996 for its first study. He knew he was headed toward a successful product, he said, when the soldiers kept the prototypes. Later studies conducted in 1999 by WRAIR researchers Lt. Col. Mustapha Debboun and Col. Dan Strikman in Thailand and by Debboun in Korea in 2001 let seven additional infantry companies test the face paint.
Doughty and the development team focused on packaging issues such as the size and weight of the compact, easy-opening clasps and mirror. The mirror couldn’t be glass because it needs to withstand the rigors of field life, but it couldn’t be plastic because DEET is a solvent and will dissolve most plastic over time. In the end, stainless steel was the reflector of choice.
"The interesting comment from Korea [trials] is soldiers love the mirror for shaving," Doughty said. "Once they finished with the paint in the compact, they probably broke the hinge and kept the mirror."
Though the product has cleared most hurdles, the development team still has work to do, starting with educating soldiers. Because of the team’s work, new specifications are being finalized for any face paint the Defense Logistics Agency may make in the future.
Doughty noted that soldiers who purchase commercial products, like the paint bow hunters use, aren’t getting the safeguards the new face paint offers, with or without DEET.
"Natick Soldier Center has tested all of these," Doughty said, pointing to his collection of off-the-shelf camouflage face paint compacts. "And they absolutely do not come close to meeting the military specifications for concealment. We need to let soldiers know that though these products are out there, they don’t offer the protection they need."
The team is also taking on the widely used camouflage face paint sticks to get them up to the same standard as the compacts. In contrast to the 184,000 compacts purchased last year through the supply system, Army units bought almost 300,000 of the sticks. The problem with the sticks, Dugas said, is they offer only visual protection from the naked eye, not from night vision devices. Doughty said the dispenser, which is rolled aluminum and can cut less-than-svelte fingers and easily dislodges its cap, also stands improvement.
Future product improvements include face paint that offers concealment from thermal imagers so heat radiating from the face and hands can’t be detected against their background.
"When we come up with thermal-defeating paint, we will have to see if it interferes with the DEET and if the time-released repellent interferes with the thermal," Doughty said. "That will be the next challenge for researchers."
Today's Educational Sources and suggestions for further reading:
http://deploymentlink.osd.mil/news/dquarterly/spring03/research.htm
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ground/camo-paint.htm
Fascinating read. Thanks.
On This Day In History
Birthdates which occurred on March 27:
1746 Carlo Bonaparte Corsican attorney/father of emperor Napoleon
1757 Richard John Samuel Stevens composer
1765 Franz Xaver von Baader German philosopher/theologist
1797 Alfred V Comte de Vigny French musketeer/writer (Moïse, Chatterton)
1813 Nathaniel Currier lithographer (Currier & Ives)
1823 Samuel Kosciusko Zook Brevet Major General (Union volunteers)
1844 Adolphus Washington Greely US, Arctic explorer, US Army General Medal of Honor recipient
1845 Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen Germany, discovered X-rays (Nobel 1901)
1847 Otto Wallach Germany, chemist (Nobel 1910)
1851 Vincent d'Indy Paris France, composer (Symphonie Cévenole)
1868 Patty Smith Hill author/songwriter (Happy Birthday To You)
1871 Heinrich Mann Germany, novelist/essayist (Blue Angel); brother of Thomas
1886 Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe German/US architect (Bauhaus)
1893 Dragoljub "Draza" Mihailovic Yugoslavian General/Nazi collaborator
1893 Karl Mannheim Hung/German/British sociologist (Ideology & Utopia)
1899 Gloria Swanson Chicago IL, actress (Sadie Thomson, Queen Kelly)
1905 László Kalmár Edde Hungary, mathematician/promoted the development of computer science in Hungary
1910 John Robinson Pierce, the father of communications satellites,
1912 James Callaghan (L) British Prime Minister (1976-79)
1914 Snooky Lanson Memphis TN, singer (Your Hit Parade, 5 Star Jubilee)
1917 Cyrus R Vance US Secretary of State (1977-80)
1924 Sarah L Vaughan Newark NJ, jazz singer (Broken Hearted Melody)
1927 Anthony Lewis newspaper columnist (New York Times)/author (Gideon's Trumpet)
1930 David Janssen [Meyer] Naponee NE, actor (Fugitive, Harry O)
1932 Junior Parker blues musician (Driving Wheel, Outside Man)
1932 Wes Covington baseball player (Philadelphia Phillies)
1936 Jerry Lacy Sioux City IA, actor (Play it Again Sam, Reverend Trask-Dark Shadows)
1939 Judy Carne comedienne (Laugh-In, Love on a Rooftop)
1940 Cale Yarborough auto racer (Won Daytona 500 4 times-1968, 77, 83, 84)
1942 Michael York Fulmer Buckinghamshire England, actor (Cabaret, Logan's Run, 3 Musketeers)
1950 Tony Banks East Heathly Sussex England, rock keyboardist (Genesis-Invisible Touch, Misunderstanding)
1953 Pamela Roylance Seattle WA, actress (Sarah-Little House on Prairie)
1958 Susan Molinari (Representative-Republican-NY)
1963 Quentin Tarantino director/screenwriter (Pulp Fiction)
1970 Mariah Carey New York NY, singer (Vision of Love, Love Takes Time, Hero)
1974 Rosanna Gimenez Miss Paraguay-Universe (1997)
1976 Roberta Alma Anastase Miss Romania-Universe (1996)
Deaths which occurred on March 27:
0922 Al-Hallaj al-Mughith-al-Hsayn Mansur Persian mystic, beheaded at 64
0965 Arnulf I the Elder/the Great, count of Flanders (918-65), dies
1211 Sancho I King of Portugal (1185-1211), dies at 56
1378 Gregory XI [Pierre R the Beaufort], last French Pope (1370-78), dies
1625 James I Stuart king of Scotland (1567)/England (1603-25), dies at 58
1770 Giovanni B Tiepolo Italian painter (Banquet of Cleopatra), dies at 73
1850 Wilhelm Bear German banker/astronomer (Moon Map), dies at 53
1925 Carl G Neumann German mathematician/physicist, dies at 92
1943 Grigori Yakovlevich Bakhchivangi test pilot (BI-1), killed in crash
1968 Yuri Gagarin 1st man to orbit Earth, dies in plane crash at 34
1991 Aldo Ray western actor (Battle Cry, We're No Angels), dies of cancer at 64
1992 Easley Blackwood expert bridge player, dies at 89
1992 James E Webb head of NASA (1961-68), dies at 84
1993 Clifford Jordan tenor saxophonist, dies of cancer at 61
1998 Ferdinand Porsche Jr. (creator of the Porsche) dies
2002 Milton Berle (93), known as Uncle Miltie and Mr. Television, died
GWOT Casualties
Iraq
27-Mar-2003 6 | US: 6 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US Staff Sergeant Donald Charles May Jr. An Nasiriyah Hostile - vehicle accident
US Lance Corporal Patrick Terence O'Day An Nasiriyah Hostile - vehicle accident
US Private 1st Class Francisco Abraham Martinez-Flores An Nasiriyah Hostile - vehicle accident
US Corporal Robert Marcus Rodriguez An Nasiriyah Hostile - vehicle accident
US Gunnery Sergeant Joseph Menusa Not reported Hostile - hostile fire
US Lance Corporal Jesus Alberto Suarez del Solar Baghdad Hostile - friendly fire - cluster bomblet
27-Mar-2004 1 | US: 1 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US Master Sergeant Timothy Toney Camp Wolverine Non-hostile - illness - sudden collapse
Afghanistan
34 03/27/02 Bourgeois, Matthew J. Chief Petty Officer 35 Navy Afghanistan Tallahassee Fla
http://icasualties.org/oif/ Data research by Pat Kneisler
Designed and maintained by Michael White
On this day...
1513 Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León sights Florida
1599 Robert Devereux becomes Lieutenant-General of Ireland
1625 Charles I, King Of England, Scotland & Ireland, ascends to throne
1668 English King Charles II gives Bombay to East India Company
1708 English pretender to the throne James III flees to Dunkerk
1713 Spain losses Menorca & Gibraltar
1758 Battle at Emmerich: British army floats around France the Rhine
1790 The shoelace invented
1794 Congress authorizes the President "to provide a naval armament" (US Navy) Happy Birthday swabbies! All sweepers man your brooms!
1802 Treaty of Amiens-French Revolutionary War ends
1814 Battle at Horseshoe Bend: General Andrew Jackson defeats Creek-Indians
1836 1st Mormon temple dedicated (Kirtland OH)
1841 1st US steam fire engine tested, New York NY
1848 John Parker Paynard originates medicated adhesive plaster
1849 Joseph Couch patents steam-powered percussion rock drill
1855 Abraham Gesner patents kerosene
1860 M L Byrn patents "covered gimlet screw with a 'T' handle" (corkscrew)
1861 Black demonstrators in Charleston staged ride-ins on street cars
1863 President Davis calls for this to be a day of fasting & prayer
1865 Siege of Spanish Fort AL: captured by Federals
1866 Andrew Rankin patents the urinal
1866 President Johnson vetoes civil rights bill; it later becomes 14th Amendment
1879 Longest championship fight (136 rounds)
1884 1st long-distance telephone call, Boston-New York
1912 1st Japanese cherry blossom trees planted in Washington DC
1914 1st successful blood transfusion (in Brussels)
1917 Seattle Metropolitans, 1st US team to win Stanley Cup beat Canadiens
1920 Film stars Mary Pickford & Douglas Fairbanks wed
1924 Canada recognizes USSR
1930 1st US radio broadcast from a ship at sea
1931 Charlie Chaplin receives France's distinguished Legion of Honor
1931 John McGraw says night baseball will not catch on
1933 Japan leaves League of Nations
1933 Polythene discovered by Reginald Gibson & Eric William Fawcett
1940 Himmler orders building of Auschwitz concentration camp, at Katowice
1941 Britain leases defense bases in Trinidad to US for 99 years
1941 Hitler signs Directive 27 (assault on Yugoslavia)
1941 Yugoslavian coup gets rid of pro-German Prince Paul
1942 Allies raid German submarine base in St Nazaire
1942 Japan forces Java to use "Tokyo time" 1½ hour forward
1942 Joe Louis KOs Abe Simon in 6 to retain heavyweight boxing title (New York NY)
1943 Assassination attempt on Van de Peat at Amsterdams census bureau
1943 Blue Ribbon Town (with Groucho Marx) 1st heard on CBS Radio
1943 US begins assault on Fondouk-pass, Tunisia
1944 1,000 Jews leave Drancy France for Auschwitz Concentration Camp
1944 2,000 Jews are murdered in Kaunas Lithuania
1944 40 Jewish policemen in Riga Latvia ghetto are shot by the gestapo
1944 Children's Aktion-Nazis collect all the Jewish children of Lovno
1945 Ella Fitzgerald & Delta Rhythm Boys record "It's Only a Paper Moon"
1945 Iwo Jima occupied, after 22,000 Japanese & 6,000 US killed (Semper Fi!)
1950 Jazz pianist, Erroll Garner's solo concert (Cleveland OH)
1952 Failed assassination attempt of German Chancellor Adenauer
1952 Sun Records of Memphis begins releasing records
1955 Steve McQueen makes his network TV debut (Goodyear Playhouse)
1956 US seizes US communist newspaper "Daily Worker"
1958 CBS Labs announce new stereophonic records
1958 Havana Hilton opens
1958 Nikita Khrushchev becomes Soviet premier & 1st Secretary of Communist Party
1961 Failed assassination attempt on King Saif al-Islam Achmad of Yemen
1962 Archbishop Rummel ends race segregation in New Orlean Catholic school
1964 Earthquake strikes Anchorage AK, 9.2 on Richter scale, 131 die from earthquake and resulting tsunami; this is the most violent eathquake in US history
1964 Great Train Robbers sentenced to a total of 307 years behind bars
1964 UN troops arrive on Cyprus
1966 Anti Vietnam war demonstrations in US, Europe & Australia
1968 Suharto succeeds Sukarno as President of Indonesia
1969 Launch of Mariner 7, flies 2,190 miles above southern Mars
1970 Ringo releases his 1st solo album "Sentimental Journey"
1972 Adolph Rupp retires after 42 years of coaching University of Kentucky
1973 Jerry Garcia (Grateful Dead) stopped for speeding & LSD possession (SHOCK)
1977 583 die in aviation's worst disaster KLM-Pan Am 747 crash, Tenerife
1978 Rutles "All You Need is Cash" is shown on British TV
1979 Supreme Court rules, 8-1, cops can't randomly stop cars
1980 Mount St Helens becomes active after 123 years
1984 Andrew Lloyd Webber/Richard Stilgoe's "Starlight Express" premieres
1988 Wrestlemania IV at Trump Plaza, "Macho Man" Savage pins Ted Dibiase
1991 NCAA bans University of Minnesota football team from postseason play in 1992
1991 New Kids on the Block's Donnie Wahlberg arrested on arson charges in Kentucky
1991 Scotty Bowman & Neil Armstrong elected to NHL Hall of Fame
1994 Radio personality Rush Limbaugh weds (the lovely and gracious) Marta Fitzgerald (Congratulations)
1996 Yigal Amir confessed assassin of Yitzhak Rabin sentenced to life in prison
1997 Martin Luther King's son meets with James Earl Ray
1998 The FDA approves the drug Viagra
2000 The Supreme Court rules the federal government can deny food stamps and other welfare benefits to people who live permanently in the United States but who are not citizens
2002 The US Supreme Court rules that illegal immigrants do not have the same rights as Americans when they are wrongly fired from US jobs
2003 9th day of Operation Iraqi Freedom a British armored unit destroyed 14 Iraqi tanks trying to break out of the besieged city of Basra. A sea-borne relief operation was postponed after discovering Iraqi mines in the shipping channel leading to the recently captured Iraqi port of Umm Qasr. Heavy bombing on Baghdad destroyed a main telephone exchange.
2134 32nd recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet
Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
Burma : Resistance Day
Alaska : Seward Day (1867) (Monday)
US Virgin Island : Transfer Day (1917) (Monday)
US : National Badmitton Day
US : National Joe Day
National Furniture Refinishing Month
Religious Observances
Christian : Easter Sunday
old Roman Catholic : Commemoration of St John Damascene, confessor/dr (now 12/4)
Anglican : Feast of Charles H Brent, Bp of Philippines, & of Western New York
Religious History
1536 Swiss Protestants in Strassbourg and Constance signed the First Helvetic Confession. It became the first major document setting forth the common faith of the Swiss Protestant churches.
1840 Scottish clergyman Robert Murray McCheyne wrote in a letter: 'No person can be a child of God without living in secret prayer; and no community of Christians can be in a lively condition without unity in prayer.'
1921 The first Southern Baptist church to be constituted in the state of Arizona was organized in Phoenix formed principally of churchmen who protested the doctrinal views held by leaders of the Northern Baptist Convention.
1946 Members of Baptist congregations in Anchorage, Juneau and Fairbanks met at Anchorage to form the Alaska Southern Baptist Convention.
1962 In Louisiana, Archbishop Joseph Francis Rummel ordered all Roman Catholic schools in the New Orleans diocese to end segregation.
Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.
Thought for the day :
"Easter says you can put truth in a grave, but it won't stay there."
I'm on the road, but found a connection to wish all my fellow Christian FReepers a very happy and joyous Easter!
