iPods at War

[Lemur]

Nice article at Ars Technica about soldiers and their consumer electronics. It's only three pages, and Ars doesn't lock its articles away, so I'm not reposting it here. Just a taste:

One of Mikhail Woltering's strangest experiences in Iraq came when he helped a US unit fix a problem with their satellite TV hookup. One of the soldiers in the unit had hauled an amazing array of electronic gear into the desert with him: expensive computer, turntables, speakers. He had converted one corner of his 10-man tent into a complete DJ studio and worked late into the night, remixing samples and patching together his own beats. And then, one night, he made a mistake—he accidentally unplugged his headphones.

The homemade beats blasted out of his speakers instead. Woltering remembers that the noise "woke everyone up in the tent. They all hit the deck, donning their body armor, thinking they were under attack. That guy got a talking to about that particular incident."

Curious as always for .org reaction. What do we think of troops hauling their electronics to the front? Good, bad, gah?

[Blodrast]

Never been in the front line myself (or even in the service), so I can only give an outsider's perspective.
The front line sucks, and it can't be a great feeling to know you put your life on the line most of the time (or even some of the time). Anything you can do (within reasonable limits, of course) to ease that stress and make home a little closer, or make the surroundings a little bit less harsher, I say go ahead and do it, it can only help.

Again, we're talking reasonable stuff here, i.e. if the only thing that relaxes you is killing 10 children per day, then, no, it's probably not a good idea
Also, if it goes to extremes, i.e. he can't do his duty properly because he stayed up all night mixing tracks or whatever, and he hasn't got enough sleep to be in decent shape, it's also not good. But other than that, I admire the effort.

[Incongruous]

Well its their job, and they're the ones that get killed so it doesn't really matter.
I reckon its awsome!

[Banquo's Ghost]

In my day, if a soldier of mine was bored, he'd get to wash a tank or three.

Seriously, music particularly is very good for morale. There's lots of dull time in war and if these pieces of kit help soldiers relax (in their own time) all the better.

Certainly I would not agree to taking them on patrol as the picture appears to imply (I accept it's probably just posed). However dull it seems at that moment, one needs all one's senses tuned to the surroundings, not lulled by music.

I'm a little jealous. When we were sitting out in the middle of nowhere, we had a battered old travel chess set - oh, and tea, of course.

[Lemur]

Interesting post from the discussion of this article at Slashdot:

Been back from Iraq for less than a year. We lived in steel containers with windows, a door and an AC unit cut into the sides. Our water tank was outside and non-potable so you didn't shower if you had a cut. In the winter the water was cold. In the summer it was too hot to shower after 7AM. About half the guys in my platoon had laptops. All but a few had iPods.

It's nice to be able to listen to some tunes or play some NCAA with the AC going full blast when it's 130F outside. You do it to try to bring back a feeling of normality. You know that in two hours you're going out for a patrol and you know that your sector is averaging an IED every other day but for that short time beforehand you can almost imagine that you're back home.

Is a $3000 plasma screen excessive? An entire DJ booth over the top? In my opinion yes, but to that soldier it's probably still not enough to make them feel like they were home.

One thing of note.... the PX who supplies most of the crap that soldiers buy is a monopoly. They stock that $3000 plasma that a buck private probably can't afford knowing that they'll take the money and run. In my opinion they were bigger cheats than the Haji shop on base that tried to sell you Rodex watches.

[Redleg]

Interesting post from the discussion of this article at Slashdot:

One thing of note.... the PX who supplies most of the crap that soldiers buy is a monopoly. They stock that $3000 plasma that a buck private probably can't afford knowing that they'll take the money and run. In my opinion they were bigger cheats than the Haji shop on base that tried to sell you Rodex watches.

Yes indeed I hate AAFES. Its okay in the states because they have to compete with the local business community for the soldier's money. So the prices tend to be more reasonable, but often even then one can get a better deal from another establishment.

When I was in South Korea - I bought most of my clothing in the civilian markets - lots of fun bartering with the merchant versus just paying the price tag at AAFES.