The Imperial Army... Life and Times of an Imperial Grunt

[ottarrus]

So, imagine all this en route to the next deployment while riding in your Astrin. You can't even remember what frikkin' planet you're on and frankly you don't care... Where you are is the Army, the only thing that changes is the color of the scenery.
You've been in your combat armor for four days straight and you have rashes starting in your joints and your crotch from the built up sweat, skin oils, grime, and constant rubbing of the undersuit. You're fairly certain that in order to clean the outside of the armor you're gonna have to decontaminate it first. The only thing even remotely clean is your weapon, but it would never pass a garrison inspection. You're beyond tired, haven't eaten anything that didn't come in a ration pouch for two weeks and your gastric system has lodged a complaint with the management [speaking of the condition of your armor's undersuit...] and you got randomly given Vegan Vilani meals every eff'ing day this week. Let's just put it this way... the Vilani guys in the company say that the packaging tastes better and you're just about at the point where you'd kill a friend right here, right now for an Astroburger with Cheese and a cold beer.
Then all the sudden, the driver of the Astrin starts up with a hit song everybody knows from Vargr Howl about three releases ago....
[And for the record, this is the best version of this song anywhere by anyone including the original artist]

 

[Geir]

I'm sorry, but now I'm going to have to hold you personally responsible for the earworm that won't go away...

 

[Condottiere]

Try Stacy's Mom.

It does go in the other direction.

 

[JBRocky]

Generation Kill is awesome but they are Marines.

 

[ottarrus]

Generation Kill is awesome but they are Marines.

When it comes to being a vehicle crew, it doesn't matter much if they're Army or Marines. It's the same maintenance, the same hassles, the same machine that one refers to as 'this fuckin' piece of shit' with a little note of affection. Navy and CG guys are the same way talking about their ships.

 

[paltrysum]

Surely at TL12, they have something that prevents those rashes.

 

[Condottiere]

You need things that give you rashes, as a warning.

 

[ottarrus]

As regards to the rashes, the first 'thing you can do' is get a shower and clean your undersuit. At some point, babywipes or a some technological 'shower in a can' cannot take the place of soap.
[side note: yet ANOTHER good reason why ship crews need shore leave]
Another thing is that for all our gabbing about the increase in capabilities of TL 13 vacc suits [the TL for combat armor], nobody has yet discussed any replacement for 'the NASA diaper'. Catheters can only take care of urine for so long before a major infection sets in, and I haven't heard of any solution whatever for the fecal issue.
So it is perfectly reasonable to presume that troops [be they male, female or whatever] are gonna be gross AF after several days in combat armor with no break.
A second thing to consider about the rashes is that is simple wear and tear of the skin being abraded by constant contact. Combat Armor doesn't have power assist. It is human muscle moving the mass of armor about, with every flex of muscle, with every breath. After awhile that weight begins to dig at the contact points. Sure, some kind of lotion or suit fabric can alleviate some of it but after awhile that suit liner and the troop inside it is gonna need maintenance.