16-021 garand Picture of the Day

[Mark in Rochester]

If being overlooked by history is not painful enough, the Signal Corps also misidentified this group of GI’s in Burma as being part of the regiment. The combat cameraman’s caption says these men belonged to 2nd Battalion, 147th Infantry, and the shot was taken 30 miles behind Japanese lines in Burma following a night patrol on December 4, 1944.

Information

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[gsimmons]

Interesting, they're wearing puttees.

[ed skeels]

What are puttees?

[gsimmons]

They're leg wraps, like wot WWI soldiers wore. These look like they may be short puttees.
Attachment 69001

[ed skeels]

Keep the leech's out?
Ed

[gsimmons]

Yes, and stones and other sh......stuff.

[ed skeels]

Thanks for the info.
Guess they didn't have duct tape!
Ed

[Bob Seijas]

You only need two things in your toolbox: WD40 and duct tape. If it doesn't move and it should, WD40. If it moves and it shouldn't, duct tape

[Mark in Rochester]

The idea for what became duct tape came from Vesta Stoudt, an ordnance-factory worker and mother of two Navy sailors, who worried that problems with ammunition box seals would cost soldiers precious time in battle. She wrote to President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1943 with the idea to seal the boxes with a fabric tape, which she had tested at her factory. The letter was forwarded to the War Production Board, who put Johnson & Johnson on the job. The Revolite division of Johnson & Johnson had made medical adhesive tapes from duck cloth from 1927 and a team headed by Revolite's Johnny Denoye and Johnson & Johnson's Bill Gross developed the new adhesive tape,designed to be ripped by hand, not cut with scissors.

Their new unnamed product was made of thin cotton duck tape coated in waterproof polyethylene (plastic) with a layer of rubber-based gray adhesive ("Polycoat") bonded to one side.It was easy to apply and remove, and was soon adapted to repair military equipment quickly, including vehicles and weapons. This tape, colored in army-standard matte olive drab, was nicknamed "duck tape" by the soldiers. Various theories have been put forward for the nickname, including the descendant relation to cotton duck fabric, the waterproof characteristics of a duck bird, and even the 1942 amphibious military vehicle DUKW which was pronounced "duck".


The Woman Who Invented Duct Tape - Kilmer House

[Paul S.]

Full marks plus bonus points for Mrs. Stoudt.