Uncomfortable Combat Helmet: Deal with it!

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One wonders at the insensitivity or blatant carelessness demonstrated by the public relations and advertising departments of major firms.  This latest promotional ad from Team Wendy – which makes military helmets rather than hamburgers – suggests that men and women in uniform should should quit their belly-aching and cope with the safe but uncomfortable military helmets Wendy’s manufactures.

Wendy Promotes Uncomfortable Helmet

A veteran of many wars brought  Team Wendy’s recent promotional ad to the attention of SFTT and asked for our comment.   Frankly, we are not sure what the message is, but we are quite sure that Wendy’s management must be a little red-faced at the suggestion that men and women in combat are responsible for the ill-fitting and uncomfortable military helmets that they manufacture.  After all, the Wendy Epic helmet is standard government issue and our military leadership surely knows what is best for the troops that serve in harm’s way.

Perhaps, troops in the field might weigh-in on how best to interpret Wendy’s promotional ad.  It is interesting to note, that Team Wendy goes on to promote the safety features of their combat helmet.  I suppose that might prove reassuring if troops were actually wearing the helmet, but one suspects that an ill-fitting helmet may well be used for other purposes  than protecting our troops from head injuries or even worse.     Surely, Team Wendy can’t be blaming the troops in the field for the uncomfortable helmet it produces?  SFTT hopes that this is not the message you are trying to convey to troops that wear your protective gear.

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Comments

  1. Matt Evenhouse MD  May 19, 2011

    I am a tactical physician and SWAT doc. As a service to my teams I investigated the helmet issue extensively. It seems there is quite a bit of confusion about combat helmet systems and who does what.

    Combat helmet ballistic shells are made by a variety of firms (MSA, Gentex, US armor, others). Team Wendy manufactures only the padding inside. To date, the padding inside combat helmets is one of the most highly tested and CON-tested pieces of gear in the military. No other piece of gear has been subjected to as many congressional committees, meetings and repeated testing. Team Wendy’s product remains the best performing product for blunt impact protection inside combat helmets. In fact, skydex and oregon aero pads are 20 to 40 % less effective at blunt injury prevention in the testing.

    The padding made by Team Wendy is the best helmet padding in the marketplace and its selection as the approved pad is not due to the “lowest bidder” phenomenon. In fact, According to the U.S. Army Aeromedical Research Lab, PEO soldier, Lawrence Livermore National Labs and the U.S congress, Team Wendy pads outperform all other pad systems available today, including NFL pads. The approved pads are the standard square and oval pads. The EPIC pads are an advanced design capable of also mitigating blast induced TBI. The EPIC pads contain comfort pads intended to be adjustable and in fact are quite comfortable.

    Based on my experience with the Team Wendy pads and my understanding of helmet technology, the ad suggests that the EPIC system is adjustable and therefore, if it is not comfortable, it is because the user has not adjusted it properly.

    Regardless of the PR debate, the issue of helmet padding is serious and deadly important. It would be great if a site like yours could help educate soldiers, airmen, sailors, and marines about the protective equipment they wear and seek first to understand the specifics behind a particular issued piece of gear rather than jump on the worn out band wagon of complaining about issued gear.

    Seek first to understand. Once you understand you can become an advocate of the best protective equipment for our soldiers and support those who seek to continuously improve the lives of our troops.

    feel free to email me any questions at doc1@medsecintl.com

    • Richard May  June 28, 2011

      SFTT has long been committed and remains committed to making sure our troops have the best protective gear available. Unfortunately, military equipment testing procedures and the procurement process are seriously flawed as demonstrated by the many unsatisfactory IG reports, equipment recalls and evidence that suggests that the economic needs of military suppliers take precedence over the safety and well-being of our troops. This is not a PR debate; it is a question of integrity.

      Like most Americans, I would like to believe that our troops receive “the best” combat gear available, but that is simply not the case. When you ask for “understanding” you are really asking us to believe in the Beltway propoganda machine. Sorry, our troops, their families and those that have done a bit of research simply don’t buy it. The lack of transparency and integrity of the military procurement process will continue to motivate SFTT to keep our pulse on military testing and procurement programs which affect the safety of our troops.

      As we both care about the welfare and safety of our men and women and uniform, let’s work together to insure that test procedures are fair and impartial and that contract awards are based on merit and not expediency.

  2. Doc Bob Meaders  May 19, 2011

    From a Marine Lt deploying and asking for helmet padupgrades for his troops:

    Wearing a CVC helmet or Kevlar for more than a couple hours is probably one of the more terrible experiences Marines have to undergo. I’m sure that my Marines would all agree that more comfortable pads would definitely lead to better performance during missions, less fatigue, and fewer headaches. This request is characterized by a desire to have a better product to allow my Marines to perform to their maximum capability. I understand that even the most comfortable pads will lead to fatigue, headaches, and pain. I don’t have any facts or figures to back it up, but I think that if the pads are safe and comfortable, it beats simply being safe.

  3. Doc Bob Meaders  May 19, 2011

    From an AF Lt deployed with AFghan troops:

    After an hour, the headache keeps me from being able to concentrate on complex tasks and my shooting accuracy goes down significantly (it’s really apparent when I compare my targets from my first hour of shooting with the helmet vs my second hour).

  4. Matt Evenhouse MD  May 20, 2011

    The stories shared by Dr. Bob do not include information about what gear the troop was wearing or if he or she had NODS, lights, cameras or other gear attached to the helmet.

    There is no doubt that wearing several pounds of equipment on your head can cause fatigue, headache, and degradation of performance.

    However, it is naive to attribute that to helmet pads alone. Troops are subjected to a myriad of impacts, vibrations, heat, long work days, threat of violence and harsh climates. Those all combine to put tremendous stain on troops. The issue is not helmet padding alone. The issue relates to the severe stress and strain combat operations put on troops.

    Dr. Bob is invited to review the helmet pad test data from USAARL and lawrence livermore national labarotory. He can then recommend to all troops that they wear the best APPROVED personal protective equipment instead of propagating a myth that helmet pads are the root cause of these conditions.

    Wearing inferior helmet padding increases a soldier’s risk of Traumatic Brain Injury. Injury risk increases 10% for every 10% decrease in pad performance.

    Focus on solutions. Start by wearing the best available protection. Then support the work done by good people who want each and every troop to return home intact and healthy.

    Thanks for the opportunity to share..

    Matt

  5. Rob  June 20, 2011

    You guys are off the mark with this article and criticism on this ad… I met the folks from Wendy’s (including Wendy) a few years ago and they took some troop addresses from me to ship free kits of their helmet pads to the troops. Maybe if you knew who and what “Wendy’s” is, you’d “get it.” The ad means “If your helmet is uncomfortable, it’s your own fault because you’re not using our pads.” Get it? It’s like Barca Lounger saying “Got a backache from your crappy, chair? it’s your own fault (i.e. buy our product)” – no where in this ad does it say “Deal with it” and nowhere do I interpret them saying or implying that the troops should just Suck It Up and where an uncomfortable helmet …

  6. Doc Bob Meaders  January 10, 2012

    Matt: read the USAARL test report (Page 52-55) and you’ll find that the Team Wendy pads that were tested were in fact were over an inch thiok compared to all other pads tested at 3/4″ thickness.

    PEO Soldier and Congress simply seconded a report by DOD that said the USAARL tests seemed to show an advantage with TW pads without comment on the veracity of the test protocol/procedures. That report stressed the fact that no attempt was made to critique the testing done.

    Gotta read this stuff carefully, Matt. USAARL had only one size head form for all helmets…with predictable varying results according to size of helmet tested.

    When is the last time you saw a human head that functioned at either 14 or 135 degrees F? Soaking the helmet system overnight to achieve that level of temperature tells you absolutely nothing. Subsequent tests show the pads rapidly assume a temperature more nearly that of the human head underneath, so unless an IED strikes as soon as the helmet is donned, that test information is meaningless.

    And Willy Moss simply said that no other pad was superior to the Team Wency ‘shrink-wrapped rocks’ the troops complain to us about. We don’t make this stuff up, it comes from the hearts and minds of combat troops.

    If troops don’t/won’t wear their kevlars properly or at all, the laboratory tests are meaningless. I always dislike seeing the quest for perfection eliminate the ‘pretty good’.

  7. Shelby  July 31, 2012

    Ok, first and foremost, Team Wendy doesn’t make helmets. They make pads. This is an ad for pads. An ad, not a propaganda piece about how its the troops fault they are uncomfortable. They want to sell pads, both to the government, and to troops who supplement their gear. We did it all the time. I carried a BugOut pack because it was superior to my issued BS. Some dudes bought DragonSkin cause it was better than our interceptors. Team Wendy makes good crap, and they want to sell it. It could just as easily have been a Blackhawk ad for a SERPA holster saying “if your draw is too slow, its your own damn fault.” Obviously if a helmet is uncomfortable, its the procurement and supply shops fault. I have worn PASGT’s MICHs, and ACHs, and apart from the PASGT with cold war leather headband and web system, the other two are great even for HOURS on end. Compared to what I got issued with in 2004 when I joined, helmets are 20 times better. Yeah I was issued a 20 yr old PASGT a year into OIF. U didn’t even get a MICH till 2008 for a deployment. Best day of my career. This article is a made up issue, where someone forgot what ads are for.

    • Richard May  September 5, 2012

      OK. Ummmm . . . Ads are not propaganda?

  8. Thearmyguy  February 3, 2013

    I didn’t take the ad to mean that combat troops need to suck it up & deal with the gear they are issued.

    Wendys makes several great padding systems & some are more comfortable than others, the skydex & oregon pads that everyone raves about don’t provide the same level of blunt trauma protection.

    One problem is the way new & better gear is approved for issue or wearing of the troops it’s just slow & sad.

    One of the biggest reasons for the M16 jamming was the poorly constructed USGI mags.

    Magpul has the best magazines on the market but the army has said they are a no go for troops even though some units CO will look the other way but the pmag eliminates the ftf problems & eliminates the bent feedlips that the USGI mags are famous for if you drop them & bend the lips the mag is junk because you can’t ever get the fedlips back to the right shape.

    Another advantage the pmags have is they have a stronger spring that allows you to keep mags loaded for long periods of time without weakening the spring which causes ftf that’s just one example of bad decisions from the top because the men in charge don’t understand what works & what doesn’t.

    Getting the right size shell & correct size pads is important to a proper fit too & my head fell on the border between medium & large shell so I went medium with #6 pads which are 3/4″ thick the #8 pads are 1″ thick and #4 pads are 1/2″ thick.

    It doesn’t get cold enough in the middle east for the pads to turn into bricks but it just feels like it is cold because during the day it’s 110 then goes down to 75 at night so it feels like it’s really cold but the pads don’t turn to bricks due to that drop in temp.

    I’m not a fan of the pads that come standard in the ACH/MICH & wendys has a few better pad systems that are much better but not authorized by the higher ups but most COs will look the other way if you order the pad system you like.

    • Richard May  February 3, 2013

      Thanks for your contribution.

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