FORWARD OPERATING BASE HAMMER, Iraq — When a little-known agency of the U.S. Army asked Joe Amadee III to come up with an idea for saving lives in Iraq, it was probing for some kind of a contraption.
After all, the Rapid Equipping Force, a 5-year-old think tank for military innovation, had come up with some pretty high-tech stuff: robots to search caves in Afghanistan, an acoustic sniper finder and a laser pointer that soldiers use to flag down cars at night.
But, instead of a gadget, Amadee of Rapid Equipping Force contractor Synovision Solutions proposed a green solution. Before long, he and a crew led by an Oklahoma roofing contractor were at the desert base east of Baghdad spraying foam onto tents.
Their plan is to turn all of the Army’s hulking, heat-absorbing tent barracks into rigid shells of 2-inch insulation.
The solution should improve soldiers’ lives and could also save their lives. The key is fuel: The more of it a base uses, the more fuel convoys there are, exposing soldiers to roadside bombs.
Soldiers are delighted with the comfort.
Dan Nolan of the Fort Belvoir, Va.-based Rapid Equipping Force says the price, which works out to about $30,000 a tent, is worth it. Preliminary data show that insulating tents can cut a base’s fuel use by 40 percent, he said.
