Advisory Board on Military Personnel Supplies Report No. 74: Periodic Report (1976)

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13 APPENDIX C FEMALE SOLDIER AND THE PASGT* HELMET Mr Lawrence R McManus C l o t h i n g Equipment, and M a t e r i a l s E n g i n e e r i n g L a b o r a t o r y U S Army N a t i c k Research and Development Command I n December 1975 t h e Human E n g i n e e r i n g L a b o r a t o r y (HEL) (Aberdeen, Maryland) conducted a stud y measuring female s o l d i e r s ' heads and d e t e r m i n i n g how w e l l t h e PASGT helmets would f i t them I t was concluded t h a t a p p r o x i m a t e l y 10 per cent o f the women c o u l d not be ad e q u a t e l y f i t t e d w i t h t h e t h r e e s i z e PASGT helmet system and t h a t an e x t r a s m a l l helmet I S needed The p e r c e n t r e l a t i v e f r e q u e n c y o f f i t t i n g s i n a sample o f 227 women i s as f o l l o w s E x t r a s m a l l 10 13 Small 56 39 Medium 30 84 Large 2 64 Since o n l y a few Army o c c u p a t i o n s are c l o s e d t o the female s o l d i e r a t p r e s e n t ( t h o s e t h a t are d i r e c t l y combat r e l a t e d ) . I t i s incumbent upon the Army t o p r o v i d e a p r o p e r f i t t i n g p r o t e c t i v e helmet t o a l l s o l d i e r s , male and female But, the PASGT helmet was designed t o f i t the male Army p o p u l a t i o n based upon a n t h r o p o m e t r i c measurements and gener a l i z e d shapes o f the male s o l d i e r Questions c o n s i d e r e d were Are t h e female s o l d i e r s ' heads s u b s t a n t i a l l y the same shape as male s o l d i e r s and o n l y s m a l l e r as i n d i c a t e d by the HEL study*? Do the female s o l d i e r s who can wear the PASGT helmet have the r e q u i r e d minimum 1/2 i n minimum s t a n d of f ^ * To answer these q u e s t i o n s , a survey o f 131 female s o l d i e r s was conducted a t F o r t Devens, Massachusetts, i n June 1976 by N a t i c k p e r s o n n e l The a n t h r o p o m e t r i c measurements o f each sub ject were taken as w e l l as the probe r e a d i n g s from t he head measuring d e v i c e (3 D s u r f a c e d e s c r i p t i o n ) The r e s u l t s o f N a t i c k ' s study c o n f i r m e d HEL's f i n d i n g s t h a t female heads are g e n e r a l l y s m a l l e r than those o f men and t h a t 10 pe r c e n t o f the female p o p u l a t i o n cannot be adequately f i t t e d w i t h t h e PASGT helmet system More i m p o r t a n t l y , t h e study showed t h a t 'Personnel Armor System f o r Ground Troops

14 female heads are o f the same g e n e r a l shape as t h e i r male c o u n t e r p a r t s ( F i g u r e 1) I n a d d i t i o n , the d i f f e r e n c e i n probe r e a d i n g s f o r the mean o f t h e female sample averaged o n l y 1 mm per probe s m a l l e r than the probe r e a d i n g s o f the s m a l l head form, i n d i c a t i n g t h a t the a p p r o x i m a t e l y 56 p e r c e n t females t h a t would wear the sma l l helmet would have 1/2 m minimum s t a n d - o f f The study concludes t h a t an e x t r a - s m a l l headform can and w i l l be made, over which a helmet can be f a b r i c a t e d t o f i t t h e 10 p e r c e n t o f women as w e l l as t h e f i r s t p e r c e n t i l e o f men

L E F T SIDE 4 T LU 3 i X o LU 1 H RIGHT SIDE MID SAGITAL PROBE READINGS (MEAN) X X MALE (106 SUBJECTS) o o FEMALE (131 SUBJECTS) T — I — I — I — I — I — I — I — I — I — I — I — I — I — I — I — I — I — I — I — I — I — I — I — 1 — 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 II 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 FIGURE 1 PROBES Survey o f female s o l d i e r s Massachusetts F o r t Devens,