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Path: utzoo!watmath!jagardner
From: jagardner@watmath.UUCP (Jim Gardner)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: Empire Troops Uniforms
Message-ID: <16305@watmath.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 30-Aug-85 12:35:55 EDT
Article-I.D.: watmath.16305
Posted: Fri Aug 30 12:35:55 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 31-Aug-85 09:25:24 EDT
References: <3422@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU> <308@sesame.UUCP>
Reply-To: jagardner@watmath.UUCP (Jim Gardner)
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 33

[...]

A good many military uniforms are not intended to offer protection
against weapon fire.  Modern infantry uniforms are good examples.
They're just thick cloth -- good against mosquitos and scratchy
undergrowth, but not much of anything else.  I presume the reason
for this is that armour which protected against weapon fire would
be too bulky or expensive.

Suppose the Empire subscribes to the same philosophy -- the armour
should protect against minor irritations, but not to protect against
weapon fire.  Then the armour makes sense.  What sort of irritations
would the Empire face?  Extreme weather conditions are the most obvious,
and the armour clearly handles this -- in the Empire Strikes Back, normal
armour was sufficient for the Empire infantry, so the armour obviously
contains temperature control facilities.

Another minor (or not so minor) annoyance would be local bacteria.
The troops may well be sent to life-supporting planets at the drop of
a hat.  Who knows what kind of nasty diseases they might pick up from
indigenous microbes?  So they wear non-porous armour and breathe through
filters.  I dare say that this feature of the armour is vastly more
important than defense against weapons.  Firefights are few and far between;
alien germs are omnipresent.

One last function of uniforms is to encourage a psychological separation
between military and civilian life.  The army must create a psychological
climate in which inhumane acts are possible, and in the Empire's case,
they must also instill fear in the populace.  The uniforms contribute
admirably to this effect.

				Jim Gardner, University of Waterloo