Veterans post has a cool idea

John Dunlap knows the value of small comforts.While in Vietnam, he used socks to pad his helmet so his head wouldn’t get sore from the long hours of wear. It also gave him a dry pair of socks when he needed them.

Dunlap, commander of the American Legion post in Post Falls, is organizing a city-sponsored project to provide a similar comfort for soldiers in Iraq, albeit more high tech.

The veterans group is raising money for a kit called the Iraq Pack, created by the Ohio-based company Mist’n Go. It includes a desert camouflage vest, beanie and neckband, all made from material that has cooling crystals which are activated when soaked in water.

For extra cooling, the vest has four pockets for plastic inserts that contain “phase change,” a liquid that can be set at any temperature. For the vest’s purposes, the designers chose 58 degrees, which is the optimum body cooling temperature. A round, phase change helmet cooler and an additional set of vest inserts – for when the other set is being re-cooled – are also included. Phase change can stay cool for two to four hours.

The price for all this? $175, if you’re buying it for someone in the military.

So, for $14,000, Post Falls will be able to cover all 80 of its National Guard troops in Iraq. Thus far the American Legion post has raised $4,000.

“We might not be supporting the war,” Dunlap said, “but we can’t forget our troops.”

Bonners Ferry Mayor Darrell Kerby began the Iraq Pack campaign in this area. His city has already sent some to its soldiers, and their positive response prompted him to tell the Post Falls and Coeur d’Alene mayors about it.

“They’re very coveted,” Kerby said of the packs. “Our soldiers have informed their fellow soldiers that they’re to keep their hands off.”

National attention was brought to the Iraq Pack after the Trevor Win’E Memorial Fund was created in memory of a 22-year-old Army specialist from Orange County, Calif., who was killed in Iraq in April 2004.

Win’E’s parents sent him an Iraq Pack shortly before his death, around the time the company started distributing them. After receiving donations in remembrance of their son, the Win’Es bought packs for his entire unit.

The idea has snowballed since then. About 10 percent of Mist’n Go’s 10,000 sales are through the memorial fund, said the company’s president, Tom Strussion. The Department of Defense has also purchased the packs, which the company says is the only such product on the market.

An Army doctor helped design the pack, Strussion said, after seeing hospitals in Iraq filled with soldiers suffering from heat exhaustion.

That image is what drove Kathryn Tacke’s organization to raise $1,000 for the Post Falls effort.

“We were real aware of how terribly uncomfortable it must be to serve in temperatures that must be 100 degrees and up,” Tacke said, choking up. She is a member of the local branch of the International Association of Workforce Professionals. “It’s not just uncomfortable. It can also be dangerous to get too hot. So hopefully it will protect their health as well as give them some comfort.”