My goodness, I didn't realize just how heavy the darned things are. Kudos to the troops who have to wear them every day, especially in that God-awful heat over there. I was warm after 5 minutes on a treadmill in a 70-degree room.
I participated in a research study at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, where an Army Colonel is investigating the energy expenditure required to wear these things. For those of you outside the US or don't know what all that getup is, I'm wearing the Interceptor body armor, the standard-issue body armor for all US troops, which by itself isn't that bad -- maybe 7 or 8 pounds (a cop's average body armor is about 4 or 5 pounds). What made it so bad were the steel shock plates -- one in front, one in back -- which were about 7 or 8 pounds each. So, total weight of about 10 kg / 22 lbs. (I'm also wearing a lot of telemetry gear, hence the stormtrooper chest pack and the fighter-pilot carbon dioxide monitoring mask.)
and
-- you don't realize just how much it takes out of you when you wear one of those things. And I was only walking on a treadmill -- I can't even imagine running from cover spot to cover spot in the middle of a firefight.