Army Acquires Helmets, Medical kits

05 Juli 2010

Kevlar military helmet (photo : fesu)

THOUSANDS of troops from the Philippine Army will soon be wearing life-saving Kevlar helmets and carrying blood-clotting medicine on their deployment to combat duties in the country.

The United States Embassy announced that US government has turned over a total of 25,000 Kevlar Helmets and 20,000 Quick Clot Wound Pack to the Philippine Army.

The Kevlar Helmets and Quick Clot Wound Pack were turned over by US Ambassador Harry Thomas, Jr. last month to Philippine Army Commanding General Lieutenant General Reynaldo Mapagu in a simple rite at Army headquarters.

The Kevlar helmets are made of the same materials used in Kevlar bulletproof vests.

The blood-clotting packs promote cauterization of wounds to prevent the injured soldier from dying due to blood loss while help is on the way.

"Now Philippine soldiers will have helmets to protect them from fatal wounds to the head, and medical supplies that will help keep the wounded alive until the evacuation helicopters arrive," Thomas said.

Several thousand additional Kevlar helmets and blood-clotting packs were also allocated to the Philippine Marine Corps, Navy, and Air Force.

Under the US-Philippines military cooperation programs, the Philippine government bought the military items at prices that were only one to 10 percent of their original purchase price.

The life-saving items were part of bigger batches of equipment and supplies worth about P1.15 billion that the US government has been giving to the Philippine military.

Through US-RP bilateral programs, the Armed Forces of the Philippines have saved approximately P460-million in recent equipment purchases.

Aside from the Kevlar helmets and blood-clotting packs, remaining items in the pipeline include night vision equipment, life-sustaining first-aid kits, water purification units, and cargo trucks. (Bong Garcia)

(SunStar)