X-Posted from our website, this post has some cool stuff that’s been going on with our team that wasn’t purely FIRST related.
Some very interesting things have been happening with Team 1073 as of late.
We had our end of the year “party” today. Awards and yearbooks were handed out, and (I believe) our wonderful head mentors, Mr. and Mrs. Rosenberg, officially stepped down from their positions. They have been replaced–in office, for they were truly unique themselves–by a triumvirate known as “The Three Amigos”: Mr. Chris Hyde, Mr. Don Dutile, and Mr. Daniel Peterson.
We were informed that one of our main sponsors, Diamond Casting, would be receiving a visit from none other than Vice-President Dick Cheney himself. And to demonstrate the ties that Diamond Casting has with the community, Mr. Cheney will view our team’s robot and receive a shirt from Team 1073.
Janice Bourget, the mentor who first came up with the idea of Operation: Phone Home when some of her friends were shipped overseas, recently received a communication from a friend over there. It seems her friend is a gunner on a truck, and she is the most exposed person in the vehicle and therefore the most likely fatality. She knows that we do a lot of mechanical stuff, for lack of a better phrase, and thus has asked us (after getting permission from her command) to work on some extra protection for her gunning seat as a summer project. She is sending the dimensions ASAP.
I brought up the idea of trying to expand Operation: Phone Home from outside of our immediate area. So, I’ll be working over the next few months to expand it with a website and try to build a base throughout the states.
So that’s what is going on with Team 1073. That and the Bean Town Blitz.
I dunno. I’ll definitely mention it to my team. We want some more information from this person firsthand, but it conceivable that we might be able to start something up. The biggest problem seems to be funds, at the moment. Stopping bullets is hardly inexpensive.
While that is indeed a cool project and something very beneficial, I find it quite disturbing that our military cannot protect its own troops. Perhaps that is just the way the vehicle is made, but if it is enough concern to have a shield privately made, it seems like it should be impemented for everyone in that position.
Flip answers aside, that is a cool project. Let us (being CD) know if we can help.
Be sure that I will. Once again, this is currently quite an amorphous project. Once it is more formed, I will update further. Updates will also be posted on www.theforceteam.com.
I would imagine that there is some protection around the gunner already. We will be getting the dimensions from her soon. My guess is that this is more of a hope from this one woman that we can design something in our “free time” while the rest of the military think tank is coming up with new, improved ways to kill people. I’m not sure if it is a “concern”–obviously, it is to her, but if it was a huge problem, then I believe it would have been addressed already. Hey, maybe we (and by we, I mean our team and whoever, if anyone, helps out) can pull off something really innovative and help some people out. The situation is still developing.
While that is indeed a cool project and something very beneficial, I find it quite disturbing that our military cannot protect its own troops. Perhaps that is just the way the vehicle is made, but if it is enough concern to have a shield privately made, it seems like it should be impemented for everyone in that position.
Ever read Death of a Ball Turret Gunner. There are just some spots in a vehicle where you never want to be in no matter what.
