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Grundy:
Actually I was also quite surprised, and pleased, when the use of chain mail in addition to fiber bullet resistant clothing had its merits. It was on a special cable program about personal body armor and one of the manufacturers was shown various items thoroughly tested as an additional or enclosed layer. I was surprised when he picked up a shirt of chain mail and said, "But chain mail still has good possibilities".
The only real problem is weight but ceremic plates in the pockets are just as heavier or heavier but will stop more than just pistol bullets.
I see problems with the liquid type of shock absorbtion because of evaporation, spillage, etc. As I mentioned, the possibility of adding liquid filled cavities was discovered when tank crewmen were testing out a liquid cooled vest to lower body heat in summer desert ops. The "Flak Jacket" over the cooling vest gave somebody in ordnance the idea to test both. I learned this when doing a feasibility study on ABC contamination and recommended using the vests to cool ship crewmen in hot spaces such as boiler rooms, engine rooms, diesel generator rooms, etc.
Talking about ceramic plates in the pockets, have you ever looked at a WW II US Navy Life Jacket? It has pockets in front. During General Quarters all crewmen wear their life jackets, especially those topside. Exposed gun crewmen (20 mm & 40 mm mounts) had quarter-inch thick steel plates in the pockets for additional body armor (more of a confidence shield than practical armor). Should they have to abandon ship, or were knocked overboard, they could take the steel plates out and dump them. If they were conscious enough to do so.
When we inspected the Missouri for reactivation in the 80's, we found a storeroom with piles of these steel plates. Sized just right for life jacket pockets but were NORMALLY used (by smaller ships without an incinerator) for sinking bags of materials so an enemy boat couldn't pick it up and gain some intelligence info from the contents.
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