![]() ![]() Since then, of course, great thought has gone into developing the massive suits or armor that we’re all familiar with today. Yet in reading contemporary accounts of early 1970s’ bomb-disposal work, I have rarely come across descriptions of such shields it seems the cops of that era liked to roll the dice. This 1973 Navy study (PDF) actually vouches for the effectiveness of the armor, though you have to read closely to understand the important caveat: the armor only really worked when combined with a blast shield. (To their credit, though, the armor’s designers installed a flap to protect the privates, another area frequently damaged by flying debris.) Note the shoes, in particular bomb shrapnel is a great threat to the most distant human extremities, yet members of the New York City Police Department’s explosives disposal squad did their dirty work in wingtips. Bomb squad members in the early 1970s thus had to make do with the get-ups you see above, which consisted of material no tougher than the standard military flak jacket. Though Kevlar was invented in the mid-1960s, it didn’t became a standard component of armor until much later. And I’m equally floored by the major cojones exhibited by the bomb-disposal experts who handled unexploded ordnance in that era, mostly because they operated with the most rudimentary of armor. Every time I delve into the news archives from the early 1970s, I come away amazed at number of stories involving homemade explosive devices going off a nightclubs, bus depots, and Mafia social clubs. One thing my book research has taught me is that America used to have a serious problem with bombs.
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