Boot camp body scanners focus on precise fit

Boot camp body scanners focus on precise fit
By Patrick Winn - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Jan 4, 2008 6:05:58 EST

For decades, the first night of Air Force boot camp included sizing up hundreds of recruits with tape measures and eyeballs, fitting each — through trial and error — with the right uniform.

But that was so six months ago. Now recruits strip down to their skivvies and file one by one into an elaborate, elevator-sized body scanning machine. Lasers descend from the ceiling and, about 40 seconds later, the recruit’s dimensions are beamed to a computer registry.

Later that day, each new airman picks up a bag holding physical training gear and a perfectly sized airman battle uniform.

This is, of course, after the foot scanner in the adjacent room spits out their ideal boot size.

The Air Force, responsible for fitting men and women with everything from uniforms to oxygen masks, increasingly favors precision scanning machines — developed by medical firms — that offer both accuracy and expediency.


Rest of article at: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/01/airforce_bodyscan_080104w/



uhc comment: This is one hellova change from my boot camp in 1963. I remember having 'stuff' thrown at me as I was shuffling thru a line with my platoon.

No more mean old civil servants tossing the next-larger size at you and saying "Cinch up that belt for now--you'll thank me in six months...."