Military conscripts in Norway will be given used underwear amid covid-induced supply chain crisis
Coronavirus supply chain issues have hit fuel supplies, led to shortages of masks, vaccines and electronic components, and snarled up holiday gift deliveries. In Britain, truck driver shortages led to fears last summer of pubs running dry.
Now, Norway’s military is facing a supply shortage that is particularly personal: New recruits are being asked to wear previously used undergarments – including socks, bras and underwear – returned by conscripts after they complete their service. The plan was originally meant to be voluntary, as the pandemic led to delivery delays. But officials have now made it mandatory to hand over all clothing and equipment for laundering and reuse upon graduation (discharge from military service).
Until recently, the conscripts were allowed to keep undergarments such as underwear, wool socks and T-shirts, in addition to headgear and field boots, according to defense publication Forsvarets Forum, which first reported on the plan to recycle military kit. Armed Forces spokesman Lt. Col. Vegard Norstad Finberg told the defense publication that the garments are laundered and checked for quality — with defective and worn items thrown away, while minor damage is repaired.
Eirik Sjøhelle Eiksund, a defense union spokesman, told NRK that the reuse of clothes was “problematic" but that clothing shortages also were leading to soldiers walking in woolen socks full of holes in the country’s frigid north, after they were issued only a single pair for their entire service. A spokesman for the Armed Forces Logistics Organization told NRK it was these kind of shortages the military was trying to avoid with its plan for soldiers to return their undergarments after completing their service.
The Marine Corps reportedly scrapped a male-only underwear allowance last year after an investigation found disparities between allowances given to male and female recruits. The previous allowance for men’s underwear wasn’t exactly enough to buy fancy briefs; it was 72 cents per year, according to military news organization Military.com.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/military-conscripts-in-norway-will-be-given-used-underwear-amid-covid-induced-supply-chain-crisis/ar-AASAiOE
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I usually just skim the OP, looking for enough info to make a glib, often inaccurate, remark.
