In the 1960’s a TV show was produced called Star Trek whose mission was to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before. For most of us, we are not going to outer space anytime soon, outside of flying in a plane, but we can go to new worlds through books. There are a vast number of jobs and most tend to be in one category for most of our lives, which is terrific if you like or love your job or your field. However, with books we can sometimes see possibilities which can help us invest or make life better. One such book is called Grunt by Mary Roach, published by WW Norton and Company, New York, 2016. The book is subtitled The Curious Science of Humans at War.

Ms Roach has written a number of books in the same premise on different subjects, but Grunt is about people who try to make life a little easier to soldiers. We as a society will send many people to train for war in basic training and it tends to be one size fits all. Basic training is to break people down and rebuild them to make them think like a soldier in terms of discipline, bonding with your troop (teamwork) and paying attention to orders. After the person has become a soldier, they are given basic uniforms for all the jobs they will be tasked with, does the uniform fit all the jobs they will be tasked with?

The military has many doctors and researchers trying to determine how to ensure the dangers of warfare are lessen. Within the researchers, a great amount of information is gathered, some of which could be used outside the military, to the general public. If it is used for the general public, that means investment dollars could be enhanced.

There are many people in the world who enjoy fashion and looking good, in the military what cloth is the best one? The place the US Army determines that is the labs at US Army Natick Soldier Research Development and Engineering Center or Natick. Everything a soldier wears, eats, sleeps on is developed and tested here. If someone in the fashion industry believes they have developed a better flame-resistant fabric, the fabric is tested at Natick. They will run a gamete of tests to determine when it works well and when it does not work, because in the Army people are working in all kinds of temperature and will need to reuse the clothing multiple times.

If you look at the average person today, they are carrying a cellphone somewhere. When cellphones were invented, pockets on clothing was a secondary concern, now fashion designers have to think about the phone. In the military, one of the tasks of those that shoot other people is to be a sniper. Most of the time, they wait till the person or persons arrive, while they are waiting are zippers good? It turns out the answer is no, there are other solutions. US government button specifications run to 22 pages, sometimes it seems complicated.

One of the best things about the Iran war was the advances at the Walter Reed Hospital and Rehabilitation Center. Prior to the advances, over the years many soldiers lost limbs but the prosthetics were not that good. There have been tremendous advances in both the replacement limb and wheelchairs which has moved to the general public and some form of normalcy has come forth.

Another subject for the military and the general public is dysentery or diarrhea. William Osler in 1892 wrote for every American killed by battling injuries during the Mexican War of 1848, 7 died of disease mostly diarrheal. During the American Civil War, 95,000 soldiers died from diarrhea or dysentery. During the Vietnam War, hospital admissions for diarrheal diseases outnumbered those for malaria by nearly 4 to 1. Fortunately at the Entomology Branch of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research people are studying the issue both foreign and domestic deployments.

Ms. Roach does a variety of other subjects including hearing, trying to survive in a submarine which has malfunctioned and a host of interesting parts of military.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, we all look for ideas for the next great thing and often we look to universities for research. The military has a number of research facilities and their solutions make the life of the soldier better. Some of those solutions can be used with the general public and that means revenues. In your investments, how does your company look for great ideas to implement?

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.