“you’d think the simplest — not to mention less gross — solution would be to issue credit so that people could buy their own.”
Carla must be one of those people who wears their undergarments once and then throws them away. She must know that they wash them before another recruit wears them?
Just ask any kid who has to wear their older sibling’s hand-me-downs. Just ask any parent who uses reusable diapers. Just ask any diner who has used a cloth napkin. Launder the article with chlorine/non-chlorine bleach and your good to go.
Sometimes the biggest hangup is a person’s emotions, not the facts.
Fellow Northmen! Thank goodness I didn’t have to be first to try to explain that washed underwear does not kill you. For all the claims of greatness, Americans have a slight tendency to be rather squamish. The socks were the best and couple of extra underwear was a must. My bunk room had the washrooms as clearing area and anything left behind at cleaning time belonged to us. Pergite!
I can only assume you do not identify as female? No way am I going to wear a bra I didn’t purchase for myself. A soldier can get stuck wearing that damned thing for 48 hours straight or longer, no way is requisitioning going to find a single bra that works for extended hours on all women. Completely unpossible.
I don’t even want to start with communal underpants for women. Bleach only goes so far.
I’m assuming the GI bras on offer are more of a sports bra kind of deal, although I would very much like to imagine that the Norwegian army operates a tactical Victoria’s Secret where you can get fitted for an underwire combat bra and matching battle suspenders
I hope that the geopolitical situation doesn’t deteriorate to the point where Norway gets involved in a shooting war; but they quite possibly still have to operate under the assumption that it’s a possibility, which complicates underwear shopping.
I’m very much not up on Norwegian military procurement minutiae; but in the US case the "Fire Resistant Environmental Ensemble was specifically designed to mitigate some common types of burn injuries; and it includes a “next to skin layer” made up of underwear that presumably won’t just melt and cling to your skin in ways that will make your trip to the burn unit even grimmer than usual.
