Having Your Ass in a Sling

… is generally considered to be a bad thing. Still, sometimes there’s a way to make the best of a bad situation. In the particular case I’m about to discuss, making the best would be a matter of improving the sling.

I present to you the Cooper Sling, a privately-supplied improvement for gunners on humvees and a collection of other military vehicles and a great improvement on the standard-issue, seat-belt-narrow nylon strap.

How did such an innovation come about? Mix one part each soldier-with-complaint and friend-who-can-help.

It started out as a simple gift made of leather for an Army friend with orders to Operation Iraqi Freedom. But in a flash, Kyle Greenwood’s Cooper Sling Gunner Seat has become a hot item with hundreds of Humvee crews in Iraq, Afganistan and stateside.

“The idea behind the new Cooper Sling Gunner Seat is simple,” says Greenwood, 34, owner of Black Mountain Industries in Bryan, Texas. “It helps make gunners in Humvees and other tactical vehicles more effective soldiers and improves their chances of coming home alive.”

Greenwood designed the Cooper Sling for a close friend, SGT William Hartmann. His invention replaces current standard issue nylon strap seats intended to help turret gunners maintain a combat-ready posture.

“However, those straps are as uncomfortable as they are unsafe,” says Greenwood. “Gunners say they cause severe pain in their lower backs and buttocks on long patrols and make their legs go to sleep. They also do nothing to prevent the two leading causes of injury and death to Humvee gunners in Iraq—ejection from the vehicle due to the violent impact of mines and roadside explosives, and rollovers.”

Greenwood and Hartmann became close friends while selling office equipment in Bryan, Texas, several years ago.

“In late 2004, William was serving as a Humvee gunner and knew his unit would be sent to Iraq before long,” says Greenwood. “He called to ask if I knew anyone who could make something out of leather, since I have horses. That’s when he told me about the problem Humvee gunners have trying to sit on the standard issue straps—if I could make something to improve on them. He also said, ‘While you’re at it, find some way to tie me into this thing so I don’t get thrown out or crushed in a rollover.’

“I thought, ‘Sure, glad to do it,’” recalls Greenwood. “William’s a good friend and I have been looking for a way to help him while he’s in Iraq defending our country.”

Greenwood’s first problem was attaching an improved gunner seat in the Humvee turret. Once he solved that, he set out to meet four basic requirements for the gunner seat: durability, comfort, easy to move and safer than the standard issue straps.

“That’s how I came up with the original design of the Cooper Sling, with its 7×24-inch web seat made of saddle leather,” says Greenwood. “From there, I started thinking about a safety restraint to keep these guys from getting ejected or crushed.”

[…]

In November, Greenwood took the gunner seat he’d designed for Hartmann to Fort Hood, Texas, to see how well it fit a Humvee gun turret.

“As I was demonstrating it to William a lot of G.I.s saw us and started asking questions,” recalls Greenwood. “Before I knew it, there was a crowd around the Humvee wanting to know where they could get a Cooper Sling. At that point I realized there was a need for this product that extended way beyond my friend.”

In the interest of full disclosure, that SGT Hartmann from the article is none other than my dear friend and former tank crewmate Billy-boy, whose Iraq deployment I’ve blogged about here, here and here.

I’m not getting a single shiny cent for conveying the news of the Cooper Sling. Bill, a.k.a. SGT William Hartmann, may or may not be in for a cut, but I do know that my dear friend (above on the far right from a 1993 Ft. Hood photo) is now home safe from Iraq and can stand up front with me (above on the far left, much younger then) at my wedding in May. If he believes in the value of the product, I will.

Besides, how could I resist an entrepreneurial endeavor meant to help American military personnel and whose site includes an Adopt-a-Gunner program?