Tour of Duty
On a sunny day late last fall, I pay a visit to the Natick base to learn about the history of its research program and glimpse what's upcoming in the world of cold-weather gear and food. My guide is Jerry Whitaker, the base's chief public affairs officer, who meets me shortly after I pass through a security checkpoint that requires advance notice of arrival and a full search of my car.

The 78-acre center, with a perimeter fence and other security trappings, is clearly a military base; but, truth be told, it looks more like a college campus, with lawns and oaks and myriad researchers (some with the slightly rumpled look of aging graduate students) heading in and out of dozens of buildings.

No more light bulbs. Jean Hampel, an expert in fabric structures, holds a paper-thin, bendable light panel that can be affixed to the ceilings of tents

Whitaker offers some background before we get started. Before the Natick center opened, he says, the Army had food and equipment research facilities scattered across the country. This site was picked largely because of its proximity to colleges, universities, and research hospitals in the Boston area, and to Mount Washington in New Hampshire, highest peak in New England, home to some of the harshest weather south of the Arctic, and site of Army research in the past. (A wind gust on Mount Washington was once recorded at 231 mph, a world record.)

I soon learn that Natick has textile laboratories, testing pools, climatic chambers, and food-research kitchens, and that they all aim toward helping the soldier in the field. Some research, however, occurs well beyond the perimeter fence.

Tried, True, and Tested
"I can look through practically any outdoor magazine and see equipment that had technological origins at Natick," says Jean Hampel, project manager for Natick's Fabric Structures Team, which focuses on tents and their accessories. "A lot of our projects involve industry partners."

Seated at a table in a tent the size of a conference room, Hampel mentions a few of the companies with which her team has worked: Eureka, Diamond Brand, Camel Manufacturing, Outdoor Venture Corp.—all known names in tent manufacturing. These companies develop a new design or an innovation, the Natick labs test it, and the companies hope for manufacturing contracts.

The "structures team" will do anything from putting fabric under the microscope to pitching a tent behind a jet engine to measure its stability in high winds. Occasionally, it's the private sector that tests military equipment. Five years ago Eric Simonson, the renowned climber and mountain guide, took military tents to Mount Everest base camps at 17,000 and 21,000 feet for a durability check.

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