February 3, 2006: Last year, the media discovered that troops spend their own money on military equipment. Actually, the troops have been doing that forever, but once the news reached Congress, a law was passed requiring the government to reimburse troops for gear they bought. All this got lots of publicity. Oddly enough, few of the troops bothered to apply for the payments. So far, about 70 troops have applied, and about $30,000 has been paid out. Most of the requests came from the navy (34), but total payments were only some $5,000. The army had about 30 requests, mostly for body armor purchases, which totaled about $22,000. The marines had four requests, and the air force had none. Why were there not more requests? Partly because it was a bother, and partly because the troops have always invested their own money in additional equipments, and sometimes even weapons. Because so many of the troops are now discussing their purchases via the Internet, and this is getting back to military procurement officials, and Congress, the military is adopting better gear faster, and getting it out to the troops. This has created uncharacteristic good feelings towards military procurement agencies (which have, historically, had very mixed performance.)