Potomac Field Gear Earns Recognition for Garments
Council Factory Produces Gear Worn by American Soldiers

by JoBeth Wampler
Staff Reporter
  As the death toll of U.S. soldiers in Iraq rises to more than 3,000, manufacturers' interest in flame-resistant combat gear has increased dramatically.  Council's own Potomac Field Gear ranks among the best.
  In fact, garments made and manufactured at the Council factory were recognized recently by both the Marines and the Army in their respective publications.
  "Most injuries and deaths are caused by IEDs," PFG President Robert Bonin said, referring to improvised explosive devices.
  One of the main weapons insurgents use against coalition forces, IEDs have been publicized greatly in the Iraq War and are commonly referred to as roadside bombs.
  In fact, of the more than 3,000 U.S. fatalities in Iraq since the war began, more than 1,000 – one-third – were caused by IEDs.
  That's a statistic Bonin said he hopes Potomac Field Gear can change.
  Back in 2003, he said he met an official with the U.S. Army to discuss the production of a tactical clothing line.
  Soon, he began working with the Marine Corps Systems Command in Quantico, as a part of a program called Flame-Resistant Organizational Gear (FROG).
  At the time, the qualities the military was looking for in tactical clothing could be found in separate garments but were not combined in one material.
  "It just didn't exist before," Bonin said. "So, talk about building something from the ground up, we did."
  Potomac Field Gear is fire resistant and self-extinguishing, which means it won't drip or melt when ignited.
  Synthetic clothing, such as that sold under some popular brand names, is known for its moisture-wicking properties and its ability to keep the wearer cool when the temperatures are high.
  However, if the temperature gets too hot, synthetic materials have been reported as turning to molten plastic, seeping into an already terrible burn and making it worse.
  Bonin demonstrates his product's ability, holding a lighter to the sleeve of one tee-shirt. It smokes and shrinks away but never catches fire. To go even further, he inserts his hand inside and moves the flame back and forth across his clothed hand.
  Though the material turns a darker color, it remains intact.
  According to Bonin, the material may not prevent a person from sustaining burns, but it will not make those burns worse like some popular athletic gear.
  Potomac Field Gear also has advanced thermodynamic/hydrodynamic fibers, which are engineered to assist the body in moving moisture away from the skin. In other words, it is moisture wicking. X-Static fibers enhance the fabric's thermodynamic characteristics, permitting the body to more evenly regulate temperature in both extreme hot and cold environments.
  Among its other characteristics, Potomac Field Gear is anti-microbial, anti-static and provides UV protection — all due to its patented X-Static silver fibers.
  According to Bonin, if a soldier is wounded by shrapnel in an IED explosion and fibers from his tee-shirt enter the wounds, the silver fibers in the material will actually keep it from becoming infected with their advanced anti-bacterial, anti-fungal properties.
  Its anti-microbial kill rate is impressive. It eliminates 96.42 percent of the bacteria that causes diphtheria and 98.65 percent of the bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa that typically attacks people with compromised immune systems. It also kills 99.57 percent of the bacteria Kelbsiella pneumoniae that causes urinary tract and wound infections and 99.74 percent of the bacteria that causes staph infection, Bonin said.
  Those same silver fibers also provide a natural reflective element that helps protect against the sun's ultra-violent radiation and eliminate static electrical charges.
  Again, Bonin demonstrates the latter, taking a stun gun to one of Potomac Field Gear's tees. The silver fibers become evident in the demonstration, shining in waves as the electric charges pulse into the fabric.
  "It goes from 5,000 volts to 500 volts in a tenth of a second," he said.
  Among rave reviews in the Marine Corps Times in April 2006 and in the Army Times in August 2006, Bonin said Potomac Field Gear was selected as the official tee-shirt for the Army's 2006 Best Ranger Competition at Fort Benning, Ga., for which it received the Best Ranger Sponsor 2006 Award.
  "You know that when a garment leaves here, it is going out in harm's way and may save a life or certainly does its job," Bonin said.

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Hearing Officer Releases Preliminary Permit Case Rulings

by Cathy St. Clair
News Editor
  Despite the fact that they filed timely notices with the Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy appealing the DMME approval of a discharge permit for Consolidation Coal Company, at least three Buchanan County residents have been told they will not be allowed to be parties to the appeal. They were also told they would not be allowed to participate in the administrative hearing as intervenors to the case.
  Mickey McGlothlin, Sheila Hale Tolliver and Wade McNeely, all three of whom filed as individuals, will not be granted either party or intervenor status in the case, according to a pre-hearing ruling issued by Hearing Officer Thomas McCarthy.
  In his two-page written opinion on the issues brought up at a November pre-hearing conference, McCarthy said McGlothlin, Tolliver and McNeely had not shown "an immediate, pecuniary or substantial interest in the litigation" and further that they "appeared to base their requests 'on a wish to redress some anticipated public injury when the only wrong (they) have suffered is in common with other persons similarly situated'."
  McNeely objected to the ruling.
  "I feel they they (the hearing officer and hearing coordinator) just want to silence the general public to what's going on with the permit application," McNeely said.  "They banned me from speaking because I wasn't a lawyer, or that's what they say. Maybe it's because they don't want to have the facts about pollution brought out at the hearing.
  "I'm not representing any coal mining interest or have an economic interest or where I can make a profit like the majority of the ones that was at the pre-hearing who was against the permit," McNeely continued. "I'm only out to stop this permit purely for the interest of the environment, which will be for the benefit of our children, grandchildren and future generations; we must leave something for them."
  He questioned if the discharge was planned for the Cheasapeake Bay area if it would "even be considered?"
  McNeely has already appealed the hearing officer's decision to exclude him as a party. He said he thought all the comments submitted by the people after the May informal conference in Buchanan County would be introduced into evidence and he said he also wished to submit some 1,019 names he had on a petition which he previously delivered to DMME
  McGlothlin also objected to the ruling denying him full party status or status at all in the formal hearing process and added he is seriously looking at filing an appeal to McCarthy's ruling.
  "I certainly am disappointed with the ruling," McGlothlin said. "I own property on both sides of the stream and I think it could be significantly adversely affected. I live within two miles of the proposed discharge and I think I have the right to complain and I think they ought to hear what I have to say."
  Tolliver also said she was disappointed with the ruling.
  "I am disappointed and I disagree with his findings," Tolliver said.
  She added she was considering her options related to an appeal of McCarthy's ruling.
  In his ruling, McCarthy stated that the only parties to the suit will be the Big Vein companies, the Town of Grundy, the Buchanan County Board of Supervisors, Wellmore Coal Company LLC,and Levisa Coal Company.
  Consolidation Coal Company asked to intervene in the case and its motion to intervene was granted.
  McCarthy, in his ruling, also limited the matters to be considered at the formal hearing to the application, with matters pertaining to previously approved applications not to be considered.
  Further, McCarthy ruled that the burden of proof would be on those seeking to set aside the DMME decision to grant the permit, instead of on the agency to prove why the action to grant the application was proper.
  McCarthy also denied requests to move the venue for the formal hearing to Buchanan County.
  "Practically speaking, it appears that the Division of Mined Land Reclamation's headquarters in Big Stone Gap, where many of the witnesses are located, where the voluminous files are located, and where hearing support is located is the place to hold the hearing," McCarthy wrote.
  McGlothlin also objected to the venue for the hearing and said Buchanan County would be the more appropriate location.
  "I am very disappointed he thinks the appropriate place is in Big Stone Gap, when DMME has an office here (at Keen Mountain) and the discharge proposed is in site of the Buchanan County Courthouse," McGlothlin said. "It fairly well astounds me that the hearing would take place 100 miles away in Big Stone Gap."
  In the opinion issued January 9, McCarthy also ordered the parties to the formal hearing to provide a clear statement of the facts entitling them to administrative relief; an explanation of each specific alleged error in the division's decision with statutory and regulatory references; and the specific relief requested.
  McCarthy further indicated that due to delays in the receipt of the transcript from the pre-hearing conference, he had been forced to move his pre-hearing decision up to the January date, which he added would further necessitate rescheduling initial dates in March previously agreed upon for the formal hearing to be held.
  CONSOL attorneys have already responded to the decision and asked for the new hearing date to be set no earlier than the second week of May due to the court schedules of its attorneys.
  No date had been set at press time.

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