It may be Iowa, but Shoeless Joe Jackson isn’t appearing from the depths of a cornfield to fill this United States Marine veteran on the secrets to making the most protective body armor in the world.
That’s completely up to him, and his team at his company’s factory in the southern region of the state.
According to Blake Waldrop, who served in the USMC then took a position with local law enforcement, RMA Armament is well on its way — if not “there” — through years of painstaking experimentation and countless tests.
“It’s meant to save people’s lives,” he told the Des Moines Register via the Associated Press. “If you eat bad cereal, you might be sick for a day or two. But if this is bad, somebody’s going to die.”
It’s more than a line, or a truth he spouts. He’s pulling from personal experience — a haunting memory he can never make better. A nightmare that has sparked a mission, and a livelihood.
In 2005, while serving in the Iraq, one of his fellow Marines died while wearing military-issued body armor. It was an IED attack.
He believes his with the armor RMA is manufacturing now, his buddy would’ve experienced a much better fate.
More from the Register:
One of his designs has been tested to withstand six rounds of armor-piercing rifle ammunition — a feat he says is unmatched by competitors. RMA sells various armor models to police forces across the country, with plans for future expansion into the military market. Worn around the center chest, each piece of armor weighs 3 to 7 pounds.
After serving in the Marines for five years, Waldrop returned to his native Michigan and worked for a trucking company. But the 2008 shakeup that decimated the American auto market left him laid off.
Waldrop entered the police academy and served as an officer in Wyoming and Dysart, Iowa.
He launched his armor business in his garage in 2011, seeking expert help to rethink the materials, adhesives and ceramics that go into the shielding worn around the chest.
The business, which started making products at the Rock Island Arsenal in the Quad Cities and then through a third-party manufacturer in northern Iowa, was set to go to Texas because of Waldrop’s friendship with Gov. Rick Perry.
But a chance encounter with state and local officials at Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad’s annual hunt changed his mind. He found out that the 20,000-square-foot former armory building in Centerville was empty and available.
Now, RMA leases that building from the city, and has plans to buy it outright.
The business of making impenetrable, modern day panoply was financed through two things: what the old Marine had in his piggybank, and a friend’s generous investment of a million bucks.
While RMA is focused primarily on selling armor to first responders, Waldrop hopes to expand its reach to the military, and replace the model that might’ve cost his friend his life.
He even gives discounts to police departments who might not have the budget to afford the state-of-the-art shields (which range anywhere from $140 to $330 each).
“We didn’t get into this business to make millions of dollars,” he said. “We got into this business to protect other people’s lives.”
The Des Moines Register did point out, however, that the company is indeed making millions.
RMA makes thousands of pieces of armor a week, and reached profitability in the last half of 2016.
Here’s a little bit on how the technology works, again, via the Register:
RMA’s unique ceramic grid differentiates it from competitors. Just as engineers might design a piece of concrete to crack in a certain way, so too has RMA designed its ceramic to crack just the right way to absorb a bullet’s impact.
When a bullet is shot at the plate, the ceramic breaks the round, instantly disintegrating the slug. A polyethylene backing absorbs the kinetic energy of the fired shot.
“I always tell people I didn’t invent armor any more than Steve Jobs invented the computer,” Waldrop said. “I just found a better way to do it, just like he did.”
“Talk is pretty cheap. Anybody can throw together some PowerPoint slides and polish up a sales pitch. But for me, I’d rather do less talk and more action.”