Body Armor Saves Lives in Iraq Pentagon Criticized for Undersupply of Prot

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33341-2003Dec3.html

<snip>

This high-tech "system" -- the Kevlar vest and "small-arms protective inserts," which the troops call SAPI plates -- is dramatically reducing the kind of torso injuries that have killed soldiers on the battlefield in wars past.

Soldiers will not patrol without the armor -- if they can get it. But as of now, there is not enough to go around. Going into the war in Iraq, the Army decided to outfit only dismounted combat soldiers with the plated vests, which cost about $1,500 each. But when Iraqi insurgents began ambushing convoys and killing clerks as well as combat troops, controversy erupted.

Last month, Rep. Ted Strickland (D-Ohio) and 102 other House members wrote to Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, to demand hearings on why the Pentagon had been unable to provide all U.S. service members in Iraq with the latest body armor. In the letter, the lawmakers cited reports that soldiers' parents had been purchasing body armor with ceramic plates and sending it to their children in Iraq.

The demand came after Gen. John Abizaid, head of the U.S. Central Command and commander of all military forces in Iraq, told a House Appropriations subcommittee in September that he could not "answer for the record why we started this war with protective vests that were in short supply."

Sidebar Story

Makers of Body Armor Boost Production to Combat Shortage

The Army's rush to overcome shortages of body armor and armored Humvees in Iraq is sparking a mini-boom for manufacturers of the equipment.

Body-armor manufacturers are increasing output to 25,000 vests a month from 3,300. An Ohio-based subsidiary of Armor Holdings Inc. -- the military's only maker of armored Humvees -- is ramping up to 24-hour production in an effort to turn out 220 vehicles a month within six months. It currently produces 80 a month.

The Army initially provided body armor only to infantry and combat troops. Now it wants to outfit everyone on the ground in Iraq.

In the past few months, Ceradyne Inc. of Costa Mesa, Calif., has spent $2 million to increase production of the ceramic plates used in vests to 14,000 a month from 9,000. Each vest contains at least two plates. The company has hired 120 workers and bought 16 new furnaces to fire the plates, said David P. Reed, vice president and general manager. The price of Ceradyne's common stock has soared 145 percent since June 2.

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Armor Holdings, which also provides armor for nonmilitary vehicles, has moved its commercial operations out of its main plant so all 140,000 square feet can be dedicated to armored Humvees. The company is bringing on 150 workers, a hiring drive that will expand its staff by nearly 50 percent. Armor hasn't operated at this pace since the military significantly accelerated orders during the war in the Balkans, said Robert F. Mecredy, president of the company's aerospace and defense group.

Note the last sentence - is this saying the Clinton admin supplied the troops with the needed armored Humvees in Bosnia? But AWOL and Rummy failed to adequately supply the troops because they were so invested in their feeling the Iraqis were going to greet them with flowers.

[JPace]

1. Our troops have had to pay.....

their own airfare home on leave and
buy their own body armor. I heard early
in the occupation they did not have
enough to eat.

The bush regime treats our troops like
second class citizens.

[chasqui]

3. They have always been treated as second class citizens

It is how the military has been , is now, and always will be.

[truthspeaker]

2. remind me what the $87 billion is paying for again?

Somehow I assumed it was going to "support our troops".

[DesignGirl]

4. Buying Their Own

I saw an email from a mother of a soldier getting ready to ship out, she was very angry about the cost of the "Thanksgiving" visit by Bush to Iraq. When she had to spend $1500 to buy body armor for her son or he would have to go without.

[kysrsoze]

5. Meanwhile they've got plenty to spend on Nukes and gas at $2.50/gal

n/t

[RamboLiberal]

6. And the National Guard and Reserves feel like second class citizens

Army Reserve and National Guard troops getting shot at in Iraq sometimes wait for new bulletproof body armor while active duty Army soldiers get it first, according to Reserve and Guard soldiers.

Waiting for Interceptor body armor adds to concern among Reserve and Guard troops that they are treated like second-class citizens, even when it comes to lifesaving equipment. They say the treatment is unfair because enemy bullets make no distinction between Reserve and active duty.

Army Spokesman Major Gary Tallman said the Army does not intend to discriminate against Reserve troops as it hurries to hand out body armor. "That is not the intent or the philosophy," Tallman said. He said he is not familiar with the specifics of how the armor -- vests with bullet-proof ceramic plates front and back -- is being handed out.

The perception by Guard and Reserve troops that they get the short end of the stick is driving experienced soldiers out of military service, according to dozens of interviews with National Guard and Army Reserve troops.

<snip>

"We also see units returning home that don't turn in their body armor over to soldiers needing it here. In fact, our coalition partners -- Polish, Spanish, Hungarian, Latvian, Ukranian, Italian, Mongolian, Dominicans, Hondurans, Salvadorans, and Koreans -- all have new body armor," the soldier said. He said some of it is coming from the U.S. military.

http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20031203-122056-8504r

If the Pentagon ever pulls the stop loss on Guard/Reserve it's going to be a mass exodus.