secret Pentagon study:80% of marines killed may been saved by body armor

[dajoki]

NYT
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/06/politics/06cnd-armor.html?ex=1137214800&en=b906543b5f642795&ei=5009&partner=MSN_NYTHOME

Extra Armor Could Have Saved Many Lives, Study Shows

By MICHAEL MOSS
Published: January 6, 2006

A secret Pentagon study has found that at least 80 percent of the marines who have been killed in Iraq from wounds to their upper body could have survived if they had extra body armor. That armor has been available since 2003 but until recently the Pentagon has largely declined to supply it to troops despite calls from the field for additional protection, according to military officials.

Preliminary Findings: Marine Lethal Torso Injuries (pdf)
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/international/20060107_ARMOR_TEXT.pdf

Armoring Humvees for Safety
http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2005/04/25/international/20050425_MARINES_GRAPHIC.html
The ceramic plates in vests currently worn by the majority of military personnel in Iraq cover only some of the chest and back. In at least 74 of the 93 fatal wounds that were analyzed in the Pentagon study of marines from March 2003 through June 2005, bullets and shrapnel struck the marines' shoulders, sides or areas of the torso where the plates do not reach.

Thirty-one of the deadly wounds struck the chest or back so close to the plates that simply enlarging the existing shields "would have had the potential to alter the fatal outcome," according to the study, which was obtained by The New York Times.

For the first time, the study by the military's medical examiner shows the cost in lost lives from inadequate armor, even as the Pentagon continues to publicly defend its protection of the troops. Officials have said they are shipping the best armor to Iraq as quickly as possible. At the same time, they have maintained that it is impossible to shield forces from the increasingly powerful improvised explosive devices used by insurgents. Yet the Pentagon's own study reveals the equally lethal threat of bullets.

[aquart]

1. Should I be ashamed of the Marines?

They will walk into hell to retrieve a comrade's corpse, but they have been silent witnesses to this unnecessary slaughter of their own?

Tell me how hard they have been fighting this, our own government's homicidal incompetence.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. Support the troops..... BULLSH*T, if that is how you support our

young men and women, by not giving them body armor and putting them in a warzone... then you people belong in prison YESTERDAY.

[Inland]

3. Study requested in Aug 2004, delayed to June 2005....then ignored.

Is it impeachment time, yet?

[dajoki]

4. this is one...

of the offenses.

[shraby]

5. I'm absolutely livid!

Meanwhile back at the ranch, Cunningham is siphoning off millions for his friends and his own pockets.
Rumsfeld should be drawn and quartered right along with the top generals (don't deserve a capital) who allowed this travesty.

[chaumont58]

6. This story should have legs

I hope this story doesn't get lost. Just because it is so egregious. What the fuck doesn anyone tell a Marine gold star mother? We didn't have money? It would have meant delaying a tax cut for the richest 1 percent? There was just a story a couple of days ago by a Marine father who'd lost his son in what was, to the father, a worthless, wasted war. How worthless and wasted is it now? What does Marine Pace think about this? Will one of our finest reporters think to ask him the next time he briefs the press? I wonder if Rush will even bring up this story Monday? Or any other day?

Really, this whole thing is like a Steven King reject. It can't be real! Is our government so fuckin' inept?

The Few, The Proud, The wasted Marines!!!