That's essentially what they're doing, though it's about 2,000 pounds.
Industry mobilizing to produce up-armored Humvees
By Heike Hasenauer
Acting Secretary of the Army Les Brownlee meets a worker off the Humvee assembly line at an AM General factory in northern Indiana.
MISHAWAKA, Ind.(Army News Service, Feb. 18, 2004) –Humvee production in February has ramped up from 25 to 30 vehicles daily at an AM General factory in order to meet the demand in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Acting Secretary of the Army Les Brownlee visited the plant Feb. 13, located about 10 miles east of South Bend, Ind. He thanked workers for their service to the nation, and reinforced their resolve to get the best Humvees to the troops as fast as possible.
Today the work ethic at the factory is much as it was at manufacturing plants across America during World War II. Then U.S. industry produced a staggering amount of materiel for the war effort, including 350,000 jeeps, Brownlee told plant officials.
About 1,200 AM General workers in northern Indiana base their livelihoods on Army contracts to build the High Mobility Multi-purpose Wheeled Vehicles, better known as Humvees. The company has produced more than 170,000 Humvees since the vehicle was introduced in 1985, according to company spokesman Craig C. Mac Nab.
President George W. Bush’s proposed 2005 defense budget earmarked millions of dollars for up-armored Humvees. Hundreds of others have already been approved for production this fiscal year, so AM General president and chief executive Jim Armour has been preparing for an increased workload to ultimately speed delivery of the Humvees to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In 2000, the Army awarded a seven-year contract to AM General for the production of some 31,474 Humvees through 2007.
When the new Humvees leave the plant in Mishawaka, some of them go to O’Gara-Hess & Eisenhardt, a leading vehicle armoring firm near Cincinnati. Brownlee also visited this plant in Fairfield, Ohio, where the vehicles become up-armored Humvees, known as the M1114 version Humvee.
Roughly 3,500 up-armored Humvees have been produced to date and are being used in peacekeeping missions in Somalia, Haiti, the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq, O’Gara-Hess officials report.
The M1114 weighs about 2,000 pounds more than the standard Humvee and includes 200-pound steel-plated doors, steel plating under the cab and several layers of bonded, ballistic-resistant glass to replace zip-up plastic windows, said Jim Bussey, O’Gara-Hess project manager for engineering contracts.
The up-armored Humvees provide greater protection to Soldiers on military patrols and reconnaissance missions. The reinforced steel plating and ballistic-resistant windows provide increased protection from rocket-propelled grenades, small-arms fire, shrapnel and explosive devices and land mines, Bussey said.
While some employees at AM General and O’Gara-Hess had family members in Iraq and Afghanistan, many more said they knew someone whose son or daughter was on duty in harm’s way. And they knew all too well the importance of what they were doing to help save lives.
An up-armored Humvee on the factory floor at O’Gara- Hess –- the engine compartment a tangled maze of melted metal –- attests to the fact that steel reinforcement saves lives. Five Soldiers were riding in that Humvee in Afghanistan when it ran over a land mine, Bussey said. The Soldiers sustained only minor cuts and bruises because the up-armored cab remained totally intact.
If that wasn’t reason enough to validate what employees at the two plants are doing, Brownlee shared a personal Soldier story that underscored the importance of what America’s assembly plant workers are doing.
During one of his many visits to wounded Soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., Brownlee met with the sole survivor of a grenade attack on four U.S. Soldiers in Baghdad.
The Soldier had lost a leg and eye in the attack, Brownlee said. He “flatlined” twice during his evacuation. And because his heart had stopped twice and he was generally unresponsive, his doctors feared he had suffered brain damage.
Brownlee spoke to him nonetheless, he said, and held his hand. “His face was covered with bandages,” Brownlee said. Just his right eye was exposed.
“There aren’t a lot of things you can say to Soldiers like that,” Brownlee said. But Brownlee thanked the man for his sacrifice and told him he’d check up on him in a few weeks. As he walked away, he turned to wave goodbye to the young man.
What the Soldier did next shocked Brownlee and a nurse who witnessed what happened: The Soldier sat up and gave Brownlee a perfect salute, he said.
“He lost an eye and a leg, but not his courage,” Brownlee said. “That’s the kind of Soldier you’re supporting today with the up-armored Humvees you’re building.”
And when someone asked him if he thinks we should be in Iraq, he says emphatically, “All you have to do is look into a Soldier’s eyes over there to know what we’re doing is right. They know why we’re there. And all of you can be proud of what you’re doing to help keep them safe.”