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BAGHDAD — After stomping around for a few days with the new Improved Outer Tactical Vest (IOTV), 4th Infantry Division Soldiers reported both pros and cons about the new tactical gear. The new vest has several design differences and some added features, which keep the Soldiers in mind when they're in times of trouble. The first noticeable difference in the vest design is the way Soldiers don the IOTV. Rather than slipping into it like a jacket, as with the Interceptor Body Armor, they lift it over their head and pull down, which sometimes requires another person to help get...

BAGHDAD — The Ministry of Interior (MOI) received nine armored Toyota Land Cruiser SUVs this week as part of its investment in the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program. The total value of the shipment was valued in excess of $1.082 Million for the nine vehicles. The vehicles were refitted with armor plating and other custom features in Dubai. The vehicles will be used by the Iraqi Police and other directorates in the MOI. “We have waited for the arrival of these vehicles for a long time,” said Col Ishmel of the MOI. “These vehicles are very important to us in...

The Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Heavy Armored Ground Ambulance is the newest vehicle in a new fleet of MRAP being fielded in Iraq. Photo by Spc. Angel Martinez, 113th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment. CAMP LIBERTY — Although attacks in Iraq have decreased significantly over the past six months, the Department of Defense has remained steadfast in improving the protection and capabilities of military vehicles in Iraq, keeping Soldiers’ safety the top priority. In keeping with this priority, the new Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) Heavy Armored Ground Ambulance (HAGA) has made its way to Iraq.The medical sections from 610th Brigade...

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Israel poured up to 10,000 armored troops into south Lebanon Tuesday, and separately dropped helicopter-borne commandos deep into the eastern Bekaa Valley where they raided a Hezbollah-run hospital and fought pitched battles with guerrillas, in a major escalation of the three-week-old war. The Israeli military would not comment on its raid into the ancient city of Baalbek, once a Syrian army headquarters 80 miles north of Israel. It was the deepest ground attack on Lebanon since fighting began 21 days ago. The ferocity of the battles in Baalbek and across southern Lebanon on Tuesday and the determination...

CAMP TAJI, Iraq, May 12, 2006 – As the Iraqi army takes over more and more battle space, there will be less need for American combat power in the country, U.S. officials said. Iraq's second armored brigade will assume battle space here soon and the Iraqi 9th Division, the country's only tank division, will assume the battle space in this area north of Baghdad in June. American military transition teams are working with the Iraqis to build and sustain the division. Army Col. John Hort is the senior Military Transition Team chief for the Iraqi division. He leads a group...

CAMP TAJI, Iraq, May 12, 2006 – An Iraqi armored brigade is ready to take its place on the battlefield, military transition team officials said yesterday. The 2nd Brigade of the 9th Iraqi Division will assume responsibility for battle space in this region north of Baghdad May 15. The unit's soldiers will join fellow tankers of the 1st Brigade, who assumed responsibility for defending Iraqi territory in December. The brigade has four battalions, three combat and one maintenance and supply. It is equipped with T-72 tanks from Hungary and BMP armored fighting vehicles from Greece. The unit will take over...

3rd Armored Cav. troopers continue to serve By Sgt. 1st Class Donald Sparks Cavalry troopers from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment raise their right hand to repeat the Oath of Reenlistment during the unit's mass reenlistment ceremony recently held at Fort Carson, Colo. A total of 640 Soldiers participated in the event.Sgt. 1st Class Donald Sparks FORT CARSON, Colo. (Army News Service, May 8, 2006) – Soon after his arrival back home from Operation Iraqi Freedom, Spc. Aaron Ziegler knew exactly what he wanted to do – stay in the Army and continue to serve. A food service specialist...

Would you care to guess who said this: "To the courageous men and women of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, who have changed the city of Tall Afar (Iraq) from a ghost town, in which terrorists spread death and destruction, to a secure city flourishing with life"? Give up? That is a letter from...

MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. (Jan. 26, 2006) -- The Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory hosted an Office of Naval Research presentation of the Ultra Armored Patrol “Concept” Vehicle to senior Army acquisition officials Jan. 18. Lt. Gen. Joseph L. Yakovac Jr., military deputy to the assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology, and his deputy, Maj. Gen. Jeffrey A. Sorenson, attended the hour-long briefing, as did program officers from MCWL and Marine Corps Combat Development Command. A viewing of the vehicle, which features innovative systems and components which potentially could enhance survivability and performance, followed the presentation....

Canada has bought fifty Nyala armored vehicles, to be used by troops it is sending to Afghanistan. The Nyala is a South African vehicles, costing about $2 million each (with support and spares), that was designed to resist landmines and roadside bombs. It was developed from the earlier Mamba armored personnel carrier, and has an excellent track record. The wheeled (4x4) vehicle weighs eight tons and can carry up to eleven people. The model Canada is getting (RG-31M), usually it operates with a crew of five, and a cargo area in the back. Before Canada, the UN and the United...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 12, 2006 – U.S. military members serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and other dangerous locales will soon receive revamped armored vests that provide more side protection, senior officials said here today. The vest changes are designed to prove effective in protecting servicemembers from shrapnel fragments, especially those who man gun turrets atop vehicles, Maj. Gen. Stephen Speakes, the Army's director of force development, said during a teleconference call with military analysts. "What we're seeing, obviously, is continuing evolutions in the nature of the threat that we face," Speakes said. The shrapnel-producing improvised explosive devices and other terrorist weapons encountered...

Engineer Paul Green wheels his company's new fully armored combat vehicle over the clay roads and muddy streambeds of the South Carolina backcountry, guns the engine and races over one hill and then the next. "This is designed to be what we thought would be a step up from the Humvee," he shouts as he shifts gears. "This vehicle was never designed to be a direct replacement for the current armored Humvee." But the prototype -- christened the MUV-R (Mine-protected Utility Vehicle/Rapid Deployable) by its manufacturer, Charleston, S.C.-based Force Protection, Inc. -- may well be.

The clinic serves as a battalion aid station and also provides lab, dental, x-ray and trauma services. TAJI, Iraq, Aug. 3, 2005 — "You never know what is going to roll up to the door," said U.S. Army Capt. Jacqueline L. Graul, brigade nurse for 3rd Brigade, 1st Armored Division. Graul is part of the staff at "Cobra" Clinic, run by C Company, 125th Forward Support Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 1st Armored Division, which provides for the medical needs of soldiers at Camp Taji. "You don't get a second chance with a real casualty. All your training is on the line."...

Earlier this year near Paducah, Texas, cinematographer Sean Casey got the scary part of his wish. “The holy grail of all footage is to get a tornado coming right at you—filming with a wide-angle lens, and having the tornado hit you, impact the camera—and that shot really hasn’t been gotten yet,” says the seven-year storm-chasing veteran. “If we can get that on IMAX, it would be a really nice, nice shot.” Because of heavy rain, his bulky IMAX camera didn’t get the shot. Casey was hit by a tornado twice that day, events he recalls with a calm, articulate tone...

FALLUJAH, Iraq -- For three weeks, my FOX News team has been immersed in little more than what's been happening around us. Memorial Day isn't, as they say over here, on our radar screens. The soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines we've been covering and living with in Al Anbar Province have been focused on chasing terrorists, avoiding IEDs and staying alive. They call it situational awareness -- being alert to only the friendly and enemy situation in the immediate vicinity is an absolute necessity for these young Americans in harm's way in this hot, dusty and dangerous place. And because...

TAJI, Iraq, May 18, 2005 — Hundreds of excited children gathered near a clinic as U.S. soldiers passed out school supplies, book bags and toys during a humanitarian mission to the Husseiniya section of northwest Baghdad near Camp Taji on May 7. Inside the clinic, another group of troops unloaded boxes of medical supplies as Army medical professionals consulted with their Iraqi counterparts. Soldiers of the 1st Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, serving as part of the 3rd Brigade, 1st Armored Division; 3rd Infantry Division and supporting units conducted the mission, a large part of which included delivering medicine, vaccines,...

Like Mark Twain's death, the demise of the tank has been "greatly exaggerated." A weekend conversation with my World War II and Korea vet father spurs this column. Dad had seen a short video I shot in Iraq that featured my staff section racing down Baghdad's "Route Irish" in an unarmored SUV. Dad asked about the handling characteristics of SUVs and Humvees with "add-on" armor -- light vehicles that weren't designed to carry the extra weight. He then compared what I told him about steel plates and Kevlar panels to a Korean War "armor upgrade" to counter land mines: sandbags...

A good friend of mine once pointed out to me that the first thing liberals do, after someone commits a crime with a gun, is try to disarm everyone who didn't do it. I found his words to be both insightful and troubling, and it's the same sort of pretzel logic to which he referred that has become evident over the past few years in the actions of the many left-wingers seeking to defame Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Apparently, leftists believe that Mr. Rumsfeld is somehow responsible for our military's lack of optimum preparedness, which is sort of like blaming...

http://www.globalterroralert.com/zarqawi-apc.wmvhttp://www.globalterroralert.com Globalterroralert.com (10/13/04): Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's Tawheed wal-Jihad Movement in Iraq has released two new video clips, including video of a roadside bombing attack on a U.S. armored vehicle near the city of Mosul. The video features human body parts later retrieved from the scene of the ambush.

Gunman Ambushes Detroit Armored Car Crew Thursday February 19, 2004 1:01 AM DETROIT (AP) - A gunman in a black ski mask ambushed the crew of an armored car as they loaded cash from a bank ATM Wednesday, killing one guard and critically wounding another. The gunman apparently fled without any money, police said. The gunman walked around a corner of the Comerica Bank branch where three guards had parked their truck and opened fire with a rifle, said police spokesman Derek Jones. He fled in a white van, Jones said. Police later found the van and an empty money...