[Prodigal Son]

The perspective of the soldiers doesn't begin or end with the gun battles. When one of the new Stryker vehicles was hit by a road-side bomb and burned, critics of the vehicle went on the attack.

The soldiers there saw if differently. They saw a 20-ton Stryker bounce in the air and felt the heat and concussion of the explosion more than a football field away. Rushing to the aid of those inside, they were stunned. All jumped out of the Stryker. There was one minor injury. "I thought they were all dead," one soldier told me. "It was a big one [bomb.]" There has been one other similar incident with a Stryker. It didn't catch fire, was repaired and is now back in the war. No one in a Stryker has been killed in combat.

Interesting perspective on the Stryker in this article. Interesting too that the article itself is addressing the way soldiers see the media not representing the true picture on the ground.

(I chose some posters from the latest thread on the Stryker that I participated in- don't worry, I don't have a ping list- I just though this item was relevent to the other discussion)

[SLB]

BTTT

[Vetvoice]

If you'll look at the Army's pet "Stryker News" carried on the Tacoma Times Tribune you'll see that two Strykers rolled into a canal before the brigade ever fired a shot and because of the abortion called slat armor that was locked, two in one vehicle could not be extracted before they drowned. One in the other Styker escaped but the other man did not - he drowned.