BODY ARMOR KEPT IRAQ CASUALTIES LOW

Why were there so few American casualties in Iraq? Body armor is a major reason, the Associated Press reports.

‘‘Hands down, body armor is much more effective at saving lives than any medicine we’ve brought to the battlefield,’’ Col. Clifford Cloonan, a doctor at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, told the AP.

"Military scientists (worked) to lighten the body armor after soldiers who removed 8- to 12-pound protective chest plates were wounded or killed in the 1990s," the wire service says. "The new plates, inserted in armor worn like a vest, weigh about 4 pounds each."

Jim Mackiewicz, a Marine Corps leader at the Army’s Natick Laboratory in Massachusetts, said, "A lot of guys are getting hit and don’t even know it."

The usefulness of body armor would seem to be obvious but many things in life that seem so turn out otherwise. It's a relief to see a life-saver proven true.

The vast majority of American soldiers who suffered life-threatening wounds in combat in Iraq were hit in the limbs, not the torso, suggesting that the body armor now worn by all soldiers is remarkably effective.

The first look at the injured soldiers found that 58 percent were wounded in the hands, feet, arms or legs. Only 9 percent were injured in the abdomen, chest, back or groin. The findings are based on a study of 118 Army troops who suffered battlefield injuries severe enough to require that they be evacuated to Europe or the United States. The military has not yet analyzed the injury pattern in soldiers killed in combat, but it is clear that most died of chest, abdominal or head injuries too severe to be prevented by protective vests and helmets under any circumstances. Among nonfatal wounds, however, the highly skewed pattern suggests that the latest armor provided real protection.

Curiously, the pattern of wounds in the Iraq war -- 58 percent to the arms and legs -- resembles the pattern seen in the Civil War, but for radically different reasons. Medical records of the Union Army show that 71 percent of the wounds in soldiers who survived to get medical treatment were to the limbs. Confederate records estimate the percentage as 65 percent. Nearly a half-million men were permanently disabled by wounds in that war, which led to great advances in orthopedic surgery and the design of prosthetic limbs. In the Civil War, however, the chief reason was that almost nobody survived a wound to the torso. About 94 percent of Union soldiers killed in action died of head, neck, chest or abdominal wounds. Most wounded survivors had injuries to the limbs.

November 2003:

But Maj. Gary Tallman, an Army spokesman, said the shortage of body armor vests was due to a change in the Army's issue plan. "On the delay, that's a mischaracterization," he told U.S. MEDICINE last month. "The situation is that the issue plan for the Interceptor Body Armor changed. Initially it was for front line combat soldiers, but it has changed to include everybody, so it's a matter of producing enough for everybody."

Maj. Tallman said the Army's initial basis of issue was that it was able to field the vests to all combat divisions and armored cavalry regiments going to Iraq for the invasion and initial major combat operations. "As major combat switched to a stabilization and support operation, we were seeing a greater need because of the ongoing attacks," he said.

Maj. Tallman said the Army initially produced 8,000 vests a year over the last four years and they were geared to front line infantry men. Production of the armored vests was hiked up to 10,000 a month in February and March as the war in Iraq first unfolded. He said production has since been lifted to 25,000 a month and the Army is using several manufacturers to accomplish this pace. "That's the most that can be made," he said. "It can only be made so fast."

The Army is expanding the dispersement of the vests from just the front line soldiers to the entirety of the troops stationed in Iraq, as well as Department of Army civilians and civilian contractors working for the Army who are operating in Iraq.

Maj. Tallman said the Army is focusing on delivering the gear to soldiers who are deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq. "As soon as they are produced, they are being shipped over to Central Command to the Southwest Asia theater," he said.

Col. John Norwood, USA, project manager for Soldier Equipment in the Army Acquisition Corps, said the Army will meet the entire requirement for that theater by December of this year. "When units initially deployed [to Iraq], they received the Interceptor Body Armor, so there were two front line divisions," said Col. Norwood. "Over time we've ramped our production to provide increasing quantities to fulfill the total Army requirement. Over time, our mission has changed. Initially we produced to the mission. As it evolved, Army requirements changed. We do total life cycle support responsibilities for equipment."

Congress approved $310 million this spring to buy more of the IBA vests and complete outfitting of the troops in Iraq. "I have received $310 million very recently and that will put us at maximum production for the foreseeable future," said Col. Norwood.

He said they will be producing 25,000 a month in November and on out. "By December 2003 we will have outfitted everyone currently deployed," said Col. Norwood. "Everything we get, we ship weekly from the plants to the depot in Pennsylvania, where they are repackaged and shipped over to Iraq."

Col. Norwood said the vests will continue to be made until near the end of next year when the money runs out. "Eventually they'll field the entire Army," he said. "I'll make them until the Army tells me to stop."

Source

January 2004:

ARLINGTON, Va. — Working full-tilt, nine contractors have finished crafting 160,000 Interceptor body armor vests, and the equipment is now en route to units preparing to deploy to Iraq and a central distribution point in Kuwait, according to Army officials.

This month’s production run of the Interceptor tactical vests fulfills a promise to Congress by Army officials, who said that by January the service would have enough of the vests to outfit every soldier deployed to Iraq, according to Army spokesman Maj. Gary Tallman. “Congress has been notified that the requirement has been met,” Tallman said Friday.

Source

The problem is there is not enough factories in the US that can make the military style body armor. The military is the largest buyer of the product and with the Clinton downsizing of the military to produce the "peace" dividend, lowered the demand and put more companies out the military armor business. The Dems did not help the production base by hinting that body armor will be treated like assualt rifles and sales to civilians be severely regulated or banned. They also hinted that the manufacturers can be sued if the vests were used by criminals in a gunbattle that resulted in the death of police officers. If the Dems had succeeded, the parents of many of these soldiers would not have been able to buy the item on their own. This ongoing war against terrorism is going to change the military and bureacratic culture in the Pentagon in the many years to come. The war has produced many battle experienced junior officers and NCO who in the next ten years will become senior ranks. Unlike the last war which lasted 100 hours, high tech weapons blinded the current leadership into thinking that the next war was going to be so fast that replacements and logistics would be secondary issues. The Iraqi experience has provided insights that will help the Pentagon make better decisions then the ones of the past. These new leaders will recognize that the production base for dull products(nonsexy items) such as batteries, munitions, and body armor are more important than some of the sexy wiz bang items, and the basic law of ground warfare has not change, numbers and logistics are the components for victory. God bless our troops and their families.

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