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GIs Lack Armor, Radios, Bullets (hatchet job by CBS)
CBS ^ | Oct. 31, 2004 | CBS

Posted on 10/31/2004 5:00:40 PM PST by Former Military Chick

(CBS) Two weeks ago, a group of Army reservists in Iraq refused a direct order to go on a dangerous operation to re-supply another unit with jet fuel.

Without helicopter gunships to escort them over a treacherous stretch of highway, and lacking armored vehicles, soldiers from the 343rd Quartermaster Company called it a suicide mission.

The Army called it an isolated incident, a temporary breakdown in discipline, and an investigation is underway.

But the 343rd isn't the first outfit to be put in harm's way without proper equipment, and commanders in Iraq acknowledged that the unit's concerns were legitimate, even if their mutiny was not.

With a $400 billion defense budget you might think U.S. troops have everything they need to fight the war, but that's not always the case.

Correspondent Steve Kroft talks to a general, soldiers in Iraq, and their families at home about a lack of armored vehicles, field radios, night vision goggles, and even ammunition - especially for the National Guard and reserve units that now make up more than 40 percent of U.S. troops.

In this report, Kroft also talks to Sen. John McCain about how pork-barrel politics have shortchanged troops on the ground. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Every couple of weeks Karen Preston gets a telephone call from her son Ryan who is serving in Iraq with the Oregon National Guard.

But Karen Preston has been worrying a lot ever since last summer when Ryan returned home on leave and showed her these photos of the unarmored vehicles his unit was using for convoy duty in Iraq.

Lacking the proper steel plating to protect soldiers from enemy mines and rocket propelled grenades, they had been jerry-rigged with plywood and sandbags.

"They were called cardboard coffins," Preston says.

There have been more than 9,000 U.S. casualties in Iraq so far – more than 8,100 wounded and 1,100 killed. Nearly half of those casualties are the result of roadside bombs, known as improvised explosive devices or IEDs in military jargon. Yet the U.S. military still lacks thousands of fully armored vehicles that could save American lives.

Specialist Ronald Pepin, who serves in Baghdad with the New York National Guard, says, "They have no ground plating. So if you hit something underneath you, then it's going to kill the whole crew, you know? And that's just something you have to live with."

Staff Sgt. Sean Davis from the Oregon National Guard was critically wounded last June when his unarmored Humvee hit an IED outside of Baghdad. He suffered shrapnel wounds, burns, and was unable to walk for six weeks.

Davis said his Humvee was armored with plywood, sandbags, and armor salvaged from old Iraqi tanks.

He considers himself lucky that he wasn't killed in the blast. His friend and fellow guardsman Eric McKinley, who was riding in the same vehicle, wasn't so fortunate. The 24-year-old Army specialist died of his wounds. His father Tom said his son was supposed to have been discharged from the Oregon National Guard a few months before his death, but was held over because of the war.

McKinley says his son would have stood a lot better chance of surviving had his vehicle been fully armored.

"Our troops need to be protected over there to the best ability that we can protect them and it's not being done," he says.

The Department of Defense denied a 60 Minutes request for an on-camera interview to explain the situation. But responding to a written question about vehicles traveling dangerous routes in Iraq being armored with plywood and sandbags, the Army told us, "As long as the Army has a single vehicle without armor, we expect that our soldiers will continue to find ways to increase their level of protection."

60 Minutes went to a man more familiar with the problems facing the Oregon National Guard than anyone else – its commanding general, Ray Byrne. General Byrne was somewhat reluctant to talk when 60 Minutes showed him pictures of his men's Humvees and trucks, armored with plywood and sandbags.

"If you have nothing then that's better than nothing. The question becomes then again when – when are they going to receive the full up armored Humvees? And I don't have that answer," says Gen. Byrne.

"It distresses me greatly that they do not have the equipment. I don't have control over it. The soldiers don't have control over it. The question becomes, 'When is it going to be available? When is it going to be available? When will they have it?'"

There are still no good answers to those questions. Most of the vehicles in Iraq arrived there without armor plating, because the Pentagon war planners didn't anticipate a long, bloody insurgency.

But 18 months after President Bush declared an end of major combat, the Pentagon is still struggling to provide the equipment needed to fight the war.

Oregon Congresswoman Darlene Hooley, a Democrat whose district includes Gen. Byrne's National Guard, complained to the secretary of defense. She says she thinks the vehicles are not fully armored yet because military planners didn't anticipate an insurgency.

"We didn't have enough armored vehicles," she says. "They weren't manufactured."

Congress has appropriated additional money for armored trucks and Humvees, over $800 million in the current defense bill.

The Army told 60 Minutes they will have produced 8,100 fully-armored Humvees by March.

However, production is lagging behind the urgent need, and the Pentagon's interim solution is shipping so-called "add-on armor" kits to Iraq, where they are being bolted on to thousands of vehicles.

But most of those add-ons don't protect the bottom of the vehicle, leaving them vulnerable to an explosive device.

And it isn't the only equipment problem facing soldiers in Iraq.

Oregon guardsman Sean Davis told us that his unit was short ammunition and night vision goggles, and lacked radios to communicate with each other.

He says guardsman were using walkie-talkies that they or their families purchased from a sporting goods or similar store. "And anybody can pick up those signals, you know," he says. "And we don't have the radios that we need."

Gen. Byrne says stories about families in Oregon having to go out and buy for their sons and daughters radio equipment, body armor, GPS gear, computers and night vision goggles because they weren't being issued are true.

He said some Guard units are also using Vietnam era M-16 assault rifles, which he calls adequate for state duty but not acceptable for duty in Iraq. There is also a bullet shortage for training, he says.

It bothers him, but "there's nothing I can do about it," he says.

"If I was making the decisions, I would readjust," he says. "The soldier on the ground should be a focus. When that's taken care of you can take care of other stuff."

The Army acknowledged to 60 Minutes that there is a shortage of radios in Iraq and a shortage of bullets for training, and says both are in the process of being remedied. There have also been problems with maintenance and replacement parts for critical equipment like Abrams tanks, Bradley personnel carriers and Black Hawk helicopters.

Winslow Wheeler, a long time Capitol Hill staffer who spent years writing and reviewing defense appropriations bills, thinks he knows one reason why those shortages exist, after looking at the current Defense budget. Army accounts that pay for training, maintenance and repairs are being raided by Congress to pay for pork-barrel spending.

Wheeler says $2.8 billion that was earmarked for operations and maintenance to support U.S. troops has been used to "pay the pork bill."

Wheeler, who has written a book called "The Wastrels of Defense," says congressmen routinely hide billions of dollars in pet projects in the defense bill.

And buried in the back of this one, Wheeler found a biathlon jogging track in Alaska, a brown tree snake eradication program in Hawaii, a parade ground maintenance contract for a military base that closed years ago, and money for the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial celebration.

By law, these projects can't be cut, so Pentagon bookkeepers will have to dip into operations and maintenance accounts to pay for them.

"They do all kinds of things that adds up to: 'We're basically eating our own young to support the war,'" he says.

According to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a member of the Armed Services Committee who speaks out against pork-barrel spending, there is a total of $8.9 billion of pork in this year's defense bill, which would go a long way toward upgrading all the equipment used by the National Guard.

"I don't think that this war has truly come home to the Congress of the United States," McCain says. "This is the first time in history that we've cut taxes during a war. So I think that a lot of members of Congress feel that this is just sort of a business-as-usual situation."

"The least sexy items are the mundane - food, repair items, maintenance – there's no big contract there," says McCain. "And so there's a tendency that those mundane but vital aspects of war fighting are cut and routinely underfunded."

It is not a comforting thought for families with loved ones in Iraq, who lack armored vehicles, radios or things they need to stay alive. It's on Karen Preston's mind every time she talks to her son.

"He's very pro-military, as am I," she says. "I just want them to have the best equipment."

Some armored vehicles have now been shipped to her son's unit, but without protection on the bottom of the vehicle, an insurgent's explosive is just as deadly.

Specialist Pepin on the New York Guard says, "It's kind of like an act of faith. When you get in your vehicle, you just hope, you know. Say a little prayer before you go out."

This weekend, Acting Secretary of the Army Les Brownlee wrote to 60 Minutes saying, "The Army has made great strides in improving the capabilities of all units deploying to Iraq as the nature of the conflict has changed." He noted the president approved spending $840 million to improve the armor on Humvees in Iraq.

© MMIV, CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved.


TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 60minutes; cbsnews; iraq; troops; uparmoredhumvees
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To: JessieHelmsJr
Posted on: Wednesday, September 29, 2004

Guard gears up for duty with modern equipment

By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer

SCHOFIELD BARRACKS — Spc. Salvare Tumaneng, 26, pulled open the Velcro strip on his desert camouflage body armor to show the bullet-proof plate inside — so new that it's still wrapped in clear plastic.

Hawai'i Army National Guard Spc. Salvare Tumaneng, of Kalihi, left, adjusts to his newly issued body armor with help from Spc. Ronald Lee, of Liliha. They leave for training next week.

Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

"All of this equipment is kind of restricting, but if it's going to save our lives, I'd rather have it," Spc. Ronald Lee, 19, said yesterday. "I guess we're taking it for granted right now. We'll have to see when we get there."

"There" is Iraq. More than 2,000 Hawai'i soldiers with the Army National Guard's 29th Separate Infantry Brigade have been gearing up for their year-long deployment to the Balad area north of Baghdad, and will be leaving for training in Texas early next week.

The brigade's first combat test since the Vietnam War will begin on the Kuwait border in February or March, when the unit, traveling in heavily armed convoys, crosses into Iraq.

The approximately three-day trip will take 29th soldiers through the deserts of the south, through or near Baghdad, and about 50 miles north to Logistical Supply Area Anaconda in the Sunni Triangle, a region where attacks on U.S. forces have been most frequent.

It's the latest wave of Hawai'i-based troops with orders to the Middle East. About 10,000 Schofield Barracks soldiers are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the 29th, with about 670 reservists with the 100th Battalion, 442nd Infantry attached, are citizen soldiers leaving family and jobs at home.

Protective gear

Unlike some past National Guard units that deployed to Iraq with outdated equipment, the 3,600 soldiers of the 29th — a number that includes some Mainland-based elements — will be equipped with the chest and back "Small Arms Protective Insert" plates and a host of other new gear.

Made from boron carbide ceramic, the SAPI plates can stop an AK-47 round. Every soldier with the 29th has the plates, and new Kevlar vests with specially designed pockets for them, officials said.

"I think our soldiers will be as outfitted for combat as you possibly can be," brigade commander Brig. Gen. Joseph J. Chaves said yesterday. "Every other active component unit that has crossed the border into Iraq — we'll have the same items."

More than half the brigade — including frontline soldiers — will have newer M-4 rifles, a shorter, lighter version of the M-16A2. Through the Army's "Rapid Fielding Initiative" to better equip combat troops, the soldiers will receive advanced optic and laser sights, fire-resistant gloves and the Advanced Combat Helmet, which is lighter and cut higher in the back to provide greater head mobility.

"We're happy to see the (SAPI) plates, because we know we'll be more protected," said Tumaneng, from Kalihi, who works with administrative and personnel issues with the brigade's headquarters and headquarters company.

The new gear will be distributed to the soldiers after they arrive at Fort Bliss, Texas, next week for several months of intensive training. Following that, they'll leave in January for combat certification at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, La., before flying to Kuwait.

Some of the 29th soldiers will begin leaving Hawai'i as early as Saturday. Most will be flying out Monday through Wednesday of next week on charter flights.

Their first taste of a combat zone will come months from now when all the soldiers travel by convoy some 550 miles to the Balad area and LSA Anaconda to replace the 81st Brigade, a National Guard unit based out of Washington state.

"To most of the soldiers, it will be their first time in combat. They'll realize getting off the plane (in Kuwait), it's a different story," said Tumaneng, a student at Leeward Community College and security guard who has been with the Guard for eight years. "A lot of (Guard) soldiers were going to school, not knowing they were going to be called to active duty and have to defend their country."

Lessons on the road

Roadside bombs remain one of the greatest threats in Iraq, and to minimize the possibility of injury, U.S. soldiers on convoys are taught to drive about 150 feet from other vehicles, switch lanes for long stretches on highways and watch for insurgents, who sometimes drop gasoline bombs on vehicles from bridges.

Chaves said the 29th shipped about 800 Humvees and trucks to Texas for training, and the unit will pick up a large number of "up-armored" Humvees with thick steel armor and bullet-proof glass from the departing 81st Brigade in Kuwait.

"We'll be taking some equipment with us from Fort Bliss and Fort Polk to Kuwait and Iraq, but we're going to pick up the majority of our Humvees in Kuwait," he said.

The soldiers will spend at least a week at one of the U.S. camps in the desert of Kuwait practicing live-fire skills one last time before heading north as a motorized infantry unit.

"They accept (having to convoy) just as a way of doing business," Chaves said. "I don't think they look at it as anything different or anything special from any other mission they've got."

A week ago, Chaves returned from a reconnaissance of Kuwait and a day spent at LSA Anaconda in Balad. A 1st Division soldier died Monday in Balad when he was shot by a sniper while manning an observation post.

But Chaves said "it seemed to me stability was moving along pretty progressively in that area, and in talking to soldiers at Anaconda, they all felt pretty good about the situation and the way the countryside is developing in that area."

Lee, who is from Liliha, said "you learn about the enemy attack methods, the IEDs (improvised explosive devices). I'm worried mostly about IEDs because I think I'll be driving."

He's less worried about the Sunni Triangle, a region north and west around Baghdad.

"You hear all this bad stuff about it, but if you just do some research, some people say it's not that bad," Lee said.

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-5459.

21 posted on 10/31/2004 5:09:19 PM PST by unspun (RU working your precinct, churchmembers, etc. 4 good votes? | Not "Unspun w/ AnnaZ" but I appreciate)
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To: Former Military Chick
hmmmm...maybe we should cut domestic spending. Nah, lets just blame on that (small) tax cut for the evil rich people.
22 posted on 10/31/2004 5:09:20 PM PST by buckeyesrule
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To: Former Military Chick

I am serious. CBS needs to be dismantled. They are a curse on our democracy. The NYTimes is right up there too.


23 posted on 10/31/2004 5:09:49 PM PST by Obadiah (The media - doing their part to bring about a second civil war.)
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To: unspun

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/Sep/29/ln/ln06a.html


24 posted on 10/31/2004 5:10:06 PM PST by unspun (RU working your precinct, churchmembers, etc. 4 good votes? | Not "Unspun w/ AnnaZ" but I appreciate)
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To: Former Military Chick

I'm sure if we talked to WWII people they would have said they felt like they did not have all the equipment they felt they needed.


25 posted on 10/31/2004 5:10:29 PM PST by buckeyesrule
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To: saigon

Why even give them space on FR to talk about it?


26 posted on 10/31/2004 5:10:38 PM PST by ShandaLear (Vote Kerry! He knows what you've got and just who to give it to!)
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To: cwb

I taped it. I mean, this is who should I say this subliminal. Although lets think about the segments:

Arnold, Saturday Night Live and oh yeah the troops in Iraq led by a none caring President who doesn't care about their equiptment. HOG WASH.

But, the show probably brought in some voters as look at the demographics of tonights 60 minutes.


27 posted on 10/31/2004 5:10:47 PM PST by Former Military Chick (-"There's no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he doesn't mind who gets the credit.")
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To: buckeyesrule

And if memory serves Kerry voted against the 87 billion...


28 posted on 10/31/2004 5:11:11 PM PST by BladeLWS
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To: Former Military Chick

Um, didn't Kerry and Edwards both vote to defund the war?
This pretty much brings that campaign issue up about the $87 billion over and over.


29 posted on 10/31/2004 5:12:18 PM PST by mabelkitty (W is the Peoples' President ; Kerry is the Elite Establishment's President)
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To: Former Military Chick

Gee.....If certain presidential candidate would stop voting against the war funding.....just maybe....just maybe things just might go a little smoother!


30 posted on 10/31/2004 5:12:41 PM PST by R_Kangel ("Hey MR KERRY:....... After the election will BOTOX stocks Crash.)
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To: MisterRepublican

Nope they got it right for them. It was setup just as we saw it. I know it is old, but, the safety of our troops to some who feel this was not a just war, might find that a deal breaker for who they choose.

Instead of oh say the Supreme Court have appointees that sway to the left. ARG


31 posted on 10/31/2004 5:12:53 PM PST by Former Military Chick (-"There's no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he doesn't mind who gets the credit.")
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To: Alissa

Wonder why they didn't run their al-caca explosives story.


32 posted on 10/31/2004 5:13:53 PM PST by mabelkitty (W is the Peoples' President ; Kerry is the Elite Establishment's President)
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To: Former Military Chick

Wheeler says $2.8 billion that was earmarked for operations and maintenance to support U.S. troops has been used to "pay the pork bill."

 
Who are the PORKERS spending money for the military..??

33 posted on 10/31/2004 5:14:14 PM PST by Wolverine (A Concerned Citizen)
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To: Former Military Chick

Exactly,.....what ARE tactical Nuclear weapons used for in the field?


34 posted on 10/31/2004 5:14:19 PM PST by maestro
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To: Former Military Chick

Wait until Kroft, Hewitt and the rest of those DNC shills at cBS find out that the Marine Corps is still flying the same CH-46 used to evacuate the ambassador from the embassy in Saigon in April of 1975.


35 posted on 10/31/2004 5:14:46 PM PST by A.A. Cunningham
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To: ShandaLear


When the first transportation unit refused the assignment it was given to another. They accomplished the mission without incident.


36 posted on 10/31/2004 5:15:17 PM PST by gaspar
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To: BladeLWS
from link
Kerry's vote shows that he put his political career before the safety of our troops. He is the wrong man for the job.
37 posted on 10/31/2004 5:15:25 PM PST by igoramus987
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To: Former Military Chick

That is a contradictory statement.
Those who were opposed to the war aren't voting for Bush, so the funding of the equipment is a moot point.


38 posted on 10/31/2004 5:15:48 PM PST by mabelkitty (W is the Peoples' President ; Kerry is the Elite Establishment's President)
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Comment #39 Removed by Moderator

THE story that
ABC, AP, CBS, CNN, FOX, MSNBC, NBC, NY Times
DON'T WANT AMERICA TO KNOW!

John Kerry's Discharge
He won't sign Form 180
What is he hiding?

"There is overwhelming evidence that the Navy gave John Kerry either a dishonorable discharge
or an undesirable discharge – which is the equivalent of a dishonorable discharge
without the felony conviction – and that, as a result of such discharge,
he was stripped of all of his famous but questionable Navy awards and medals.

And the kicker? The evidence is on his website!"

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=41200

BUT
ABC, AP, CBS, CNN, FOX, MSNBC, NBC, NY Times
made sure you knew about the "Bush" documents.

Q) Why did
ABC, AP, CBS, CNN, FOX, MSNBC, NBC, NY Times
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A) Because they are AFRAID of the REAL story!

Don't let ABC, AP, CBS, CNN, FOX, NBC
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Kerry's October Surprise (Missippi Press)

http://www.gulflive.com/opinion/mississippipress/index.ssf?/base/opinion/109904493874180.xml

THE Next Smoking Gun - the "proof"

http://www.combatvetsagainstkerry.com/proof.htm

Kerry's Military Discharge. What's Kerry Hiding?

http://www.humaneventsonline.com/blog-buzzcut.php?range=10/24/2004+-+10/30/2004

Kerry's Dishonorable Discharge

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/markalexander/ma20041023.shtml

Editorial Comments about Kerry's Discharge

http://www.combatvetsagainstkerry.com/dischargeeditorials.htm

Kerry Military Discharge Deception, look at the online documentation!

http://www.combatvetsagainstkerry.com/discharge2.htm

Mystery Surrounds Kerry's Navy Discharge

http://www.nysun.com/article/3107

The original article, posted 9/24/04

http://www.combatvetsagainstkerry.com/discharge.htm

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Hanoi Approved of Role Played By Kerry and VVAW

http://www.nysun.com/article/3756

Timeline of John Kerry
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AND other valuable Video and Audio links.
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The Children of Viet Nam Veterans Video (Not an easy one to watch)

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Please watch this video

Thank You

http://kerrylied.com/otherdocs/flash.htm

Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick


40 posted on 10/31/2004 5:17:20 PM PST by 68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub (Nov 2 : Remember the 58,000 + Names on the Wall)
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