Hell, the Corps still had many of these around for the heavy guns when I first joined the Fleet...My BLT was just getting the Hummers in, first thing we would do? Take off the doors.
Posted on 06/22/2005 4:33:32 PM PDT by Wiz
WASHINGTON — The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee blasted Marine Corps brass Tuesday for long delays in providing makeshift armor for the undercarriages of Humvees used by Marines in Iraq.
Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., said he is frustrated and furious that the underarmor was not made available until this month, even though the committee has been demanding it since February and the threat of roadside bombs has been apparent since last year.
“While you were waiting for the fancier stuff to arrive … they could have been putting this steel on and saving some lives,” he told Marine commanders at a hearing Tuesday. “… You couldn’t do everything you wanted, so you did nothing.”
Corps Assistant Commandant Gen. William Nyland said financial bureaucracy and confusion over available supplies were to blame for the delay, and he noted that this month 400 underbody kits have been rushed to units with unprotected vehicles.
But he acknowledged that service leaders should have done more to get the temporary protection to Marines in Iraq.
Maj. Gen. William Cato, commanding general of the Corps’ System Command, took personal responsibility for the delay, saying he did not monitor and speed up the contract to purchase and cut the steel needed for the temporary plates.
Last year, Marines who had served in Iraq approached committee members with basic plans to cut and bolt steel plates to the undercarriage of vehicles, to protect from shrapnel from roadside bomb attacks.
Hunter said he presented those ideas to Marine commanders in February, but Corps leaders did not move on the plans until last month, when one of Hunter’s staff located extra steel plates in a Kuwait storage facility.
(Excerpt) Read more at stripes.com ...
Sir, NO Excuse Sir!
Adapt, improvise, overcome.
Oooorah!
There is a big maintenance shop in northern Maine that refurbishes the Hummer. They fly a C-5 in loaded, drop off the Humvees, and they are refurbished and flown back over to the ME.
Blood on his hands. I'm sure he'll submit his resignation any day now (sarcasm)
Scavaging and Cannabilizing worked in my day.
Screw the brass.
What a total fluster cuck...but what else in new in wars?
"Spider" Nyland was my classmate at Quantico in 1968. I'll put him up against ant congress-critter, even Duncan Hunter. You'll never find a straighter shooter than Nyland.
In the entire history of the US military we have always had thin skinned wheeled vehicles. The press acts like we never should have sent un- armored Hummvees into combat when the truth is we never had armored Hummvees before. The armoring of wheeled vehicles is a response to what we encountered in Iraq; not a result of a lack of planning.
Hell, the Corps still had many of these around for the heavy guns when I first joined the Fleet...My BLT was just getting the Hummers in, first thing we would do? Take off the doors.
Amen.
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