Pentagon Study Links Fatalities to Body Armor

NY Times ^ | January 7, 2006 | MICHAEL MOSS

[neverdem]

A secret Pentagon study has found that as many as 80 percent of the marines who have been killed in Iraq from wounds to the upper body could have survived if they had had extra body armor. Such armor has been available since 2003, but until recently the Pentagon has largely declined to supply it to troops despite calls from the field for additional protection, according to military officials.

The ceramic plates in vests now worn by the majority of troops in Iraq cover only some of the chest and back. In at least 74 of the 93 fatal wounds that were analyzed in the Pentagon study of marines from March 2003 through June 2005, bullets and shrapnel struck the marines' shoulders, sides or areas of the torso where the plates do not reach.

Thirty-one of the deadly wounds struck the chest or back so close to the plates that simply enlarging the existing shields "would have had the potential to alter the fatal outcome," according to the study, which was obtained by The New York Times.

For the first time, the study by the military's medical examiner shows the cost in lives from inadequate armor, even as the Pentagon continues to publicly defend its protection of the troops.

Officials have said they are shipping the best armor to Iraq as quickly as possible. At the same time, they have maintained that it is impossible to shield forces from the increasingly powerful improvised explosive devices used by insurgents in Iraq. Yet the Pentagon's own study reveals the equally lethal threat of bullets.

The vulnerability of the military's body armor has been known since the start of the war, and is part of a series of problems that have surrounded the protection of American troops. Still, the Marine Corps did not...

[neverdem]

U.S. Soldiers Question Use of More Armor AP version

[silentknight]

Yes but those service are saying that more would die because they wouldn't have the mobility.

I would listen to the men in the field. Not a study.

[icwhatudo]

[endthematrix]

3/8" tempered steel ain't gonna stop a 155mm round, lol! What sales rep could sell that?

[bybybill]

Could be wrong about this, but, is something missing about this?
Why would we send our guys out without adequate armor if it was available? Rove ain`t that dumb.

[Loud Mime]

[Loud Mime]

Armor doesn't always work......

[Echo Talon]

Looks like it needs a paint job... :D

[endthematrix]

Body armor ping

[neverdem]

3/8" tempered steel ain't gonna stop a 155mm round, lol! What sales rep could sell that?

Probably referring to protection from fragments of conventional HE rounds, from where the round detonates x meters, my guess 10 - 50, from the vehicle.

[A Balrog of Morgoth]

You keep adding more armor, eventually you end up with a pillbox instead of a vehicle.

[endthematrix]

Ah, I see that now. AH-64 Apache rotors are supposed to take 30mm fire - and I guess they have in combat without knocking out. I thought that was a pretty far-fetched tale.

[tallhappy]

Interesting how the Slimes and Hillary Clinton are so coordinated.

Well, not really interesting, rather simply blatant.

[ARealMothersSonForever]

Pentagon Study Links Fatalities to Body Armor

And here I was thinking it was the projectiles and schrapnel that was doing the killing and maiming......Next the NYT might conclude that active combat zones have a heightened chance of hostilities in which people get hurt and killed. I am shocked that they are not demanding better footwear and basic armor for the Hajji's to make it even. Exactly how were the Hajji's mortally wounded when they were stacking them like cordwood in Fallujah?

Let the men in the field decide what works. We invest a lot in the leadership in the field, and entrust them with our finest.

[WSGilcrest]

[vrwc0915]

If you are 100% covered than you can't move quickly. Mobility is always better, I would say that most that have been there and done that would agree. In an ideal world each piece of body armor would be sized to each Marine but that could never happen. About the only thing that could be better about the SAPI plates is if they had a but more thoracic protection but then you have trouble ducking your head. It's always a trade off. Rove has nothing to do with the USMC supply chain nor should he.

[Echo Talon]

AHHH the blue helmets are coming! :D

[Delta 21]

If you want Armor, you need to be in Armor.

[bybybill]

You don`t get it, Karl Rove is evil and he is responsible for the DEPARTMENT OF EVIL in the Bush administration.
You didn`t get the memo?

[Myrddin]

The best trauma plates will stop ONE .308 round. If you are lucky, it makes a straight on strike and you get to replace the plate. More often, an oblique strike on the plate ricochets into a limb, stomach or head. Surviving aimed rifle fire by virtue of body armor is mostly dumb luck. The typical vests do a very good job of turning a handgun round into a big, nasty cherry or broken bone. I've seen that on our local law enforcement officers after a SWAT operation with lots of .357mag flying.

The new SOP for attacking a hummer is to fire an RPG at the windshield. Armored glass may stop AK-47 (less powerful than an .308), but not an RPG. Many current IEDs are multiple 155mm rounds wired together.

None of this is very comforting as my son is a Lance Corporal in the USMC Reserves and drives a hummer as part of a medical/rescue unit. He has already spent time in Kuwait/Iraq and has another 18 months left on his current enlistment.