AP Enterprise: Soldiers Beef Up Humvees

yahoo news ^ | 1-13-06

[LouAvul]

TIKRIT, Iraq - Soldiers exposed to Iraq's increasingly lethal roadside bombs, which can rip through armored Humvees, are drawing on wartime experience and stateside expertise to protect their vehicles with stronger armor and thermal detection cameras.

The upgrades are being done by individual soldiers and units as the Pentagon decides how Humvees should be changed, and follow public criticism of the Bush administration for not armoring all Humvees ahead of the war.

Nearly three years after rolling into Iraq in trucks covered in many instances only by canvas roofs, the 101st Airborne Division's 3rd Brigade is adding extra layers of armor to its Humvees.

Col. Michael Steele, the brigade's commander, said he ordered the improvements because the insurgents' roadside bombs — known to the military as "improvised explosive devices" — have become bigger and harder to detect.

"The responsibility of the commander is to figure out what we need to respond to this evolving threat. The easiest, the fastest and most appropriate answer is add additional armor," Steele said.

[LouAvul]

Poor guys. Seems like the military should provide all necessary equipment.

[Onelifetogive]

Poor guys. Seems like the military should provide all necessary equipment.

Problem is, a wily enemy will always attack whatever is vulnerable. War is a constant effort at discovering where your enemy is exposed and attempting to cover your exposed areas that the enemy has discovered.

[Rooivalk]

Poor guys. Seems like the military should provide all necessary equipment.
Its called being field expedient. Our people are the best at it where we adapt,improvise and overcome
Nobody can forecast every situation. You must be ready to be flexible and overcome

[Doe Eyes]

a wily enemy

I'll have to check, but I think they only politically correct term in this forum is "terrorist".

[randomnumber]

"Poor guys. Seems like the military should provide all necessary equipment."

As posted upthread, soldiers adapt to changing situations.

In the second war soldiers welded steel to the front of tanks to assist in breaking up hedgerows after the invasion of Normandy, and pieces of angle iron to the bumper of jeeps to make wire cutters to automatically cut wire stretched across roads.

For every threat, our guys try to work out a solution, and for every solution their guys try to work out a counter.

Given that; I'll trust our guys to be more ingenious.

[Onelifetogive]

a wily enemy

I'll have to check, but I think they only politically correct term in this forum is "terrorist".

I meant "wily", as in Coyote...

[AxelPaulsenJr]

Reminds how our guys in WWII used the German's own anti tank steel from the D-day invasion beaches and attached them to the front of our tanks. Just enabling our tanks to break out of the hedge row country in France.

[Ramius]

While other soldiers take the doors off their humvees to have a clear field of fire.

Improvise, adapt, overcome.

The AP would have you believe we should have lost WWII since we didn't armor the jeeps.

[Ace of Spades]

Sad how many conservatives are gung-ho for the troops until the time comes to shell out some cash and give them real equipment. Then they're on their own.

War is expensive. We should either do what it takes or get the hell out.

[ARealMothersSonForever]

"All the stupid ones are dead," said Capt. Jamey Turner of Baton Rouge, La., a brigade commander in Beiji.

From the bottom of the article. Talking about the stupid hajji's.

[ruschpa]

I think the problem is that if an insurgent has the ability to get his hands on as much explosives as he wants, he can destroy any humvee, no matter how well protected it is. Instead of using 1 landmine, they can just stack 3 or 4 landmins on top of each other... no vehicle in the world can stop a blast like that. In addition these humvees weren't made to carry that much armor, it puts too much of physical strain on it...
It's really tough situation...

[ReignOfError]

In the second war soldiers welded steel to the front of tanks to assist in breaking up hedgerows after the invasion of Normandy, and pieces of angle iron to the bumper of jeeps to make wire cutters to automatically cut wire stretched across roads.

And in Vietnam, cargo trucks with improvised armor and armament became convoy escorts. The folks on the ground can often figure out an answer in less time than it takes the question to wend its way up the chain of command.

[Joe 6-pack]

""All the stupid ones are dead," said Capt. Jamey Turner of Baton Rouge, La., a brigade commander in Beiji."

If we have Captains commanding brigades, things have gotten far more desperate than we're being told...Luckily, I think it's the reporter who's stupid and (brain)dead.

[BubbaBobTX]

Yes you are so right I can remember getting several lifts in Viet Nam when the Army copter jock was sitting on his flack jacket. One enterprising guy actually had taken several jackets and stitched himself a little bucket with duck tape. Its called improvisation....and never failed to put a smile on my face.

[randomnumber]

"The folks on the ground can often figure out an answer ....."

And the media can often figure out a way to report things in such a way to reinforce the knowledge of their stupidity.

[randomnumber]

That didn't come out right.

I mean the media's stupidity.

[Isaac19delta]

You seem to have much conviction in the words you speak, but are your written words backed with knowledge or lack of bias?

While I do believe our spending should have more money directed towards sending our troopers extra material for use to beef up their units defense, I am not sure if they aren't already through the channels of command. As a commander can request additional materials and receive them if they are needed. I will have to do some research on that later.

The majority of main stream media has always reported half truths and miss leading information to the American public. You can't believe they are that ignorant, so the only thing left to believe is that they have their own agenda.

I'm sure you recall the large body armor story that raged across the nation. Where civilians at home were sending extra bullet proof vests to the soldiers over seas. While I'm sure they put them to use, as you always can in a situation like that, it wasn't as bad as they led you to believe.

The soldiers were all wearing armored vests, it is part of your issued equipment when deployed to a war zone. However, not all of them had the newest armor out there, which was the interceptor armor. Which had to be supplied to units that didn't have them yet, which takes time. If you had ever spent time in the military, you would know how the supply is.

But, how about you look at it from a political stand point. Say Bush ops to send more money towards Iraq for our troops. Even though it is the right thing to do, you know that the far left will jump on it like flies on a pile of crap. Talking about how Iraq is such a quagmire, and a bottomless pit to throw money in. As I recall, John Kerry and a few other libs voted against a large sum of money to be sent to Iraq for the troops, and not a one conservative voted against it.

Like said above, soldiers will always face new problems in the field, and do adapt and over come. That is war, and if you think it is any different, you would be wrong.