Families chip in for flak jackets

New Zealand Herald ^ | 10/02/03 | Andrew Gumbel

[jaykay]

Thursday October 02, 2003

Families chip in for flak jackets

02.10.2003 - By ANDREW GUMBEL in Los Angeles

United States soldiers in Iraq are so short of up-to-date flak jackets - often the difference between survivable injury and death in combat - that their families back home have begun buying them out of their own pocket.

Campaigners for military families opposed to the continuing occupation angrily denounced the lack of adequate protection yesterday, calling it "outrageous" and part of a pattern of general failure to provide adequate supplies to the troops almost five months after the formal end of the war in Iraq.

Richard Myers, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, has acknowledged the shortage of up-to-date Kevlar jackets but said he could not promise to have them universally available until December.

Many - perhaps most - soldiers are wearing Vietnam-era flak jackets, which are heavier and unable to withstand rounds from AK-47 automatic rifles, the most common ammunition in Iraq.

"The word cannon fodder keeps coming to mind," said Charlie Richardson, co-founder of the group Military Families Speak Out.

"This shows a fundamental lack of respect for the military. If you don't take care of your troops in these basic ways, you're really saying they're throwaway."

Richardson's group has received numerous stories of mothers spending hundreds of dollars on either jackets or individual protective plates for their sons in Iraq.

One sergeant with the 3rd Armoured Cavalry Regiment, Zachariah Byrd, recently survived being shot four times by an AK-47, thanks to a kind fellow soldier who lent him his Kevlar Interceptor jacket. The jacket he had been issued probably would not have saved his life.

"For many GIs, Iraq appears to be a strictly BYOB war - Bring Your Own Bulletproofs," Jonathan Turley, a professor at George Washington Law School, wrote this week.

He estimated the cost of updating the flak jackets at less than US$100 million.

[jaykay]

Surely we can add $100 Million for decent flak jackets to the $87 Billion for ongoing ops in Iraq and Afghanistan?

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[KantianBurke]

"Myers, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, has acknowledged the shortage of up-to-date Kevlar jackets but said he could not promise to have them universally available until December."

This is outrageous! We can give away $15 BILLION taxpayer dollars for AIDS in Africa but our troops don't have kelvar jackets? Disgusting!

[Tin-Legions]

The new armor vests, first used by the Rangers, is indeed "bullet-proof" when the ballistic plates are installed in the vest (they are removable-see "Black Hawk Down"). Most of us CS and CSS, along with ALO 2 CA active and reserve units still use the Kevlar vest from the 70's, with only fragmentary protection. Still better than nothing, and the wear of protective gear is strongly enforced in Iraq. Many lives saved by both. I'll take a wild guess and say the KIA numbers would be double or even more had the junior leaders not strongly enforced their use.

This article does sound like another anti-military hit-piece, though. The US military goes way out of it's way to ensure troop safety, we could do better (better armored convoy vehicles, body armor, the like) but no one else in the world does nearly as well!

[jaykay]

The US military goes way out of it's way to ensure troop safety, we could do better (better armored convoy vehicles, body armor, the like) but no one else in the world does nearly as well!

I beleive that, but if we can do even better, we should, especially considering what we are spending. Another $100 million is nothing next to $87 billion.

[laconic]

Would someone tell me why we have billions of dollars for top-end prisons and planned communities in Iraq and no money for protective vests for our own troops? One more crazy thing about a crazy war.

[niteowl77]

Andrew Gumbel's agit-prop works pretty good on FR these days, doesn't it?

[bitcon]

Ya just look at Canada. We are so short of flak jackets that we stripped our soldiers in Bosnia to let our soldiers in Afghanistan have them. These are full time soldiers not reserves so it's not like all full time soldiers have them.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Many - perhaps most - soldiers are wearing Vietnam-era flak jackets, which are heavier and unable to withstand rounds from AK-47 automatic rifles, the most common ammunition in Iraq.

Who defecated this manure? R. Lee Ermey proved just the opposite on his show, "Mail Call" on the History Channel. They shot various flak jackets and showed that Vietnam-era flak jackets do not stop AK-47 rounds.

[jaykay]

Not providing soldiers we send to war with the best available equipment is shamefull. As for Andrew Gumbel, if we did the right thing to begin with and outfitted those troops with the state of the art, he would have no material for 'agit-prop' would he? We leave enough nuts lying around, even blind squirrels will find a few.

[jaykay]

They shot various flak jackets and showed that Vietnam-era flak jackets do not stop AK-47 rounds.

Isn't that the point of the article?

[niteowl77]

This is just another Andrew Gumbel hit piece in conjunction with MFSO (the MF part is sure on target) and some other leftist partisans pretending to give a shit about the American military. My son wears the "flak jacket" when necessary, because the overall threat to him is fragments, not small arms fire. It also happens to be what was in inventory at the time.

[niteowl77]

IMHO, you are in danger of playing the role of manure spreader anytime you post a Gumbel piece. And that shame is yours.

[jaykay]

Whoever this Gumbel is, I found the link at World Net Daily, that shamefull manure spreading leftist web site.

[niteowl77]

WND? I'm shocked, I tell you!

Agendas make strange bedfellows, don't they? Take the time to do a more thorough search on Andrew Gumbel (it won't be hard, because he is a busy little lad), then if you can honestly tell me that his deepest solicitations are with the American soldier, feel free to FReep mail me with a short synopsis of why you feel that way.

[jaykay]

Gen. Myers' acknowledges that there aren't enough of the up-to-date flak jackets. Gumbel may be using this for his own purposes, but that doesn't change the facts.

What agenda would WND have that would put them in bed with Gumbel?

[CPOSharky]

...five months after the formal end of the war in Iraq.

Yo, Andy, who signed the peace treaty to put a "formal end" to the war? It was the "end of major hostilities." If you can't get this simple thing right why should anyone believe anything you write.

Of course if you keep repeating "formal end of the war" some idiots will start believing it.

[milemark]

Why would WND run this story if it's bunk? I had seen some criticism of them elsewhere but never paid much attention. Is something up at WND?

[tbpiper]

Military Families Speak Out = whining, leftist pissants. Next complaint...kevlar too heavy. I wish they would just shut up and stop helping the bad guys.

[niteowl77]

Facts? "Facts" in this piece are like corn in a cowpie. It might be edible, but the rest of the conglomeration makes the point moot. If you want to spend all day flacking for Andrew Gumbel, I can't stop you- I can only despise you.
Mission accomplished.

As for WND, are you a newbie there too?