Same Old Story: Combat Gear Comes Too Late

[thedrifter]

11-14-2003

From the Editor:

Same Old Story: Combat Gear Comes Too Late

By Ed Offley



I wish I could be secretary of Defense for one day.



I wouldn?t spend the time enjoying the secretary?s posh E-Ring office in the Pentagon. I wouldn?t pass my time watching the Old Guard passing in review (enjoyable though that ceremony always is). I wouldn?t even spend the day touring a major military base such as Fort Bragg or the Norfolk Naval Station.



No ? what I would do is prepare and launch a major missile strike.



My target would be the Pentagon?s acquisition bureaucracy, whose overall ineptitude and sloth is indirectly responsible for more American casualties in Iraq than one can count.



Eleven months after the United States started its final ramp-up to war against the Iraqi regime, and six months after major combat operations were declared over on May 1, our troops on the ground in Iraq still lack many basic items of equipment essential to keeping them alive in the ongoing guerrilla war.



Item: Out of desperation, a New Jersey Army National Guard trooper home on his two-week R&R trip went public on a local talk-radio show to reveal that he and other soldiers are being sent into combat areas with substandard body armor.



Spc. Joseph Fabozzi said that most Guardsmen sent to Iraq were issued older vests that can stop a well-thrown knife but not an AK-47 round. He added that a number of troops have resorted to using confiscated Iraqi army body armor vests because the Pentagon has failed to deliver sufficient numbers of the state-of-the-line Interceptor Body Armor (IBA) protective gear.



Don?t worry, though. The Pentagon bureaucrats and National Guard chain of command are very much aware of the problem. So much aware that they ordered troops going on R&R to sign an agreement not to discuss the problem with the news media.



Item: More than 3,000 soldiers from the 81st Infantry Brigade, Washington Army National Guard, were scrambling this week to prepare for deployment to Iraq. So too, were their family members.



But the wives, moms and dads were not scurrying around to throw a last-minute farewell party or dinner for their loved ones. Rather, they were scouring hunting supply stores and Army-Navy stores for desert boots and other basic supplies that a reasonable person would think is standard issue for a National Guard soldier deploying to the Middle East. Apparently, not so: The parents of Spec. Brian Lange told the Olympian newspaper in Washington state that they were forced to buy him a flashlight, socks, a utility belt, binoculars and sunglasses because the Guard supply chain had failed to come through.



Item: A fleet of Army CH-47 Chinook helicopters from the Illinois and Iowa National Guard was unprepared for action when it arrived in Iraq in June, according to Sen. Richard Durbin, D-IL.



After a Pentagon briefing this week, Durbin told reporters he has received a half-dozen e-mails from pilots and other military officials familiar with the Chinook helicopters in Iraq. The Chicago Tribune reported that one email alleged that the ?aircraft survivability equipment? was not up to date to contend with the latest infrared missile technology.



Of the 14 helicopters in the Guard unit that departed home base for Iraq, only three were equipped with working, standard ALQ-156 anti-missile systems, Durbin said. Another six helicopters were rigged with the ALQ-156 gear prior to deployment, but of the nine systems, six were irreparably damaged in transit.



Not to worry, though: The Chinook that was shot down by an Iraqi shoulder-fired missile, killing 16 soldiers and wounding another 21, did have an ALQ-156 system aboard, Army officials told the Tribune. (Whether it was working or not remains to be seen.)



Pentagon officials say they are working real hard to get all of the troops in Iraq the proper uniforms and desert boots needed to perform effectively. The Pentagon reportedly is accelerating deployment of a newer anti-missile system, the ALE-47, for helicopters dodging Iraqi MANPAD missiles.



And don?t worry: The IBA body armor issue is also under control, we are advised. While Pentagon spokesmen this week confirmed thousands of troops still lack the new IBA body armor, plans are firmly in place to outfit all 125,000 U.S. soldiers in Iraq with the new protective gear ? by December.



Now, where are the launch codes for those missiles?



Ed Offley is Editor of DefenseWatch. He can be reached at dweditor@yahoo.com.

http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/c...65629856894886


Sempers,

Roger