link to "Body Armor Purchase" post in LBN: Heartwrenching must-read story

[truthisfreedom]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=179388#179403

A grandmother posted a story of her grandson in Iraq asking for body armor to be shipped overseas because he hasn't been issued any... and his father purchased it for $900 and shipped it to him... this is unbelieveable! write your congresspeople!

[truthisfreedom]

1. bump!

[happyslug]

2. This is NOT new for the US Army.

When I enlisted into the National Guard in 1980, I was given the "M1956 Pack System", which had been replaced in the Regular Army by the ALICE pack system in 1964. Most of the unit had ALICE packs but a few of us did not. I than transferred from the PA National Guard to the Texas National Guard and found the same situation, again I was issued the "M1956 Pack System" because they also did not have enough ALICE packs to issue to all of the troops (And this was doing the height of Reagan's military buildup). Now the Guard did have military clothing stores where I could BUY an ALICE pack (and other items) but I was not issued an ALICE Pack till the Mid 1980s, 20 years after it was being issued to Regular Army troops (and about the time the Army started to replace it with its present pack).

Now Helmets and Body armor should have higher priority than backpacks, but how are you to carry your shelter half and other equipment the Army wants to you carry? The M1956 system was just a set of straps to wrap around the Sleeping bag with hooks to attach to a Ass-pack and to the front of your Web gear (It was useless, for I was issued ALICE web gear, where the M1956 system was designed to be used with the older H-web gear. The older web gear had hooks to attach the straps that you wrapped around the sleeping bag, thus the M1956 straps could be used to haul your shelter half etc, provided you had the older H-web gear which I did not have. The US Army at its best).

My point is the Army has a long history of UNDER FUNDING its equipment of troops it plans to send to the field. Rather than save money by NOT buying a new helicopters or tank, the Army saves money by NOT buying all of the PERSONAL equipment its soldiers needs. In my day it was cut funding for ALICE packs, in my father's day (During WWII) it was to give him two blankets to be used as a blanket roll (i.e. his spare uniform and boots etc rolled into the middle of his blankets and than the blankets rolled longways around them. Than the blanket was thrown over your back and the two ends tied around your waist, which was probably better than the M1956 system I was issued).

During WWII, Truman had his famous committee on waste that brought out such failures to supply our soldiers (After the Normandy Invasion My Father’s unit was issued proper field packs do to complaints that reached home on what they were using). During the Invasion of Grenada the Uniform used by the US Army was found to be deficient (The Nylon-Cotton BDU uniform had been reported to be to hot since it was issued in the early 1980s, but it worn like iron, thus the Army brass loved it). The problem with the Nylon-Cotton uniform came to ahead only do to the reporting of the problem to the soldier’s families who reported to ex-military people who ask the Army WHY? The Army only after hearing the complaints from the public did something about the problem, the Army started to issue “hot weather” BDUs that were a lot more comfortable in hot weather (These Hot Weather BDUs were thinner and 100% cotton just like the uniforms issued during Vietnam).

Thus the lack of equipment is nothing new, and will only be address if we the public keep bring it up to the Army and shame them into funding what the man on the ground needs in Iraq (If we can not get them out).