LATimes: Soldier, bring your own body armor (re-post)

[protect freedom impeach bush now]

thanks to this article posted at DU.....my own brother-in-law
brought the lastest flak jacket with him to Iraq
for his protection.


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LATimes: Soldier, bring your own body armor


http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/093003E.shtml

Full Metal Jacket
By Jonathan Turley
Los Angeles Times | Editorial

Monday 29 September 2003

Why must Americans in Iraq face death because of outmoded body armor?

Suzanne Werfelman is a mother and a teacher who has been shopping for individual body armor. This is not in response to threats from her elementary-class students in Sciota, Pa.; it's a desperate attempt to protect her son in Iraq.

Like many other U.S. service members in Iraq, her son was given a Vietnam-era flak jacket that cannot stop the type of weapons used today. It appears that parents across the country are now purchasers of body armor because of the failure of the military to supply soldiers with modern vests.

Werfelman's son, Army Spc. Richard Murphy, is a military policeman in Iraq. He was also one of my law students last year before being sent off for a 20-month stint. Upon their arrival, members of Murphy's unit were shocked to learn that they would be given the old Vietnam-era vests rather than the modern Interceptor vest. (They were also given unarmored Humvees, which are vulnerable to even small-arms fire.) Military officials admit that the standard flak jacket could not reliably stop a bullet, including AK-47 ammunition, used in Iraq and the most common ammunition in the world.

Developed in the late 1990s, the Interceptor vest is made of layered sheets of Kevlar with pockets in front and back for ceramic plates to protect vital organs. These vests - one-third lighter than the old ones - have stopped machine-gun bullets, shrapnel and other ordnance.

They can mean the difference between living and dying...

MORE..........


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IF YOU HAVE FAMILY OR A FRIEND IN IRAQ MAKE SURE HE/SHE
HAS THIS JACKET ! Buy it now ! Get it to them ASAP !

SELL YOUR SOUL TO THE DEVIL, BUT GET IT TO THEM NOW !

[xchrom]

1. oh man

there are twists to these times we live in that give me stuff weird feelings. parents trying to protect their children in the armed services by buying flak jackets is one of those twists. it's sad to the point of the sureal. gives me the chills.