It's hard to believe with an enemy as stealthy and merciless as the Islamic terrorists, that the MSM prefers to spends most of it's time finding ways to demean the White House and our military morale. Indicative of this behavior was the ambush on Rumsfield during the soldiers Q & A - a set up by a Tennessee journalist.
Despite the underhanded presentation, the issue itself is certainly worthy of scrutiny. Yet the current flack over armor, as driven home by anti-Bush pundits and ilk, is far from a new story to the military. Six months ago the military had the Humvee Armor Suppliers Working Around the Clock to meet the increasing demands of combat commanders on the ground, adjusting to a changing threat.
In April 2004, Maj. Gen. John Sattler, Director of Operations for CENTCOM, said that their initial request for up-armored Humvees hovered at 1,000 vehicles. “As the enemy changed his tactics and techniques, we upped that number where we have now in theater about 2,500 up-armored Humvees,” he said during a press conference. “There are additional up-armored Humvees on contract that will flow in, approximately another 2,000 that will flow in between now and in December. So at that point, we’ll have approximately 4,500.”
He added that commanders on the ground asked for more help, quicker, so the production rate has increased. In addition, the Pentagon purchased and installed 8,000 up-armored kits to protect windshields and doors.
“It’s not a matter of resources, it’s a matter of how fast can we build these things and get them over here,” Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the joint chiefs, said during a May visit to Iraq.
The $87 billion Iraq War Supplemental Appropriations bill, passed at the end of Sept 2003 without John Kerry's support, allocated $65 billion for defense spending. Of that, somewhere around $16 million was for Humvee armor plating. Yet Armor Holdings, initially the military's sole contractor for the plating, did not receive that contract until May 2004.
Realizing that production and delivery schedules were less than optimum for the immediate needs, additional sources were added to respond to the military requests, ratcheting up production to 350 armored Humvee vehicles monthly. A Pentagon spokesman today says that production is up to about 450 a month.
As far back as 2003, another company - ArmorWorks - who produces add on kits for the Humvees, had sent engineers to Iraq to train soldiers on how to install the kits as a temporary measure.
While the plating increased the defense against machine gun fire and grenades, it created another problem...
But when the Army started reinforcing its Humvees in Iraq with armor plating late last year, it solved one problem while creating another: The 1-inch-thick plating and 3-inch-thick windows shut off all ventilation and trapped hot air, which under the harsh Iraqi sun can easily reach 160 degrees.
A big problem with the armored Humvees, said Austin [Laurie, production manager], was that soldiers rolled down the windows to cool off, making themselves more vulnerable to grenade attacks or shrapnel.
The military responded by awarding a $25 million contract to Red Dot for the first field installed air conditioners, producing up to 600 units a week.
The Army, meanwhile, wasn't standing back and twiddling it's thumbs. As a short term measure, they designed the V-BASS crew protection kit - a ceramic armor that is wrapped around the vehicle seat itself. These were shipped to Iraq as far back as December 2003.
My point? There sure is alot of ballyhoo on this subject out there. And I have no doubt the MSM will do it's usual tunnelvision, 24/7 coverage.
But the media has entered the picture late in the game, and conveniently sidesteps offering the viewing public the historic perspective.That being the issue was recognized and being addressed as far bac as a year ago, and implemented with as much speed as a gov't run bureauracy can muster.
Again the media, under the guise of being a "watch dog", does disservice to the country and it's WOT by trying to inflame distrust in the Commander in Chief, and demoralize any men and women that may be considering enlistment with our services.
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