On Sat, 11 Mar 2006 10:23:24 -0500, "J. Clarke"
wrote:

wrote:


Cliff wrote:
On Fri, 10 Mar 2006 21:45:57 -0500, "Steve W." wrote:

GWB has been pushing increased money for the troops

BS.
He's cut a LOT from them.
Health care as just one example.
The cuts were in his proposed budgets.

But their parents can buy & send them body armor ....
--
Cliff

We never had "body armor." We had flak vests and helmets.

Maybe in the end it was a good thing that the Guard was deployed And
Refused To Follow Orders.

Now everyone has body armor.

This is the first war since the Middle Ages in which there was body armor
available that was good enough to be worth the effort of lugging it around.
While it _should_ have occurred to someone to issue it across the board I'm
not at all surprised that it didn't.

Not all personell in military MOS needed body armor. Truck mechanics
seldom needed body armor, as an example in most wars, as they were
generally way back behind the lines.

Ever wear body armor in high temperatures? As any cop how it feels to
wear the simple Level II wrap around vests in the summer time. Even
when they have air conditioned patrol cars.
Then put on a Level III-IV vest with chicken plate, along with your
LBE and try to operate in 115-125F temps for days at a time.

The Sandbox poses a unique set of requirements, as there are no lines
per se and even mechanics and computer geeks may be attacked by IEDs
simply going to work. Hence in the early stages, many MOS were not
thought to need body armor, same with up armor on Hummers etc, which
were pressed into combat rolls they were never designed to meet..that
of a armored scout vehicle.

Requirements change with the combat roll and the theater itself.

Gunner



"A prudent man foresees the difficulties ahead and prepares for them;
the simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences."
- Proverbs 22:3