Many Missteps Tied to Delay in Armor for Troops in Iraq

[BBond]

There has been much written and even more said about the failure of the military to provide our troops in Iraq with the equipment they need to survive. Especially the lack of body armor.

New information published in the NY Times this morning highlights the scandalous details of the U.S. military's incompetence on what one would think would be among their highest priorities.

Yet Dumsfeld, one of the main architects of this catastrophe, has the nerve to tell troops, "You go to war with the army you have," in response to the incompetence and outright criminal negligence of the Pentagon in providing body armor and properly armored combat vehicles for the troops they are putting in harms' way to combat a threat that didn't even exist.

Will any heads roll? Hell no. This is the Bush administration.

The Times' article is too long to post in its entirety. Just read this excerpt and prepare to get sick.

Full article HERE.

By MICHAEL MOSS

Published: March 7, 2005

The war in Iraq was hardly a month old in April 2003 when an Army general in charge of equipping soldiers with protective gear threw the brakes on buying bulletproof vests.

The general, Richard A. Cody, who led a Pentagon group called the Army Strategic Planning Board, had been told by supply chiefs that the combat troops already had all the armor they needed, according to Army officials and records from the board's meetings. Some 50,000 other American soldiers, who were not on the front lines of battle, could do without.

In the following weeks, as Iraqi snipers and suicide bombers stepped up deadly attacks, often directed at those very soldiers behind the front lines, General Cody realized the Army's mistake and did an about-face. On May 15, 2003, he ordered the budget office to buy all the bulletproof vests it could, according to an Army report. He would give one to every soldier, "regardless of duty position."

But the delays were only beginning. The initial misstep, as well as other previously undisclosed problems, show that the Pentagon's difficulties in shielding troops and their vehicles with armor have been far more extensive and intractable than officials have acknowledged, according to government officials, contractors and Defense Department records.

In the case of body armor, the Pentagon gave a contract for thousands of the ceramic plate inserts that make the vests bulletproof to a former Army researcher who had never mass-produced anything. He struggled for a year, then gave up entirely. At the same time, in shipping plates from other companies, the Army's equipment manager effectively reduced the armor's priority to the status of socks, a confidential report by the Army's inspector general shows. Some 10,000 plates were lost along the way, and the rest arrived late.

In all, with additional paperwork delays, the Defense Department took 167 days just to start getting the bulletproof vests to soldiers in Iraq once General Cody placed the order. But for thousands of soldiers, it took weeks and even months more, records show, at a time when the Iraqi insurgency was intensifying and American casualties were mounting.

By contrast, when the United States' allies in Iraq also realized they needed more bulletproof vests, they bypassed the Pentagon and ordered directly from a manufacturer in Michigan. They began getting armor IN JUST 12 DAYS. (emphasis added)

The issue of whether American troops were adequately protected received wide attention in December, when an Army National Guard member complained to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld that troops were scrounging for armor to fortify their Humvees and other vehicles. The Pentagon has maintained that it has moved steadfastly to protect all its troops in Iraq.

But an examination of the issues involving the protective shielding and other critical equipment shows how a supply problem seen as an emergency on the ground in Iraq was treated as a routine procurement matter back in Washington.

 

[Starbuck1975]

Will any heads roll? Hell no. This is the Bush administration

The heads that should roll are the Congressmen and Senators who have introduced so much red tape and pork barrel spending into the Army procurement system, such that the interests of politicians come before the needs of our soldiers.

And our elected representatives from both sides of the political spectrum are equally guilty of it.

 

[Genx87]

No surprise. It took them all of WWII before they could finally get a tank that wasnt target practice for the German gunners in WWII. The M-26 showed up late with mechanical difficulties.

 

[Grunt03]

Ok, I have just read the entire article, yes it is good reading but it has all been said before. The bad thing here is it has happened in the past, it's happening now and it will continue to happen.
Why, because the Army is out of control, they are to heavy and like to the old saying " To many Chiefs not enough Indains". Even with all of the problems being stated, all of the problems will continue to happen. If you want to solve the problem, re-structure the entire Army, this time start from the bottom up, and when you come to a position or a rank not needed, they walk away then and there.

grunt03 sends........

 

[yllus]

Gosh BBond, it is rather surprising to see you so worried about the state of military equipment - considering how little you think of those with military training.

Gasp. The massive bureaucracy of the Army is slowing down equipment acquisition. Clearly a fault of the current administration when the order is simply one vest per every soldier regardless of duty position. :roll:

 

[maluckey]

No army has ever gone to war with what it wants. They get what the supply chain gives them, and as we all know, that is SLOW. You can either give them everything and let the prices fall where they may, or go by the standardized procedure and get it when it gets there. Damned if you do or don't, so the govt. doesn't.

It's the whiners that make it so. They whine if the Army spends one penny extra, but also whine if the contract goes to the lowest (and likely slowest) bidder. Make your choice and stand by it. You can't have it your way and not your way at the same time.

 

[Starbuck1975]

Gasp. The massive bureaucracy of the Army is slowing down equipment acquisition. Clearly a fault of the current administration when the order is simply one vest per every soldier regardless of duty position.

The bloated military bureaucracy precedes this Administration, although you can fault this Administration for not cutting the red tape considering it was this Administration that sent us to war.

Then again, the military supply chain during the Clinton Administration and the great Balkans adventure was not any better...only distinction was that no one was shooting at us there, but our soldiers deserve the best regardless of the nature of the deployment.

We actually received better and faster service through Brown & Root, a subsidy of Halliburton, while deployed in the Balkans...far more efficient to contract services out to a profit driven private company then rely on the government's antiquated supply system.