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  • From: "Toni Hawryluk" <tonihawr AT msn.com>
  • To: "Homestead mailing list" <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Homestead] following orders ....
  • Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2004 16:00:55 -0700

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002068719_truckarmor21m.html



Thursday, October 21, 2004 - Page updated at 01:21 A.M.



Lack of vehicle armor keeps troops on edge

By Hal Bernton<mailto:hbernton AT seattletimes.com>
Seattle Times staff reporter



For Sgt. Joseph Bryson, driving an unarmored 10-ton truck across Iraq was
like Russian roulette. In 15 months of duty, a bomb went off next to his rig
and several bullets narrowly missed as they whizzed in through an open side
window.



"The lack of armor was a big concern," said Bryson, who returned home to
Okanogan in August along with the rest of the 1161st Transportation Company
of the Washington Army National Guard. "Multiple trucks had bullet holes, in
the seat, in the windshields and the cabs."



The plight of Army truck drivers in Iraq received national attention last
week when 18 Army Reserve soldiers defied an order to go out on a convoy, in
part out of a concern about a lack of armor.



The hazards of driving Iraq roads in unarmored trucks have been evident for
more than a year, prompting many units to sandbag the floors of their cabs
and weld on extra steel plating, dubbed "hillbilly armor."



Only in recent months has the U.S. military moved to systematically upgrade
the truck fleet, which ferries food, fuel and ammunition to 135,000 troops.



That effort involves adding armor and ballistic windshields and beefing up
the cabs' undercarriages, which sometimes bear the brunt of roadside bombs.
The upgrades also will improve suspensions to carry the extra weight of the
armor, and add air conditioning so soldiers don't bake in sealed confines.



But the effort is far from complete, with the timeline for production and
installation extending at least to March, according to congressional and
military officials.



The truck overhaul reflects a broader rethinking of U.S. military operations
in Iraq. Military planners had hoped the post-invasion Iraq would be
relatively peaceful, and that the vulnerable trucks that make up the bulk of
the transportation fleet could operate with little risk of hostile fire. But
every time U.S. convoys venture out from fortified bases, they face the
possibility of roadside bombs, rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire.



To help troops survive these attacks, the military-contracted upgrades
include:

Adding armor kits to at least 2,806 medium-weight trucks. As of Sept. 17,
just 385 of the "up-armor" kits had been produced and shipped to Iraq,
according to the House Armed Services Committee.

Adding the armor kits to at least 1,600 heavyweight trucks. As of Sept. 17,
just 446 armor kits for these trucks had been sent to Iraq, according to the
committee.



The upgrade is expected to include some of the trucks used by the Washington
Army National Guard's 81st Brigade, which has about 3,500 soldiers stationed
at bases in Iraq and Kuwait.



"When our troops will get those armor kits is hard to say - it's going to be
determined on need," said Master Sgt. Jeff Clayton, a spokesman for the
Washington National Guard.



The truck-armor overhaul has had congressional watch-dogging, with both
Republicans and Democrats at times critical of the pace of military efforts
to protect the troops.



"We got an acquisition system that absolutely has a case of the slows. You
guys can't tie your shoelaces," Rep. Duncan Hunter, a California Republican
who is chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said last spring.



Army officials say they are acting to upgrade the vehicles now in Iraq as
well as those headed for deployment. In an April hearing before Hunter's
committee, Acting Undersecretary Michael Wynne said these tasks involved
testing new designs, ramping up production and ensuring efficient delivery.
But he acknowledged that "there are some things that we could do better."



Contractors say they are fully engaged in the effort.



"The government is putting constant pressure on us, asking us to produce as
many as we possibly can," said Bob Mecredy, president of the Aerospace &
Defense Group of Armor Holdings, a subcontractor involved in the production
of the new kits. "We're adding several thousand pounds of weight, and it
takes a fair amount of engineering to come up with the protection that is
needed and still allows the missions to be completed."



It is not clear how many of the more than 1,100 U.S. military deaths in Iraq
involved soldiers traveling in unarmored vehicles.

The military also is boosting protection on Humvees. Early in the occupation,
some of the biggest risks involved thousands of unarmored Humvees, which were
frequently used in patrols and as convoy escorts. As the insurgency flared in
the spring and summer of 2003, these Humvees proved easy targets for
insurgents.



As casualties mounted, soldiers turned to improvised methods of
reinforcement. Meanwhile, angry parents of dead and wounded soldiers helped
prod Congress - and the military - to speed up production of the armor kits.



"Our son called us a week before he was killed and told us that they were
exceedingly vulnerable in these unarmored Humvees, and were going to get
ambushed," said Brian Hart, of Bedford, Mass., whose 20-year-old son, John,
died in an ambush a year ago this week.



The drive to beef up the Humvees gained momentum last winter as the Army
contracted for thousands of armor kits. Currently, the Army plans to put
armor kits on more than 8,300 of the Humvees in Iraq. That job is roughly 60
percent complete, and has included the armoring of all the Humvees used on
patrol by the Washington Guard's 81st Brigade. The entire Humvee armoring job
is expected to be finished in March, according to the Army.



In a news conference Monday in Baghdad, Brig. Gen. Jim Chambers, commander of
the 13th Corps Support Command, said soldiers had been working hard to add
steel protection to some 4,000 trucks in four brigades.



"We've come a long, long way in 10 months," Chambers said. The brigade that
included the soldiers involved in last week's disobedience, for example, had
80 percent of its trucks reinforced with extra steel, according to a
transcript of his remarks.

Chambers said he was proud of the 13th Corps record, which involved 75,000
missions since April. During those missions, the Corps suffered 26 deaths.



"I take everyone of those fatalities personally, but most of the missions
have gone on with success."



The Washington Army Guard's 1161st Transportation Co. served under the 13th
Support Corps during its Iraq duty that ended in August. Six of the soldiers
were significantly wounded, but there were no deaths among the more than 100
men and women in the unit.



On June 12, 2003 - early on in their duty - the 1161st soldiers were
sensitized to the dangers of the unarmored vehicles when a bomb concealed in
a black plastic bag exploded beneath a truck cab. The attack seriously
injured Spc. Audra Hauer and Sgt. Jeff Elliott, who continues to suffer
severe back pain.



Bryson - the soldier from Okanogan - said that in the months that followed,
the unit's truckers thought about fortifying the cabs with steel. But, Bryson
said, the unit couldn't secure metal or welders to tackle the task. And there
were fears that the added weight might increase the chance of mechanical
breakdowns in hostile territory.



So, the convoy trucks ventured out each day with unarmored cabs. They used
sandbags to fortify the floor of the cabs, and attempted to scout for hostile
forces with rifles poked out of the side windows.



"I can honestly say that the good Lord rode with us - every day," Bryson
said.



Hal Bernton: 206-464-2581 or
hbernton AT seattletimes.com<mailto:hbernton AT seattletimes.com>



  • [Homestead] following orders ...., Toni Hawryluk, 10/21/2004

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