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Extra Armor for Troops Still in Storage, now Pentagon refuses to use it- worried about liability
by Open-Publishing - Thursday 6 January 20056 comments
Edito Wars and conflicts International USA
OCALA, Fla. — One of the big complaints from troops in Iraq is lack of armor for their vehicles, but a campaign to collect armor in Central Florida was apparently a wasted effort.
Marion County Sheriff Ed Dean and other sheriffs around the state of Florida started gathering old bullet-proof vests last February to send to American troops, WESH NewsChannel 2 reported.
The vests were meant to provide yet another layer of armor for Humvees and other vehicles vulnerable to roadside explosions. NewsChannel 2 has learned those vests are still sitting in storage in Ocala, and they may never be used by the military.
Sgt. Fred Chisholm said he is glad to be back on the job as a sheriff’s patrol deputy. A year ago, he was a sergeant in the Army Reserves serving as a military policeman with others from the 351st military police company in some of the hottest spots in and around Baghdad.
"I was just trying to take care of the troops and make sure everybody got home in one piece," he said.
The motivation to protect his troops started a firestorm of controversy when he sent a simple e-mail he sent his boss — the sheriff — asking for help protecting his troops.
"First Sgt. Fred Chisholm e-mailed me and said, ’Sheriff, if you can help me get these vests, my men can use them,’" Dean said.
So, Dean helped collect 1,400 old bullet-proof vests from other sheriffs around the state. They intended to use the vests to help further armor the troops’ Humvees and other vehicles. The only trouble was that the vests, though still useful, were old and they were well past their guaranteed lifetime.
"It’s not to be used as a ballistic vest. They already have those. That’s never been the question. It’s this interim before they have the up-armored equipment. Why can’t we, as Americans, say, ’We’ve got war material, let’s get it to our boys?’" Dean said.
But instead of using them, the vests still sit in storage at the 351st headquarters in Ocala, and troops in Iraq, who are still pleading for more armor to protect them, have never seen the vests.
"I mean, any extra armor that would help further arm the vehicles would be a great help," Chisholm said.
Several people who serve in the Reserves told NewsChannel 2 that the Pentagon now says they won’t send the vests at all, even for training, because the vests are past the date the maker has guaranteed them and the Army is worried about liability if someone got hurt.
Dean vows to somehow get the extra help to the troops who need it.
WESH TV Channel 2, Florida
http://www.wesh.com/news/4047986/de...
Forum posts
6 January 2005, 05:49
Hello....bring the little bastards home NOW, that should take care of this and other non-problems as well as the real problem: that we should not be there in the first place. We have no business being over there, we are not freeing the Iraqis of anything but their lives and their country. We don’t even have democracy here, so how in the hell are we going to teach them what we do not even know ourselves?
6 January 2005, 08:19
Amen. Good thought process there...contact that idiot Bush and tell him to bring our troops home. Plain, simple message that the simpleton should be able to grasp.
6 January 2005, 18:48
It is totally wrong for you to refer to our brave men as "little bastards". This is very offensive.
These are brave men who are doing their duty and following their leaders.
They are not responsible for the fact that the American Nazi party has taken over the Republican party and the resulting coup.
7 January 2005, 01:56
Yes I totally agree with you!! Send them home!!
8 January 2005, 15:28
Thursday 6th January 2005 by Stephen Stock
It is totally wrong for you to refer to our brave men as "little bastards". This is very offensive.
These are brave men who are doing their duty and following their leaders.
They are not responsible for the fact that the American Nazi party has taken over the Republican party and the resulting coup.
On the contrary Stephen, these men and women are NOT doing their duty.
Please advise us all, where it says in the U.S. Constitution, it’s their duty to fight and die on behalf of their CORPORATE MASTERS ???????????????????????????????????????????
Don’t forget, the U.S. Military today, is a MERCENARY FORCE, and can no longer be considered as of old.
Your excuse is the same excuse the Nazis tried on in WW 2, duh !
"I’m innocent, I was only following orders",
funny thing though, the Yanks were’nt listening then, and did not accept that excuse then, so why should anyone accept it now ??????????
What’s good for the Goose, is good for the Gander too mate. Just like the Geneva Convention.
If you don’t like your boys being tortured, then don’t torture the enemy, simple stuff really.
If they had any balls at all, (and I sincerely DOUBT that many Americans these days have such a commodity) they would REFUSE to fight . SIMPLE AS THAT.
They can still persue humanitarian work, but stop murdering people.
What do you think your American Nazi Party is going to do to them ????? Put them up against a wall and shoot them ?????? en masse ???????
Or lock them up enmasse ????????? Really, now be serious.
If it should come to that, what do you think the good folks back home would do about it ???????
( I personaly think they’d do absolutely nothing about it )
Turn on their Nazi Party ????????
Give it some thought, it takes guts to make a stand, as some Americans have already proven in Iraq, it’s too bad, the majority of their fellow countryment back home let them down.
9 January 2005, 20:53
right on! The soldiers have a duty to follow orders only when obeying the law. They are obligated to follow the geneva conventions.
Rumsfeld has already treated our military like crap, when will they decide to just stop fighting for these a**holes?
I’d rather be thrown in jail with my soul intact.