Army Thin-Skinned Over Homemade Armor : Wash Post

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Army Thin-Skinned Over Homemade Armor
Transportation Unit Headed for Iraq Sought Extra Protection for Non-Combat Vehicles

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30796-2003Dec25.html

By David A. Lieb
Associated Press
Friday, December 26, 2003; Page A22


JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Fearing roadside bombs and sniper bullets, members of the U.S. Army Reserve's 428th Transportation Company turned to a local steel fabricator to fashion extra armor for their five-ton trucks and Humvees before beginning their journey to Iraq earlier this month.

But their armor might not make it into the war, because the soldiers did not obtain Pentagon approval for their homemade protection.

The Army, which is still developing its own add-on armor kits for vehicles, does not typically allow any equipment that is not tested and approved by the Army, Maj. Gary Tallman, a Pentagon spokesman for Army weapons and technology issues, said last week.

"It's important that other units out there that are getting ready to mobilize understand that we are doing things" to protect them, Tallman said, "but there's policy you have to consider before you go out on your own and try to do something."

The possibility that soldiers could be denied extra protection because of an Army policy has outraged some of the friends and neighbors who helped the Jefferson City-based unit.

Read the rest of the article....but this is just another case of not being prepared to go to war. How can Bush say he is supporting our troops, when he isn't giving them the protection they need to fight this senseless, immoral war? Where's the VESTS and the armor needed ?

Remember Bush's words: "Help is on the way?"