I hardly know where to start or stop on this subject. One part of me feels for the soldiers, and the other side wants to say, enough is enough of the belly aching. I hate to tell war stories, Oliver North does a fine job of that every Sunday night, but having "been there and done that" and have a Tee Shirt somewhere, I want to toss in my two cents worth from 34 years ago in South Vietnam.
I was in field artillery as a mechanic. I spent the majority of my one year in firing batteries spread throughout the third military region, especially the area from Cambodia to Tay Ninh and a little North to Song Bee, Anh Loc and South toward Saigon. We fired hundreds of 155mm rounds daily and had to have some method of getting resupplied. That task was the battery headquarters, Service Battery was tasked with running the ASP (Ammo Supply Point) but we had to get the ammo and other supplies from the base camps to the fire bases. How did we do it? Convoys of 5t drop side cargo trucks. Support for the convoy was usually a couple of gun jeeps (Cannoneer No. 4 - that pic sure looks familiar) and one or two "quads" mounted in 5 tons. That was it.
Armor protection for the drivers consisted of sand bags on the floor and a scrounged flak vest draped over the door to protect us from snipers. Was I comfortable? Heck no, but we had a mission, we had the equipment and we did the job with no complaints, other than when the beer we were supposed to get was not there or some other hiccup.
There was an incident I was involved in 2 days before Christmas where an ambush killed two soldiers, probably needlessly, but there was no outcry for more armor. They were in an M38B1 (3/4 ton truck) and the ambush was done with .51 caliber machine guns. Would they have survived in more heavily armored trucks? Maybe. However we didn't have them. We broke up the ambush and killed the bad guys. We mourned the loss of two fellow soldiers, and like most of the military today, we continued with the mission.
I wonder why we are starting to see a military in which each soldier is starting to develop a mindset they are "owed" a personal set of armor. It would be great to do so, but each battle in each war is different and would require slightly different equipment, tactics, techniques and procedures. If we were to conduct war in that manner we might still be waiting in the English Channel off of Normandy.
This is sort of rambling, but I have not had enough coffee today.
That's NOT rambling, it's a much better conclusion than you'll see in the New York Times or the Washington Post. And if that's the result of too much coffee, we need to send the liberal media more coffee with the pajamas so maybe they'll get it right.
Been spewin my 2 cents already on the issue.......:o)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1298645/posts?page=9#9
Humvee is a jeep replacement.......how many jeeps have been armored up over the past wars ? Zip, nada , none ! Our gun jeeps (M151's) had a pedistal mounted M60 and a passenger mounted M60. Now one can say oh yeah well we road into battle on horseback back when but that doesn't make the issue of not enough hardened humvess any better....I agree....but !
We're trying to replace tactics with a false sense of security IMO. Polidiots need to let our folks engage and eliminate the threat vs existing in a hardened facility or vehicle among the threat.
A hardened humvee will not stop an IED or even the old PG-2 series of RPG's much less the PG7 series and it's improvements over the years. We're attempting to run a gauntlet on a daily basis . Destroy the gauntlet. If troops are attacked every day on a standard resupply route then counter ambush ops need to be increased along with snipers moved into the areas to eliminate those planting IED's or civilians moving with any weapon other than a handgun for personal protection.
I am and will always be of the opinion that any modern military conflict should be over in less that 96 hours. We need to kick ass, break all the infastructure or power, water, communications and sewage. Blow the bridges, airfields and ports then leave. Walk away at that point. Let other communist/terrorist /socialist regimes clean up their own mess.
If they attack America or Americans again we'll be back and will whack em again and again and not play nation building for years at great cost to americans over a decade or so.
America payed a dear price on 9-11 and doesn't need to keep paying. Make our enemies pay......until we get medevil on them and theirs we subject ourselves to such long term misery and loss of our loved ones. Thats my rant on the matter, right or wrong it's just my opinion.
Stay safe !