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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                           CONTACT: Randy Harris 08 December 2004                                                    615.313.0662 (office) 04-61                                                                     615.517.0984 (CELL)     Maj. Gen. Gus L. Hargett, Adjutant General of Tennessee Statement on questions by 278th Soldier to Secretary Rumsfeld   SPC Wilson’s question is a legitimate concern.   Additional armor for vehicles in Iraq has been an issue since the beginning of the war for both active and reserve component soldiers.   The up-armored vehicles are being supplied to the troops in Iraq as soon as they are available from the manufacturer.   I have been assured that no 278th soldier will go forward in...

More armored vehicles could readily be built, two companies say By GEORGE EDMONSON COX NEWS SERVICE WASHINGTON -- The manufacturer of Humvees for the U.S. military and the company that adds armor to the utility vehicles are not running near production capacity and are making all that the Pentagon has requested, spokesmen for both companies said. "If they call and say, 'You know, we really want more,' we'll get it done," said Lee Woodward, a spokesman for AM General, the Indiana company that makes Humvees and the civilian Hummer versions. At O'Gara-Hess & Eisenhardt, the Ohio firm that turns specially...

Another controversy about Iraq and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has developed. A soldier asked Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, in the Iraqi theater why the troops do not have armored M98HUMMVVV’s (Humvees). He told Rumsfeld that troops have to scavenge metal and improvise armor for the vehicles. The soldier, a Tennessee National Guardsman, is currently in Kuwait scheduled to go to Iraq. He asked this during one of Rumsfeld’s question and answer sessions with troops stationed in the Iraqi theater. Implicit in this question was that Rumsfeld and his Defense Department is either incompetent or corrupt or both. Its purpose...

Let there be no mistake - I am a strong supporter of GW Bush and Donald Rumsfeld. I am an even bigger supporter of our soldiers in Iraq. After reading stories of our troops and even their commanders pleading for adequately armored vehicles, I did an Internet search for modern armored vehicles designed for heavy armor. Upgrading Humvees with armor isn't a good solution since they aren't designed for the weight and the upgrades are moving too slowly, so I specifically searched for available vehicles worldwide designed for heavy armor. After only a few links, I found this interesting site:...

Report: Raytheon 'heat beam' weapon ready for Iraq Boston Business Journal Government defense giant Raytheon Co. has developed the first nonlethal weapon that fires a heat beam to repel enemies and reduces the chance of innocent civilians being shot, a Pentagon official said. Raytheon, the world's largest missile maker, delivered a prototype to the U.S. military last month. The product is expected to be evaluated from February through June to determine whether to equip U.S. forces with it, Colonel David Karcher, director of the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate, told Bloomberg Business News. With U.S. casualties in Iraq rising, expectations are...

<p>"Raymond's gun was the only one that was still working. He fought them to a bitter end," Henry White said.</p>

Up-Armored Vehicle Effort Progressing Full Steam Ahead By Donna MilesAmerican Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Oct. 29, 2004 — The assembly lines are moving 24/7 to keep up with the demand for up-armored vehicles in Iraq and for conversion kits to add extra protection to vehicles already there. Gary Motsek, director of support operations for the U.S. Army Materiel Command, said the effort to provide increased vehicle protection against grenades, improvised explosive devices and small-arms fire is progressing fast and furiously as demand continues to increase. Nearly 5,100 up-armored Humvees have been delivered to Army and Marine Corps units in...

Later this week Army Cpl. J.R. Martinez will leave his Dalton home for his next appointment with pain. Martinez will return to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio for his 28th surgery. On April 5, 2003, the Humvee he was driving near Karbala, Iraq, triggered a land mine. The explosion trapped him inside the wreckage and burned more than 40 percent of his body, with the worst damage to his face and head. The next operation will involve doctors stretching what little good skin remains on the right side of his head around the back to the left side....

Humvee with Laser Cannon in Afghanistan The U.S. Army has built and tested a humvee equipped with a laser gun turret that can quickly destroy unexploded munitions and roadside bombs. The system, called Zeus-HLONS (HMMWV Laser Ordnance Neutralization System), uses an industrial solid state laser, normally used to cut metal, but can also ignite explosives up to 300 meters away. Normally, engineers have to approach such munitions (shells, cluster bombs aircraft bombs) or roadside bombs, place explosives next to it, then move away, trailing a detonator wire behind them, and then set off the explosive to destroy the bomb or...

Senator Kerry made the following claim during the debate: I've met kids in Ohio, parents in Wisconsin places, Iowa, where they're going out on the Internet to get the state-of-the-art body gear to send to their kids. Some of them got them for a birthday present. Here are the facts: Gen. Paul Kern, commander of the Army Material Command stated at a news conference on June 8th 2004 that "Everyone who is in theater today has been issued a protective vest," He then went on to say: There literally are dozens of soldiers alive today who were shot at close...

Add-on armor provides added protection to 2nd BCT Soldiers Staff Sgt. Leonard Bergantzel, a track mechanic for the 286th Ordnance Company, uses a blow torch to fabricate a piece of side armor inside the maintenance support team's workshop on Kirkuk Air Base Aug. 18. The side armor will be used to protect Soldiers situated in the rear of cargo HMMWVs. (Photo by Spc. Sean Kimmons, 25th ID (L) PAO) KIRKUK AIR BASE, Iraq – In order to prevent injuries or deaths due to small arms fire and improvised explosive devices, add-on armor kits are being installed onto many 2nd...

Since March, 2003, army mechanics in Iraq and Kuwait have installed 8,000 armor kits, 2,000 aid conditioners and 4,500 bulletproof windshields in trucks and hummers. The units that do this work are sometimes called “Mad Max Shops” (after the armored vehicles in the Mel Gibson movie of the same name.) The mechanics also do all sorts of modifications, many of them experimental (some work, some don’t). The Mad Max Shops work at night, as the metal becomes too hot to pick up and handle by day. The preferred material for armoring vehicles is a Swedish steel/nickel/chromium alloy called Hardox 400....

Friday, August 20, 2004 2nd ID vehicles are upgraded to survive rough traveling in Iraq By Seth Robson, Stars and StripesEuropean edition, Friday, August 20, 2004 Seth Robson / S&S A 2nd Infantry Division Humvee from South Korea has new armored doors and windows and an air conditioner unit installed at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait. Seth Robson / S&S Pfc. Mark Greene of the 699th Maintenance Company, 21, of North Carolina works on an armored door at the Camp Buehring "Mad Max" shop. CAMP BUEHRING, Kuwait — Soft-shelled 2nd Infantry Division vehicles are getting a Middle East makeover that includes armor,...

Americans may view their soldiers as knights in shining armor, but in Iraq, soldiers are often short on protection, particularly while riding their mechanized steeds. As casualties rise, the Pentagon is rushing to equip its soldiers and vehicles with new and better armor. In the short term, soldiers will get body armor upgrades that better guard previously vulnerable areas like the groin and sides of the body. Some vehicles, meanwhile, will be getting special reactive armor designed to thwart rocket attacks. In the long term, however, a soldier's best protection may come from new technologies being developed by military laboratories...

NORRISTOWN - Earlier this month, a doctor at Wills Eye Hospital, in Philadelphia, picked tiny bits of shrapnel out of Sgt. Matthew Crawford's left eye with a needle and tweezers. Four pieces were removed the first day; three more a few days later.For now, the 24-year-old Marine reservist, who was wounded in an explosion in Iraq, can't focus his injured eye to read even the largest "E" on an eye chart. As the Humvee carrying Crawford and four other Marines passed a roadside fruit stand in Baghdad on June 29, an improvised bomb blew up. Crawford was sitting in the...

Standing on a high bridge over a railroad track northwest of Baghdad at dusk, cavalry scout Capt. Will Hickok VI scans the horizon, looking for insurgents planting bombs or preparing mortar and rocket attacks. "This is what I like, just scouting," said Hickok, of Dillsburg, Pa. "Sitting out here, spying, watching out, it's relaxing ... it's almost like cowboys and Indians." A distant descendant of Wild Bill Hickok, the 33-year-old Army officer commands an elite unit that also traces its ancestors to the 19th century, using traditions of speed and stealth to seek out the enemy and ambush them. Instead...

BALAD, Iraq - Don't ever play chicken with Sgt. Pat Umberger. He never blinks. Just ask the Iraqi drivers who were on the road Sunday as Umberger piloted the lead Humvee of a convoy carrying explosives experts and the tools of their trade across eastern Iraq. Umberger, a member of the 81st Brigade Combat Team, took his half of the road out of the middle, forcing other cars to the shoulder. When they didn't yield to his Humvee's flashing red-and-blue police lights or honking horn, the Yakima resident swerved right at them to get them to move. One Iraqi man...

Ever hear of the Battle of the Humvee? That's what I'm calling a May skirmish fought by soldiers of the 37th Armored Regiment's 2nd Battalion in the southern Iraqi city of Najaf. In what became a six-hour firefight, Americans battled militiamen of Muqtada al-Sadr to secure the hulk of a burning Humvee. It's not that our soldiers foughtbecausethe flaming wreck amounted to a tin can's worth ofmilitary value.They fought,as Capt. Ty Wilson of Fairfax, Va., explained to The Washington Post, because "we weren't going to let them dance on it for the news. Even [with] all the guys they lost...

CAMP HURRICANE POINT, Iraq(June 29, 2004) -- Gunnery Sgt. Paul L. Jones knows firsthand the damage improvised explosive devices can cause to personnel and vehicles alike. Jones, motor transportation chief with 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, said the battalion has already lost too many Marines and quite a few vehicles because of the homemade explosives set up by anti-Iraqi fighters. Razor-sharp shrapnel and other debris from IEDs can slice through the bodies of standard humvees, killing or maiming passengers and causing severe damage to the vehicles' working parts. The battalion recently received two variants of "uparmored humvees" to reduce the...

MARINE CORPS LOGISTICS BASE BARSTOW, Calif.(June 24, 2004) -- Maintenance Center Barstow is normally called upon to repair and rebuild equipment that has been battle worn or is in need of work because of every day training and operational use. This time, however, the Maintenance Center has been tasked by the Marine Corps Logistics Command to perform another task vital to the survival of the Marines participating in Operation Iraqi Freedom II. This monstrous undertaking includes putting together a team of Marines, volunteers from different commands, and training them to train Marines in theater in applying a new type of...