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WASHINGTON, Aug. 21, 2008 – A group of American Humvees seized by Russian forces in Georgia this week should be returned immediately, a Defense Department official said today. “We’ve certainly expressed our position over the fact that these Humvees are U.S. property and should be returned. It’s that simple,” Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said. In the Georgian port town of Poti on Aug. 19, Russian forces, which entered Georgia Aug. 8, reportedly commandeered American Humvees that were awaiting shipment back to the United States after taking part in earlier U.S.-Georgian military exercises. “We don’t have any assurance at this point...

AL JURN — With their 72-ton M1A2 Abrams main battle tanks parked in the motor pool, Soldiers loaded their gear into wheeled trucks less than half the size of the tracked vehicles. Tankers of Punisher Platoon, Dragon Company, 1st Squadron, 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment, switched from their traditional jobs of manning the tanks as the squadron’s heavy element to driving patrols mounted in up-armored Humvees. “It’s kind of like going from a Corvette to a Volkswagen,” said Sgt. 1st Class J.C. Jensen, the platoon sergeant for Punisher, about making the switch. “The tank has 1,500 horsepower, it will go anywhere...

Marines to trade in vulnerable Humvees By David Wood The Baltimore Sun WASHINGTON — Marines in heavily armored Humvees are being killed by powerful roadside bombs at such a rate that the Marine Corps intends to replace all its Humvees in Iraq with specialized, blast-resistant armored vehicles, according to senior Marine officers. The Army will continue to rely primarily on armored Humvees, senior Army officers said Wednesday. The decision to scrap the Marines' Humvees in Iraq, after years of trying to protect crews by adding armor plate, was made by Lt. Gen. James Mattis, commander of Marines forces in the...

KABUL, Afghanistan, Feb. 6, 2007 – The United States transferred 213 Humvees and more than 12,000 light weapons to the Afghan National Army during a ceremony Feb. 2 at a depot in Pol-e-charkhi, Afghanistan. Afghan President Hamid Karzai (right) looks over light weapons after a vehicle and weapons transfer ceremony in Pol-e-charkhi, Afghanistan. The United States transferred 213 Humvees and more than 12,000 light weapons to the Afghan National Army. Photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Scott Cohen, USN  '(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The transfer marks the beginning of delivery of more than 800 various up-armored vehicles...

American humvees were recently turned over to the Iraqi Army as loaner vehicles for them to accomplish their mission more effectively and with more confidence. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Chris Towne Iraqi Army Ready to Roll With Loaner Humvees The Iraqi Security Forces will use the armored vehicles on patrols. By U.S. Army Spc. Yolanda Moreno Leon 138th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment MOSUL, Iraq, May 9, 2006 — Iraqi Security Forces received armored humvees from coalition forces in April 2006 on Forward Operating Base Courage, Mosul, Iraq. “This will help the Iraqis accomplish their missions without fear. This...

A new report says that despite stronger armor on over 50,000 Humvees and other military vehicles throughout Iraq and Afghanistan, roadside bombs have killed more U.S. troops this year based on Pentagon records. Most are dying in their Humvees, USA Today reports, as insurgents plant more powerful bombs and use different triggering methods to evade U.S. countermeasures, experts tell the newspaper. According to Pentagon casualty reports, 67 U.S. troops have died this year in roadside bomb attacks on their Humvees, and another 22 troops were killed when IEDs hit other military vehicles, including more heavily armored tanks and troop carriers....

Inmates at the federal prison near Three Rivers are refurbishing and upgrading war-ravaged Humvees for the US Army in Iraq - It seemed an impossible task at first: repair, refurbish and upgrade 200 war-torn and bullet-ridden army vehicles for US forces in Iraq within 120 days. But the inmates at the Three Rivers federal prison took on the challenge — and the US Army is saluting them for their efforts. “Even the original manufacturer of the vehicles, the people who designed them, said it couldn’t be done in that short of a time frame,” said Michael Ginster, executive assistant to...

RAMADI, Iraq (AP) - The troops didn't go far, the mission didn't last long and the neighborhood wasn't the most dangerous in town. But when Iraqi army troops moved out on a recent patrol in central Ramadi, they took a crucial step forward, rolling out in their own armored Humvees for the first time. Until now, this unit has mostly patrolled their small, relatively quiet slice of downtown on foot, leaving the worst parts of the turbulent city center to better-equipped U.S. troops. American commanders want Iraqi units to operate independently in the more dangerous downtown areas of Ramadi, about...

TIKRIT, Iraq - Soldiers exposed to Iraq's increasingly lethal roadside bombs, which can rip through armored Humvees, are drawing on wartime experience and stateside expertise to protect their vehicles with stronger armor and thermal detection cameras. The upgrades are being done by individual soldiers and units as the Pentagon decides how Humvees should be changed, and follow public criticism of the Bush administration for not armoring all Humvees ahead of the war. Nearly three years after rolling into Iraq in trucks covered in many instances only by canvas roofs, the 101st Airborne Division's 3rd Brigade is adding extra layers of...

Humvees weren't designed for the threats in Iraq, but Texas Guardsmen have kept them going by pulling and installing new engines, transmissions and stronger springs, all strained by the weight of the heavy armor that was added after the vehicles came off the assembly line. Soldiers run the vehicles to the max in an extremely rough hot territory. Mechanics clean up the mess when a seal breaks, transmission slips or bomb shatters the vehicle. And they do it with scant recognition even though they, too, get pinned with medals and have buddies killed.

Keeping an army provisioned in the desert is a ballet of logistics, particularly when it comes to supplying two vital liquids: diesel fuel and water. Now, using technologies developed for the space program, the U.S. Army is conducting an experiment that could convert the exhaust pipes of military vehicles into water fountains. Later this month, United Technologies Corp.'s Hamilton Sundstrand unit will deliver two military Humvees to the Army for three months of testing at the Aberdeen Proving Ground outside Baltimore. Built into each vehicle's truck bed is a complex system that can recover water from engine exhaust, purifying as...

FALLUJAH, Iraq -- For three weeks, my FOX News team has been immersed in little more than what's been happening around us. Memorial Day isn't, as they say over here, on our radar screens. The soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines we've been covering and living with in Al Anbar Province have been focused on chasing terrorists, avoiding IEDs and staying alive. They call it situational awareness -- being alert to only the friendly and enemy situation in the immediate vicinity is an absolute necessity for these young Americans in harm's way in this hot, dusty and dangerous place. And because...

Like Mark Twain's death, the demise of the tank has been "greatly exaggerated." A weekend conversation with my World War II and Korea vet father spurs this column. Dad had seen a short video I shot in Iraq that featured my staff section racing down Baghdad's "Route Irish" in an unarmored SUV. Dad asked about the handling characteristics of SUVs and Humvees with "add-on" armor -- light vehicles that weren't designed to carry the extra weight. He then compared what I told him about steel plates and Kevlar panels to a Korean War "armor upgrade" to counter land mines: sandbags...

Insurgents will have a tougher time targeting U.S. troops riding in Humvees and other vehicles in Iraq come Feb. 15. That's when, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told CNN interviewer Larry King Feb. 3, "there will not be a vehicle moving around in Iraq anywhere outside of a protected compound that does not have the appropriate armor." Speaking to King from the Pentagon via a video hookup, Rumsfeld noted that specialists had been flown into Iraq in recent weeks to attach shipped-in supplemental armor to various U.S. military vehicles.

Tom Briggs was surprised to hear Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld cite capacity constraints to explain the shortage of vehicle armor in Iraq. Briggs is vice president of Protective Armored Systems Inc. in Lee, which has made 16,000 bulletproof windows for Army Humvees and is waiting for more contracts. Like other armor executives who say they've got idled capacity, Briggs said he's been frustrated by the slow pace of Army orders. "You watch the evening news and Rumsfeld says you can't get the people to do the work, and that's not true," Briggs said. Such complaints have put heat on the...

- In his recent unequivocal vote of confidence for Secretary Rumsfeld, President Bush said, among other supportive comments, that Secretary Rumsfeld sometimes presents a rough and gruff demeanor. Sure he does….shouldn‘t he? What demeanor should a Secretary of Defense have, that of a girlie-man? He won two wars for cripes sake and is already on his way to seeing through the exceedingly difficult mission of assuring that elections take place in Iraq at the end of January. Most of the criticism comes from the political left, all of those military experts, who have the answers to everything. Not a word...

If all one knew about what was happening in the world was learned from watching Sunday morning political talk shows, this is what they would know. They would know that the production of armored Humvees did not take place until after a Tennessee National Guardsman asked Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld about it. They would know that the allegations made by the Swiftboat veterans about John Kerry were “outrageous.” They would know that all that was needed to prevent the detonation of the Improvised Explosive Devices (IED’s), the booby traps that have killed or injured so many of our brave...

Last week I wrote an article titled Pentagon Incompetence or Bush Bashing? It concerned the now famous question to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld about armored vehicles in Iraq. The gist of my article was that the question was staged by a journalist trying to exploit a problem for his own gain. As evidence, I cited a magazine article that answered this question some months earlier. My feeling is that if the journalist were really concerned about the amount of armored vehicles available he would have known the answer and either confirmed or refuted its validity. Instead, he chose to exploit...

Among the many distinctive expressions Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has offered as gifts to the media is the following: “I don’t do quagmires,” referring to the mantra-like repetition by some war critics that Iraq has become a quagmire. The media, however, especially its Official Rumsfeld-Hating Clique, remains mired in the viciously viscous putrid muck of all-consuming loathing of the Secretary of Defense. That same media currently has its puerile knickers in a twist about President Bush awarding Tommy Franks, Paul Bremer and George Tenet the Medal of Freedom. Or, as liberal columnist Richard Cohen, speaking for many media colleagues,...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU, Iraq — This is a graveyard for Humvees, the final resting place for the hulking vehicles felled by insurgents' roadside bombs. In a parking lot, the U.S. military's most common personnel carriers lie flattened with noses down in the mud. Their metal carcasses are barely recognizable. Tires have been splayed to the sides or blown away entirely. Shrapnel has burst holes in unprotected parts of the vehicles, as if they were tinfoil. The nine mangled Humvees here have been destroyed by what the military calls improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. "Now this one here, you can...

U.S. Army photo by Spc. Andy Miller Soldiers of the 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment conduct pre-combat checks on their new Humvees at Camp Striker near Baghdad International Airport on Thursday. The 1st Cavalry Division has provided the 82nd Airborne Division armored Humvees for operations in Iraq, division officials at Fort Bragg said Friday. ''We requested additional armored vehicles to ensure our paratroopers had the best equipment,'' said Maj. Amy Hannah, a division spokeswoman at Fort Bragg. The 82nd received more than 60 M-1114 "up-armored" vehicles in Iraq, Hannah said. Many soldiers in Iraq say the greatest threat they face...

U.S. Department of DefenseOffice of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)News Transcript On the Web: http://www.defenselink.mil/cgi-bin/dlprint.cgi?http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2004/tr20041209-1765.htmlMedia contact: +1 (703) 697-5131 Public contact: http://www.dod.mil/faq/comment.html or +1 (703) 428-0711 Presenter: Commander, Third Army and Coalition Forces Land Component Command, Lieutenant General R. Steven Whitcomb Thursday, December 9, 2004 1:07 p.m. EST Special Defense Department Briefing on Armored Vehicles (Via Teleconference From Kuwait)               COL. GARY KECK (deputy director, Press Office):  Good afternoon, everyone.  Appreciate your patience.  Don't want to delay this any longer.               I am Colonel Keck, as you know, the deputy director of the Press Office. ...

When an Army reservist in Kuwait gave Donald Rumsfeld an earful Wednesday about inadequate armor for Iraq-bound Humvees, the Defense Secretary responded by paying the soldier the compliment of candor. "You go to war with the army you have. They're not the army you might want or wish to have," he said. That's at least an honest answer, and the Secretary's forthrightness seems to have been appreciated by the troops at the town hall meeting, who gave him a standing ovation. Figuring it was politically safe to slipstream behind a soldier's question, Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd called Mr. Rumsfeld's comments...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Critics of the war in Iraq seized on charges that U.S. troops there don't have enough armored vehicles as another example of poor planning by the Pentagon. President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld tried Thursday to tamp down the firestorm, which was ignited a day earlier when an Iraq-bound soldier publicly complained to Rumsfeld that the Army wasn't properly armoring vehicles for the campaign. Traveling in India, Rumsfeld said he expects the Army to do its best to resolve the problem. In Washington, Bush said the soldier's concerns "are being addressed and that is _...

7th Transportation Battalion soldiers work on their new M1114 Humvees at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, putting up new weapon systems and ensuring the vehicles work properly, Nov. 12, 2004. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Steven J. Schneider LOGISTICS SUPPORT AREA ANACONDA, BALAD, Iraq, Nov. 30, 2004 — Soldiers from Logistics Support Area Anaconda picked up new Convoy Protection Platform M1114 Humvees at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait Nov. 12. The new vehicles will help soldiers escort critical supply convoys in a safer, more fully armored vehicle. Each Humvee came with a .50 caliber machine gun, Mark 19 grenade launcher or a M240B...

The New York Times last Monday beat 60 Minutes to the "missing" explosives story, so CBS couldn't air that last-minute hit on President Bush 36 hours before the election. On Sunday it replaced that planned story with another, "In Harm's Way," about problems in Iraq: Deaths and injuries caused to servicemen by the lack of armor on Humvees, as well as issues such as the lack of radios for troops. The story was not explicitly pegged to deriding Bush's conduct of the war, but Steve Kroft blamed the lack of armor on how "Pentagon war planners didn't anticipate a long,...

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...

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,...

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...

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...

The U.S. Army fielded the HMMWV (or “Humvee,” as we call it) in 1983. At that time, the Humvee represented the pinnacle of automotive technology. Over the last 21 years however, the Humvee has begun to grow long in the tooth. In 1991 the Army began fielding the M998A2 model, which addressed some of the concerns voiced by units after Operation Desert Storm. The A2 version of the M998 accounts for less than half of the Humvee fleet however, and despite efforts in the mid 1990’s to rebuild the aging fleet, cost ultimately precluded the proposals execution (see a related...

PITTSFIELD -- Employees of a firm that produces body armor for American soldiers are doing important work in defense of the country, U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy said during a visit to the company yesterday. Kennedy, a leading Democratic critic of the war in Iraq, visited Protech Armored Products, which in the last year has grown substantially to fill $40 million in orders from the Pentagon for protective armor plates used by soldiers as inserts. He stayed for more than an hour, meeting privately with company officials, touring the plant and then addressing employees. "It's an honor to be here,...

MAIN SUPPLY ROUTE TAMPA, Iraq — The radio inside Sgt. Jim Tomlinson’s armored Humvee chatters out details of a firefight along the road up ahead. The infantryman calls to Spc. Stephen Lord, the machine gunner up top, to be alert. “A unit is taking small arms fire, engaging the enemy on both sides,” Tomlinson yells. “51 Alpha.” Lord knows what that means. Tomlinson’s words, 51 Alpha, refer to an overpass along the highway just inside Baghdad’s North End. A roadside bomb that insurgents planted there recently earned Lord a Purple Heart when it exploded above the 19-year-old generator mechanic from...

MARINE CORPS LOGISTICS BASE ALBANY, Ga(June 17, 2004) -- Colonel John Coleman, chief of staff, I Marine Expeditionary, came to the Marine Corps Logistics Command's maintenance center June 7 following his tour in Iraq. But his return was not part of a 12-month military rotation; it was a special trip - just to say thanks. Coleman visited laborers at LogCom's depot in Albany, Ga., to express his gratitude about the job the men and women have done on the Operation Iraqi Freedom vehicle-hardening project. The vehicle-hardening project designs and produces effective armor kits for a variety of wheeled vehicles used...

CAMP TAQADDUM, Iraq(June 16, 2004) -- Dire situations inspire ingenious solutions. This old saying rings true today for inventive Marines in Iraq who've used little more than their creativity to adapt to ever-changing enemy tactics and endure on dangerous Iraqi roads. Troops across Iraq, including several here from the 1st Force Service Support Group, use the resources they have available, and in true Marine fashion, figure out ways to make themselves faster and safer on the battlefield. While amply protected thanks to Marine Corps System Command's recent push which has already outfitted the Marine Corps' more than 3,000-strong vehicle fleet...

BAGHDAD — The ideal, soldiers say, is that no one in Iraq should have to go outside the wire in anything less than M-1114 factory up-armored Humvee. The reality is, little more than 20 percent of Humvees in Iraq are armored, and some soldiers trust their survival to a few sandbags and steel sheets. Until the ideal is attainable, Master Sgt. Dennis P. Lichtenberg is striving to create the best-protected Humvees short of an M-1114. Lichtenberg has invented a system he calls “The Lick Kit,” a play on his nickname “Lick,” pinned on by fellow reservists from the Pensacola, Fla.-based...

CAMP ANACONDA, Iraq — When Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael Summers arrived last fall, the Army knew he’d be able save lives. The 7th Transportation Battalion asked the ship hull technician to attach makeshift steel plates to trucks and Humvees. Poorly protected vehicles had been coming under fire every time they left this central logisitics hub for points all over Iraq. Many of the vehicles did not have the extra protection of “armor-up” kits. And the Army didn’t have enough to go around. “I’m a welder by trade,” said Summers, a 33-year-old Naval reservist from Frisco, Calif. “When I got...

A Vancouver, Wash.-based company is supplying Humvee armor kits for U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The Army Humvees will be the first military vehicles outfitted with a peel-and-stick armoring system manufactured by Armor Systems International. ASI representatives are now at a U.S. military base, where they will load 15 Aztik 100 armor kits onto a cargo plane bound for troops in Kandahar early next week. The Army's Rapid Equipping Force ordered the Aztik armor kits in December for use in Iraq but determined a greater need for these resources in Afghanistan. "We're excited to demonstrate the effectiveness and uniqueness of our...

The MPs of Connecticut's 143rd Went To Iraq To Restore Order After The War Seemed Won. But The Struggle Had Just Begun.Over the course of a year in Iraq, the 143rd would come to know fear under enemy fire. They'd be shot at, cursed, bombed and shelled. They'd do their best to help the Iraqi people, and understand, too, that not all Iraqis welcomed their presence. Some would find love. And though it might be a defining time for their generation, they couldn't wait to have it all done with.

. . there are about 1,400 vehicles that still need armor plating in Iraq, and although production is ramping up, the military can turn out only enough armor kits for about 220 to 225 vehicles a month. At that rate it will take six months to meet the military's combat needs. "It's not a matter of resources; it's a matter of how fast can we build these things and get them over here," he said. You wouldn't know this from the news coverage following Thursday's Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. The hearing was convened to discuss the administration's request for...

Something about Sadr City was not quite right. An hour earlier, there had been the usual throngs of children running out to wave at American soldiers. But as the four Humvees and two Bradley fighting vehicles of the Iron Deuce Platoon of Warrior Company drove out from Camp Eagle the main streets were empty apart from a tethered donkey and a few wandering goats. Small knots of men peered from alleyways. A lone figure appeared from a rooftop and then vanished. "It's kind of quiet around here," said Specialist Daniel Brown, 21, driving Humvee Alpha Three Six. The Americans and...

OCALA - The political fallout from an Army Reservist's request for bulletproof vests to line the interiors of military vehicles in Iraq grew more intense Friday, as a member of Marion County's congressional delegation lambasted Marion Sheriff Ed Dean for Dean's reaction to the request. U.S. Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Ocala, sent a statement to the Star-Banner claiming Dean misrepresented the plight of the 351st Military Police Company and "included spurious accusations concerning congressional support for these troops." Dean spearheaded a drive to collect used bulletproof vests from law enforcement agencies statewide after receiving a request from 1st Sgt. Fred Chisholm,...

Not since the Army replaced horseshoes with tires has a vehicle proven to be as versatile, reliable and multitasked as the humble Humvee. Though it was never designed to be a front-line vehicle, the Humvee has found itself increasingly in the crossfire in Iraq because it's speedy -- 65 mph on a straightaway is well within the reach of the 2 1/2-ton ultimate muscle machine -- and easily adapted to patrol and convoy security duties. Since the fall of Baghdad in 2003, Humvees have been the primary defender of the convoys supplying coalition forces in Iraq, both a high-profile and...

Here's something you need to read... I received this story via the Marines All Hands network (via Col. Don Myers). Subject: A Real Hero SOMETHING THAT DIDN'T MAKE THE NEWS Maybe you'd like to hear about a real American, somebody who honored the uniform he wears. Meet Brian Chontosh. Churchville-Chili Central School class of 1991. Proud graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology. Husband and about-to-be father. First lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps. And a genuine hero. The secretary of the Navy said so yesterday. At 29 Palms in California Brian Chontosh was presented with the Navy Cross,...

CAMP BLACK JACK, Iraq — Though he rides through the valley of the shadow of death, Spc. Antrone Vaughn fears no evil. “My religious beliefs don’t allow me to be scared,” said Vaughn, a 26-year-old M240B gunner from Holly Springs, Miss. But by the same token, “God made us to have common sense,” he said. And Vaughn’s common sense tells him there are safer Humvees than his for riding around Baghdad. Vaughn rides with 1st Sgt. James Higgins, Headquarters Support Battalion, 3rd Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Brigade. Vaughn’s protection from roadside bombs and rocket-propelled grenades is half-inch steel sheets his...

Military understated how many can be made The secretary of the Army said in November that the military was buying every armored Humvee that could be made. Politicians and parents pointed out that the factories could turn out thousands more of the steel-plated trucks.

While the dramas in Fallujah and Najaf come to a conclusion, the Army's soldiers are still riding the roads of Iraq in inferior armored vehicles while the better-protected armored personnel carriers are waiting for them in Kuwait. We're asking our troops to perform a job with the wrong tools, a mistake rooted in the 1999 decision by President Clinton's Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki to take the Army off tracks and put it on wheels. When, in July 2003, acting Army Chief of Staff Gen. John Keane laid out the overall Army plan to rotate the units stationed in...