Quote:
Originally Posted by transjen
how under equiped the troops were rember the shortage of armor for the Hummers and lack of body armor for the troops
 Jerseygirl Jen |
The reason behind the need for armor was:
1) The Active military elements(like the Rangers at Ft. Lewis or 101st Airborne at Ft. Bragg) are supposed to be the ones actually over there kicking ass and whatnot. Reserves are called up in case the Active guys need more people and Nat'l Guard are supposed to take over the active guys position stateside. That never happened and about 75% of the troops over there are Nat'l Guard and the other 25% are Active and Reservists.
2) The pecking order of defense funding goes Active and then Reserves and Guard. The Active guys get all the good shit and the others get the leftovers.
3) The nature of combat changed in a way that was hard to predict. No one ever anticipated that the enemy would start deploying shape charges or a cluster of 155mm Artillery rounds underneath the roads. Humvees were designed as fast insertion troop vehicles, not peace keeping vehicles and weren't designed to hold 700+ pounds of RHA and tempered glass; they were light for a reason. Get in and get out.
4) Mobilizing troops and equipment is a logistical nightmare especially supply. Getting shit over there is especially time-consuming and since most shit is sent by ship, it generally takes 3-6 months to get it into port(provided that the connex that just so happens to have all the body armor and support weapons has not fallen off the ship and ended up at the bottom of the Atlantic; this happens alot more than you'd think) and finally getting it over to the unit that it is supposed to go to(provided that the convoy that these are on have not been hit by an RPG during an ambush).
5) Unit organization: Suppose an Active Duty maintenance company gets sent over to fix vehicles. They don't have enough people so they grab Reservists to fill those slots. The reservists don't have body armor like the Active guys do so should something happen, they're SOL. Now suppose there is a high profile target near them and there are no infantry nearby or available to intercept him. The mission will change and the maintenance are going in. What do you think will happen to a group of people who are sent into the thick of shit that should not be there?
The beginning of the Iraq and Afghanistan war was shitty not because the leaders didn't care; it was because the whole operation had so many variables that could fuck up things up royally that you don't see.