Marines not wearing heavy new body armor -- remember Dragon Skin? (pics)

DU vet wakeme2008 responded to an LBN post of an article about Marines not wearing heavy body armor that has been supplied to them with a suggestion that a separate post was needed incorporating an article from Soldiers for the Truth about the lighter armor, Dragon Skin. Thanks, wakeme!


ABC/AP: Some Marines Declining Extra Body Armor
By ANTONIO CASTANEDA


Iraqi school children look at a medic, attached to the U.S. Marines, who is wearing body armor while on patrol in Husaybah, a Syrian border near Qaim town about 320 kilometers (200 miles) west of Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, Feb. 26, 2006. Many Marines opt not to wear additional armor plates, issued in recent weeks and designed to protect their exposed sides. (AP Photo/Antonio Castaneda)


HUSAYBAH, Iraq Mar 26, 2006 (AP)— Extra body armor the lack of which caused a political storm in the United States has flooded in to Iraq, but many Marines here promptly stuck it in lockers or under bunks. Too heavy and cumbersome, many say.

Marines already carry loads as heavy as 70 pounds when they patrol the dangerous streets in towns and villages in restive Anbar province. The new armor plates, while only about five pounds per set, are not worth carrying for the additional safety they are said to provide, some say....

***

Staff Sgt. Thomas Bain of Buffalo, N.Y., shared concerns about the extra pounds.

"Before you know it, they're going to get us injured because we're hauling too much weight and don't have enough mobility to maneuver in a fight from house to house," said Bain, who is assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment. "I think we're starting to go overboard on the armor."

***

In Bain's platoon of about 35 men, Marines said only three or four wore the plates after commanders distributed them last month and told them that use was optional....

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1770187


From Soldiers for the Truth DefenseWatch:

US Army Officials Continue to Trap Themselves In a Web of Deceit
By Nathaniel R. Helms
03.23.2006


L. Interceptor OTV body armor system. Photo USMC

The United States Army claims it has not mounted a campaign to make soldiers shed their clearly superior Dragon Skin body armor in favor of the Army's inferior Interceptor OTV. Over the last seven months Army officials have alternately claimed and denied that they know all about the capabilities of Dragon Skin, including Army spokesman Paul Boyce telling the Washington Post it would like to get hold of Pinnacle Armor Co.'s Dragon Skin body armor to evaluate it.

Despite all the evidence to the contrary, including PEO Soldier's own ballistic tests conducted at two Army research laboratories that irrefutably proved Dragon Skin was a superior product, the officers charged with providing America's warriors with the best protection possible continue to maintain that the Army's home-grown Interceptor OTV body armor is superior. Apparently the Army officials charged with dealing credibly with the subject of body armor are simply unable to tell the truth.

The Fresno, CA-based company has been trying to get the Pentagon's attention for more than five years. According to engineers familiar with Pinnacle's efforts the Natick Soldier System's Center in Massachusetts, PEO Soldier at Ft. Belvoir, VA, , and TSM Soldier at Ft. Benning, GA (TRADOC Systems Manager Soldier) were given the Pinnacle SOV-2000 "Dragon Skin" technology and allowed to select the rounds and shot placement to test it five years ago. The tests subsequently conducted showed Dragon Skin surpassed all other body armor technologies available at the time, Army tests revealed.

Witnessed statements were later made the same year to Pinnacle president Murray Neal - the inventor of Dragon Skin armor and its patent holder - by Natick Soldier Systems Center's program scientist Dr. James Zheng, who reportedly said, "The SOV Dragon Skin system will never be fielded unless the technology and intellectual property are turned over to Natick Soldier Systems Center," according to sources who spoke with DW upon assurances of anonymity. Neal never did give up his secrets and Pinnacle never received an Army or Marine Corps contract....

http://www.sftt.org/main.cfm?actionId=globalShowStaticContent&screenKey=cmpDefense&htmlCategoryID=30&htmlId=5270

matter what costs to the troops....




the ONLY way I read that is Give us your patent and we will SOLE SOURCE it to the company we want...

and your service:kick:

"Before you know it, they're going to get us injured because we're hauling too much weight and don't have enough mobility to maneuver in a fight from house to house," said Bain, who is assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment. "I think we're starting to go overboard on the armor."

I am glad somebody knows something abouh the history of warfare even if Rummy doesn't.