Feb 26 2008

Pentagon & Senate to investigate 2 yr delay in the fielding of blast-resistant vehicles.

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

Cross posted from Sancho Press. http://sanchopress.com/

FINALLY! This is an issue that has been discussed for some time now.

In a Jan. 22 internal report, Franz Gayl, a civilian Marine Corps official, accused the service of “gross mismanagement” that delayed deliveries of the mine-resistant, ambush-protected trucks.

(MRAP’s)

http://www.military.com/NewsCo…

This is another case of money taking priority over our troops. On Sancho Press we most often talk about money taking priority over helping our returning troops, veterans and their families regarding health care and other benefits they earned but are not being provided at all or sufficiently.  

We have also discussed the situation with proper body armament and that boiled down to a money issue. Here is another example that has undoubtedly cost lives of our troops on the ground in Iraq. Again, money over lives!!

Gayl’s study, which reflected his own views, said cost was a driving factor in the decision to turn down a February 2005 “urgent” request from battlefield commanders for the so-called MRAPs.

Gayl, a retired Marine officer, is the science and technology adviser to Lt. Gen. Richard Natonski, who heads the department.

The AP first reported Gayl’s report 15 Feb 08 before it had been reviewed by his superiors. Gayl has had disagreements with superiors in the past and has filed for whistle blower status.

Although the Marine Corp. requested the Pentagon Inspector General do an investigation, they had little choice after Gayl’s report made the press. Several high ranking Marine Corp. officials are on record with numerous excuses for the reasons these vehicles couldn’t be supplied. In reality, it is easy to read between the lines of their excuses, money was the real issue and not the bullshit they are spewing.

If the top dogs demanded suppliers get these produced, they surely would have. Here is proof in fact of that.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates declared the MRAP the Pentagon’s No. 1 acquisition priority in May 2007. Defense contractors are now producing close to 1,000 vehicles a month.

1,000 a month but one General used the excuse that Gayl’s report didn’t take into account the defense contractors ability to produce the MRAP’s.

“If the mass procurement and fielding of MRAPs had begun in 2005 in response to the known and acknowledged threats at that time, as the (Marine Corps) is doing today, hundreds of deaths and injuries could have been prevented,” Gayl said. “While the possibility of individual corruption remains undetermined, the existence of corrupted MRAP processes is likely, and worthy of (inspector general) investigation.”

HUNDREDS OF DEATHS AND INJURIES. Add that to the hundreds of deaths and injuries from inferior body armament. Besides hundreds of our bravest dead, unknown numbers maimed, injured, burned and more, we have literally severals thousands of families and lives forever shattered.

Sens. Joe Biden, D-Del., and Kit Bond, R-Mo., called for an investigation after reviewing Gayl’s report.

The shit may hit the fan on this one and if Gayl’s report is correct the punishment for those involved in the two year delay can not receive sufficient punishment. They don’t allow criminal trials of military personnel. If Gayl’s report pans out, murder trials would be approprite in this case.  

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  2. now new technology stuff.  They make less money this way damn it.  You guys wouldn’t believe how much money they make trying to field stuff for years at a time during peace time.  Rummy and Bush can’t have you civilians knowing how long it was really going to take to actually design, build, redesign, rebuild, try to field something like this during a real war when it was really needed ASAP.  We can’t have American civilians knowing that they aren’t rocket scientists but neither are their leaders and neither are their contractors and in fact we don’t have that many rocket scientists out there and they all work for NASA………that’s too much truth damn it!  I don’t care for military equipment but I have to be exposed to more of it than I consider my fair share and a lot of it does eventually get very well designed and maintainable and can be most impressive but none of that happens over night. Dollars spent getting there is just too ugly to face all at once and amazingly we can spend one million on one of these bad boys and “insurgents” can spend a couple of hundred and if they do everything right soldiers will probably walk away but they are still going to blow this thing to hell and back.  After they get done this double downed double amored doubled up bad boy isn’t going anywhere again…….ever again 😉  War is stupid       War sucks      Everybody go home      Go to your room and don’t come out until you are ready to be decent people!

  3. Although the Pentagon has increased its budget each year, now expected to be $623 billion for 2008, and although the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are not a part of that budget, if I’m not mistaken wasn’t Bush crying for all this money — a large call for the equipment for our soldiers?  Our soldiers need to be properly equipped, Bush said.

    Well, they haven’t been and they still aren’t.

    Military Equipment: Missing in Action Jan. 30, 2007

    A new Defense audit says the Pentagon has failed to properly equip soldiers in Iraq-just as the President struggles to find support for a troop increase.

    . . . .Soldiers Poorly Equipped

    The Inspector General found that the Pentagon hasn’t been able to properly equip the soldiers it already has. Many have gone without enough guns, ammunition, and other necessary supplies to “effectively complete their missions” and have had to cancel or postpone some assignments while waiting for the proper gear, according to the report from auditors with the Defense Dept. Inspector General’s office. Soldiers have also found themselves short on body armor, armored vehicles, and communications equipment, among other things, auditors found.

    “As a result, service members performed missions without the proper equipment, used informal procedures to obtain equipment and sustainment support, and canceled or postponed missions while waiting to receive equipment,” reads the executive summary dated Jan. 25. Service members often borrowed or traded with each other to get the needed supplies, according to the summary.

    Pentagon officials did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment.

    The audit supports news reports and other evidence that U.S. troops have been stretched too thin or have performed tasks for which they were ill-prepared. It is likely to add fuel to the opposition to President George W. Bush’s decision to send more troops to Iraq in an effort to quell the violence there. . . .

    In addition, I read an article recently stating that equipment, vehicles, body armor, etc. has gone missing.

    But the point of all this is that everything the Pentagon and Bush have to say in relation to our soldiers are ALL LIES.

     

  4. when they embrace something “new” simply for the purpose of producing “news” bandwidth in a effort to placate the zombinals into thinking they are “doing something” about a thing they have zero influence or control or even intent about “fixing”.

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