2 Million Miles, Makeshift Armor and No Fatalities (VA Guard Unit "Lucky")

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11616-2004Mar20.html

<snip>

The absence of fatalities is all the more remarkable, the truckers say, because for the first three-quarters of their tour, the drivers, gunners and mechanics routinely traversed the deadliest sections of Iraq without bulletproof vests.

When a gunman in a speeding black BMW fired an AK-47 assault rifle into the chest of Spec. Nathan Williams, the slug was stopped by a steel plate Williams had purchased with his own money and then fitted into a Kevlar vest designed to stop only shrapnel. Otherwise, the high-velocity slug would have entered his heart.

"They were $3 apiece," said Capt. Joe Breeding, hefting one of the crudely cut, quarter-inch-thick steel plates a colleague had sent from a workshop in Virginia.

The shortage of body armor for U.S. troops recently emerged as an issue in the presidential campaign. Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, the presumptive Democratic nominee, has cited the shortage as evidence that President Bush cares too little about the welfare of the troops. Bush TV ads, in turn, have accused Kerry of casting a vote that would have deprived combat troops of body armor.

But it has been a matter of lively discussion for almost a year in Iraq, especially among the Guard and Reserve units that were called up to play support roles but found themselves in the thick of a guerrilla war.

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:nuke:

my nephew bought his own protective gear before going to Iraq -- to being reported in the press. It took far too long. And Bush can still stand before a crowd, as he did recently in Kentucky and yesterday in Florida, having shirked his own duty and failed to protect our troops in Iraq, cheered heartily as the military's hero.

a lot are buying their own shoes, because the Army issue ones do not work well over there.