Flight Pundit

There’s been a lot of grumbling about how more body armor could have saved the lives of many soldiers. The Boston Globe ran a story about this recently, citing a NY Times article about the subject. Some people want our Marines and soldiers to become robots, human beings covered in metal plates designed to protect them from the effects of war. It’s not possible to prevent every wound, fatal or otherwise.

The study last summer by the Office of the Armed Forces Medical Examiner looked at 93 fatal wounds from the start of the war in March 2003 through June 2005 and concluded that 74 of them were bullet or shrapnel wounds to shoulders or areas of the torso not protected by ceramic armor plating.

And:

The study found that of 39 fatal torso wounds in which the bullet or shrapnel entered the Marine’s body outside the ceramic armor plate that protects the chest and back, 31 were close to the plate’s edge. ”Either a larger plate or superior protection around the plate would have had the potential to alter the final outcome,” the study concluded.

Shillary took this and ran with it. Her phoney support of the troops went without checking with the actual warriors on the field. (Typical of her to yell and scream about things she knows nothing about).

Jan. 10, 2006 — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton called the Bush administration “incompetent” when it came to protecting the troops in combat and called the lack of adequate body armor for soldiers and Marines “unforgivable.”

Soldiers themselves have a few things to say about all this:

…But many soldiers say they feel encumbered by the weight and restricted by fabric that does not move as they do.

They frequently joke as they strap on their equipment before a patrol, and express relief when they return and peel it off.

Second Lt. Josh Suthoff, 23, of Jefferson City, Mo., said he already sacrifices enough movement when he wears the equipment. More armor would only increase his chances of getting killed, he said.

“You can slap body armor on all you want, but it’s not going to help anything. When it’s your time, it’s your time,” said Suthoff, a platoon leader in the brigade’s 1st Squadron, 33rd Cavalry Regiment. “I’d go out with less body armor if I could.”

It’s the Army’s responsibility to get soldiers the armor they need. But that doesn’t mean those deaths could have been prevented,” said Spc. Robert Reid, 21, of Atlanta.

The debate between protection versus mobility has dominated military doctrine since the Middle Ages, when knights wrapped themselves in metal suits for battle, said Capt. Jamey Turner, 35, of Baton Rouge, La., a commander in the 1st Squadron, 33rd Cavalry Regiment.

The issue comes up daily on the battlefield in Iraq, and soldiers need to realize there is no such thing as 100 percent protection, he said.

“You’ve got to sacrifice some protection for mobility,” he added. “If you cover your entire body in ceramic plates, you’re just not going to be able to move.”

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