CNN VIDEO REPORT EXPOSES STRYKER TRUCKS AS FAILURES IN COMBAT!

www.douglasmacgregor.com/cnnstrykertruckflawed032902005.wmv

Even though the Army tries to hid Stryker trucks from combat, an internal Army report details their many flaws which have resulted in calls for millions of dollars of repairs/alterations/fixes...retired Army Colonel Douglas Macgregor is interviewed...

Survive Iraq Gear List

1st TSG (A) is infuriated and sickened by the Army's negligence for not properly equipping our troops for non-linear combat in Iraq with light tracked AFVs. We have put together a desperation list of things individual Soldiers and units can do to save themselves. We will update this list regularly.

www.geocities.com/paratroop2000/surviveiraqgearlist.htm

O'Reilly's Latest Masterpiece: Preventable Deaths

Victor O'Reilly has in his latest report revealed why the U.S. Army is currently unable to reform itself as its men are killed/maimed in Iraq driving around in vulnerable wheeled vehicles while the tracked vehicles that could save them sit in storage; talk about "transformation" is just a "smoke screen" to perpetuate the failed status quo by changing a few brigades into impotent motorized infantry with computers while the vast majority of the Army gets clobbered on foot and in trucks if they are "light" and burdened with too-heavy tracks if they are "heavy".

POGO exposes high-level Army pay-offs behind Stryker wheeled armored car purchases

POGO calls for investigation into Stryker revolving door and rush to deploy in Iraq. Renewed debate on the revolving door has brought attention to the hiring of a top Army general by General Dynamics only 11 months before the defense contractor was awarded a $4 billion contract to build the Stryker armored vehicle. The first Stryker brigade was recently deployed in Iraq's Sunni Triangle despite warnings by the Pentagon's top tester that the wheeled vehicle is vulnerable to rocket propelled grenades (RPGs).

Stan Crist's Airborne M113 Gavins in Special Weapons for Military and Police #33 and #26

On news stands now!

Stan Crist has 4 articles in the two issues:

Taming the Tank Killer: defeating RPGs Iraqi Lessons Learned, page 28

Airborne Armor: Paratroopers become super-mobile mechanized infantry with enhanced M113A3s, page 48

The XM8-a first look: a new combat rifle for the U.S. Military, page 28

SCAR-Special Weapon for Special Forces?: its the Robinson Armament M96 in 6.8mm special purpose cartridge, page 60

Sign the Petition to Honor General James M. Gavin: name the M113

Join General Gavin's wife, Jean and others by signing a petition to name the world's greatest armored fighting vehicle (AFV) of all time, ever after its creator

Bush Administration Killing our troops: Lazy Neocon computer-steered firepower madness: world conquest without troops

Please listen to neocon idiots Richard Perle's and David Frums interview on NPR. They had some very interesting things to say about the military. It was like a bad Tofflerian nightmare. It was too bad the interviewer (Terry Gross) didn't know more about the military, she really could have got some more interesting "insights". She did attack Perle for his "revolving door" influence peddling; one scam earned him over $700, 000 trying to help a communist Hong Kong software company.

http://freshair.npr.org/day_fa.jhtml?display=day&todayDate=01/08/2004-1

We are in deep trouble with these two clowns steering Bush administration foreign policy. Who elected them? Who says they are "military experts"? They want to be world conquerors without being the "bad guy" storm troopers via labor-saving American gadget firepower. They want their cake without having to bake it.

The Neocons led by never-served-in-the-military, chickenhawk-wonks Richard Perle/Frums see Tofflerian RMA-we-can-steer-munitions-with-computers as a panacea to execute their pre-emptive war foreign policy on the cheap. They are so clueless they spin the debacle in Iraq as vindication for SecDef Rumsfeld's invade-Iraq-on-a-shoestring, with troops-in-trucks operation which nearly failed had it not been for the Army's 3rd ID in tracked AFVs able to overcome enemy physical resistance reaching Baghdad; cleverly they not mention that since the fall of the Iraqi government their computer-steered firepower hasn't been doing "squat" to keep the peace in Iraq which requires boots on the ground to find the Saddams and keep Iraqi guerrillas from blowing up oil pipelines.

The Neocon/Tofflerian RMA hubrists are so out-of-touch with physical reality with their we-don't-need-troops mentality they simply ignore the fact that we are losing men each day in Iraq trying to hold together what their firepower destroyed. Perle/Frums have no idea that military power and force is more than blowing things up. Its about CONTROL, about holding ground and making it livable, changing peoples and governments, MANEUVER not just firepower.

Operation Airborne Dragon: M113A3 Gavins flown into Northern Iraq: wheeled Army doesn't want you to know about it

www-cgsc.army.mil/milrev/download/english/NovDec03/barclay.pdf

IRTF 1-63rd Armor, 3rd BDE, 1st Infantry Division attached to 173rd Airborne Brigade

MRC
1st Platoon Bravo Company 2/2 IN M113A3 Gavin light AFVs
3rd Platoon Bravo Company 2/2 IN M113A3 Gavin light AFVs

HRC 2d Platoon Bravo Company 2/2 IN M2A2 Bradley Medium AFVs
3rd Platoon Charlie Company 1/63rd Armor Battalion M1A2 Abrams Heavy tanks

FSB and C4I elements

On 07 April 2003 the IRTF flew from Ramstein AFB, Germany to Bashur Airfield in Northern Iraq by 30 x C-17 Globemaster III sorties as the follow-on echelon to the 173rd Airborne Brigade which had jumped in earlier. Fanning out, the Sky Soldiers and IRTF Soldiers collapsed Iraqi resistance in the north by April 10th.

1st TSG (A)'s Carol Murphy in the Washington Post!

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/ A23732-2004Jan16.html

Copter Camouflage

Sunday, January 18, 2004; Page B06

After reading the Jan. 11 news story "Insurgents Downed Copter in Iraq, Army Says," I think The Post should ask the Army why its helicopters haven't been painted light tan or gray as the Marines, Navy and Air Force have all done to make their aircraft blend in with the blue-gray sky and desert tan of Iraq -- and harder to spot and shoot down.

CAROL MURPHY

New York

The writer is editor of the U.S. Army Aviation [Journal]

NG Iraqi Deployment Horror story unfolding as we speak....Shame on you, National Guard going along with active Army HMMWV truck non-sense

The National Guard's leadership in Washington D.C. and in the 30th and 81st Brigades is so lacking in professional military knowledge--even self-preservation survival instinct---that they are going to Iraq as "temporary help" underlings of the active army without demanding they take with them their 235+ M113 Gavin light tracked armored fighting vehicles which are perfectly suited to urban stability operations threatened by car/road bombs, grenades, RPGs and AK47 attacks. I say "+" because I'm not counting the M113s their Combat Engineers use. If you count just the M113 Gavins their Infantry and Armor Battalions use/have they have over 235 light tracked AFVs which can each move 11 Soldiers at a time, or 2,585 people under full armor protection at a single time.

81st ARMOR BDE = 94 x M113 Gavin-type light tracked AFVs
30th INFANTRY BDE = 141 M113 Gavin-type light tracked AFVs

TOTAL 235 x M113 Gavin-type light tracked AFVs

www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/ policy/army/toe/mech.htm

81st Armored BDE = has 94 x M113 Gavin type light tracked AFVs

30th Infantry BDE = has 141 x M113 Gavin type light tracked AFVs

www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/army/30in-bde.htm

The 30th eHSB, headquartered in Clinton, is the largest brigade in the North Carolina Army National Guard. The brigade has three maneuver battalions, two infantry and one armor. However, there appears to be an extra tank battalion from the West Virginia National Guard that is a part of the 30th IB BDE, making it have 2 battalions of infantry and two battalions of armor.

THE ARMY & MARINE WHEELED TRUCK MADNESS CONTINUES IN IRAQ: LAV-3/Stryker "Bird cage" didn't work, did it?

www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=4678909

In another attack, insurgents fired two rocket-propelled grenades at a U.S. Stryker military vehicle on patrol in a western district, setting it on fire, witnesses said. More blasts shook the Stryker, as its fuel tanks and ammunition exploded, but a U.S. military spokesman said there were no casualties. Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Piek of Task Force Olympia said the commander and driver of the vehicle had jumped out. Other Soldiers in the unit were patrolling on foot.

http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/WireFeed/WireFeed& c=WireFeed&cid=1079420081603

Iraqi guerrillas fire at U.S. military vehicle
(Reuters) - March 28 2004 14:11

MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - Insurgents have fired two rocket-propelled grenades at a U.S. military vehicle in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, setting it on fire, witnesses have said.

More blasts shook the wheeled Stryker armoured vehicle, apparently as its ammunition exploded. There was no immediate word on casualties in the attack in the west of the city.

A passer-by, Mahmoud Ibrahim, 40, said he had seen three attackers in a car fire an RPG at the Stryker as it went down a side street in a western district of Mosul on Sunday. Another RPG was fired at the U.S. vehicle moments later.

"I saw the Stryker burning," he said. "I saw nobody getting out of the vehicle."

U.S. troops in other Strykers sealed off the area.

Air-Mech-Strike for Stability Operations: CNN and General David Grange blow-the-whistle on the HMMWV and Stryker truck fiasco in Iraq that is killing/maiming our troops

See General Grange on CNN's Lou Dobbs MONEYLINE daily and every Thursday night or hear him on the radio:

www.veteransradiohour.com

Call in, ask him questions about Air-Mech-Strike or any other military topic!

ROUND 1

www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0404/26/ldt.00.html

DOBBS: The U.S. Army is sending hundreds of armored Humvees to Iraq to protect troops from attacks by insurgents. But tonight, there are new fears that the armor on those reinforced Humvees is still inadequate to provide protection for our Soldiers.

Senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre has the report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN MILITARY AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With U.S. troops still dying in deadly roadside attacks, the Pentagon is spending $400 million racing to replace the Army's basic thin- skinned Humvees with reinforced up-armored versions. But the better armor is still not providing adequate protection, writes a four-star general in a memo obtained by CNN.

"Commanders in the field are reporting to me that the up-armored Humvee is not providing the solution the Army hoped to achieve," writes General Larry Ellis, commanding general of the U.S. Army Forces Command, in a March 30 memo to the Army chief of staff.

Critics say, even with better armor, the Humvee's shoulder-level doors make it too easy to lob a grenade inside. Its four rubber tires burn too readily. At two tons, it is light enough to be overturned by a mob.

General Ellis wants to shift Army funds to build twice as many of the Army's newest combat vehicle, the Stryker, which has eight wheels, weighs 19 tons and when equipped with a special cage can withstand an RPG attack. "It is imperative that the Army accelerate the production of Stryker vehicles to support current operations," Ellis says.

But critics say the Army is overlooking an even cheaper, faster solution than the $3.3 million Stryker, the thousands of Vietnam-era M-113 Gavin personnel carriers the Army has in storage which can be upgraded with new armor for less than $100,000 apiece. Neither the Stryker nor the Gavin offer 100 percent protection. Some U.S. troops have been killed in the top-of-the-line M1-A1 Abrams tank. But the more armor, the better chance of survival.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCINTYRE: In his memo, General Ellis pleads for quick action, lamenting that, while the U.S. is at war, some in the Army seem to be in a peacetime posture. He writes: "If our actions impede the ability to train, equip or organize our Soldiers for combat, then we fail the soldier and the nation" -- Lou.

DOBBS: And General Ellis' remarks and note come a year after that war began in Iraq. What is -- what is taking so long for the command structure of the U.S. Army, the U.S. military, to provide the equipment that our men and women need in Iraq?

MCINTYRE: Well, I think the short answer is that they misestimated the threat that they would be facing at this point. They have been trying to adapt as time went on. They have been rushing the armored Humvees into theater, but now they are realizing they don't provide enough protection either. What General Ellis wants to do is quick action to get the authority to shift some funds around and ramp up production of the Strykers, so you can get more of those into the combat theater.

But, as I said, some of the critics say they should look to some of the vehicles they already have in storage. They think they can get them there even faster. I think General Ellis is reflecting some of the frustration that the Army feels it can't act fast enough to get enough protection to its troops.

DOBBS: General Ellis, a four-star general. Who put him in charge of looking into this? What is, if you will, his portfolio?

MCINTYRE: Well, he is commanding general of the U.S. Army Forces Command. So his main job is training and equipping. And, of course, he's writing this memo to the Army chief of staff, who is the main person in charge of training and equipping the Army, General Schoomaker. So the right people are focused on the problem. The question is how soon will they have the solution?

DOBBS: Well, for the sake of our men and women in uniform in Iraq, let's hope very quickly.

Jamie, thank you very much -- Jamie McIntyre, our senior Pentagon correspondent.

The military believes about 2,000 insurgents and foreign fighters are now holed up in Fallujah. The marines are hoping those insurgents will surrender their heavy weapons. But the troops are preparing to assault the city if the insurgents do not disarm.

I'm joined now by our CNN military analyst, General David Grange.

General, good to have you with us.

RETIRED BRIG. GEN. DAVID GRANGE, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Thank you, Lou.

DOBBS: I have to ask you, first, what is your reaction to Jamie McIntyre's report and the statement by General Ellis that, point blank, our command structure seems in some respects to be in a peacetime posture, while our men and women in uniform are in war in Iraq?

GRANGE: Well, Lou, I know the leadership of the Army and I don't think they are in a peacetime mind-set.

However, I do agree totally that armored vehicles need to be sent to Iraq immediately to solve some of these problems with the Humvees. First of all, the -- any armored vehicle can take a certain kind of hit and be destroyed or incapacitated. However, Humvees are not the answer. It's too light-skinned, even the up-armored, for some of these actions, whether it be resupply or combat missions that the troops have.

The interim solution is to take the inventory that was just shown on the broadcast of the old '113s, armor those, and use those immediately in Iraq to protect the troops.

DOBBS: General Grange, you are talking about what was popularly known as the APC, the armored personnel carrier, thousands of them, Jamie McIntyre reported, in storage and ready to be rearmored if necessary. Under current armor, could the APC still be serviceable, that is protect our troops in Iraq?

GRANGE: There's no 100 percent protection, but it would provide much more protection than a Humvee and they are readily available and can be up-armored quickly. The Stryker is going to take too long to produce that many. So I'd get something out there now during this very intense period in Iraq.

DOBBS: General, the question has to be asked, this is the 21st century. The U.S. military is supposed to be the most advanced and focused and technologically advantaged force in the world. Yet what appears to be at least at first blush when we have men and women without sufficient armored vests, when they don't have armored vehicles, even the old APC, it does raise a question, what in the world has gone on with our command structure? Because we've got men and women dying there.

GRANGE: Well, that's true. And it's -- when you are a commander on the ground, it's very frustrating when you don't get the things that you think, at least you think that you need. We relearn lessons from every war.

(CROSSTALK)

DOBBS: General, excuse me. Let me be clear in my question, if I was not. I'm not worried about the commander at the company level or the battalion level. I'm talking about the command structure of the United States military, the Pentagon.

GRANGE: Yes, the upgraded vehicles need to be sent to Iraq immediately. They should have already been there. The Humvee is not the answer. I think there was the -- the assessment that the transition after the maneuver warfare to the stability and support operations were not be as violent as it's become was off-base a little bit. But it can be fixed now. Let's do something now and at least provide the needed protection and maneuverability that can be afforded now with the assets that we have. It's still not too late to do something.

DOBBS: Twenty-two -- 2,500 Soldiers, rather, now around Najaf, the U.S. marines surrounding Fallujah. Negotiations continue, which are being honored in the breech here. What is your -- your assessment as to the risk and the necessity of entering in particular Fallujah?

GRANGE: Fallujah, I have a problem with the cease-fire. There are some people that generally want it in Fallujah, some of the civilian leaders. But the hard-core insurgents are going to continue when they want to attack coalition forces, unless they are disarmed.

The city has to be continue to be isolated. You have to separate as many of the civilians from the insurgents as possible. You have to control key terrain and the services provided to the city itself. And you have to take down enemy strongholds as you find them. It's the only way to ensure lasting peace in this particular city. I believe there's a lot of them, insurgents, in there and that's one reason they want to negotiate.

DOBBS: Do you think we should not be negotiating? Mark Kimmitt, General Mark Kimmitt, said capture or kill Muqtada al-Sadr. And the response so far has been, negotiate.

GRANGE: Well, in Fallujah, that out to be taken care of right now. I think there's some time for Sadr. Even though he's maintaining weapons, he's building up his supplies for a fight, I think that that can be worked out, I really do, with some senior Shiite clerics. But, in Fallujah, that's the immediate problem. That has to be taken care of. I think it's OK to have a cease-fire to give it a chance.

The coalition should give it a chance. But I would not test it too much with those marines. In other words, if it looks like it's not working, then be on with it and get on with it and take care of the insurgents in that town once and for all.

DOBBS: General David Grange on point, thank you.

ROUND 2

www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0404/27/ldt.00.html

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard Myers, today defended the Pentagon's decision not to send more Stryker and M-113 armored personnel carriers to Iraq. The general's comments followed Jamie's McIntyre's report yesterday citing a memo from a four-star general saying the Army's reinforced Humvees don't provide enough protection for our Soldiers.

CNN military analyst General David Grange joins me now. But first, let's hear exactly what General Myers said today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. RICHARD MYERS, JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: I think if you look at -- we'll have to get the figures on APCs. But all these systems -- none of these systems provide 100 percent protection. That's the fact.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DOBBS: General Grange, you believe the Pentagon can do better than that. How so?

RETIRED BRIG. GEN. DAVID GRANGE, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, I believe that. I think the Pentagon can do better.

General Myers is correct that there's not a fighting vehicle out there that provides 100 percent protection. But I think what the troops need is better protection than what they have out there right now. And there's stuff in the inventory, like the APC, the armed personnel carrier, the '113, that can provide that almost immediately to give some additional protection, medical personnel, engineers, civil affairs, logistics people, those moving around in the battlefield, it can be solved, I think, quite quickly.

DOBBS: Those '113s, the APC, do they have to be shipped from the United States, or are they forward deployed in other places?

GRANGE: Well, you have both. There's already '113s in country. They're in Kuwait and other places. But there's a lot in the military inventory.

In fact, they're part of the organization, the armored organizations right now, sometimes used as command-and-control vehicles, engineer vehicles, medical vehicles, command-and-control of artillery fires, different things like that. So they're out there. It is just a matter of getting them in there just to provide additional protection for the troops in certain tough situations.

DOBBS: Give us your best assessment. U.S. marines surround Fallujah. It appears that the prospects of entering Fallujah rise each day. Do our marines have the armor that they need to go into Fallujah again in your best assessment?

GRANGE: Well, as you know, the marines went over there with not all their equipment like many of the forces did because of the expectations of a little bit different type of environment. And it has become much more volatile.

I think that the marines will have to be enhanced with armor probably from the Army units that are there. There's armor in country to do that. If they attack throughout Fallujah, I don't think they will attack the entire city. But you want to a mixed infantry, foot Soldiers with armored units, armored elements in order to get the effect you need.

Sometimes, if there's an enemy sniper in the window, the best use of force, surgical use of force is a 120-millimeter tank round right through that window.

DOBBS: The 1st Armored Division, as you know, is there. They are amongst the troops who have been extended. That's heavy armor, that unit. How is that going to enter into the planning for further rotations in Iraq?

GRANGE: Well, one reason the 1st Armored stayed there was one, they're veterans of the battle. They've been there a year. They know what's going on. And they are a heavy unit. They have not only foot Soldiers, but they have armored vehicles to fight. So they were really a good choice for the situation.

I think subsequent rotations that the Department of Defense will ensure there's enough heavy armor mixed with the light forces, the special operating forces to do nation-building or whatever comes about, because you never know what the results will be.

DOBBS: General David Grange, thank you.

GRANGE: My pleasure.

MORE BREAKING M113 GAVIN NEWS!!

http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/04/28/wirq128.xml

Replace the hopeless Humvee, Pentagon chiefs are urged

By David Rennie in Washington
(Filed: 28/04/2004)

Armoured cars being sent to Iraq are not up to the job, according to a senior United States army general, prompting calls for Pentagon chiefs to swallow their pride and reactivate thousands of mothballed Vietnam-era armoured personnel carriers.

With improvised bombs, rifle fire and rocket-propelled grenades taking an ever deadlier toll on coalition forces, the Pentagon is spending £225 million to replace thin-skinned versions of the Humvee, the US military's ubiquitous jeep-like transport, with an "up-armoured" model, as fast as they can be churned off the production line.

Humvees are proving easy prey on the streets of Iraq

Commanders have shuddered as troops attached home-made armour plating and even sandbags to ordinary Humvees, whose thin skin, canvas doors and shoulder height windows have made them highly vulnerable to attack.

The new, armour-plated Humvees have been touted by Pentagon chiefs as the best solution to complaints from the field about the standard version of the vehicle.

But Gen Larry Ellis, the commanding general of US army forces, told his superiors that even the armoured Humvee is proving ineffective.

In a memo leaked to CNN television, he wrote: "Commanders in the field are reporting to me that the up-armoured Humvee is not providing the solution the army hoped to achieve."

Reports from the field say that even with armour plating, the Humvee's rubber tyres can be burnt out by a Molotov cocktail, while at two tons, it is light enough to be turned over by a mob.

Gen Ellis said it was "imperative" that the Pentagon instead accelerate production of the newest armoured personnel carrier, the Stryker, which weighs 19 tons and moves at high speed on eight rubber tyres.

But the Stryker has many influential critics who say it is too big to be flown easily on the military's C-130 transport aircraft, and too cumbersome to manoeuvre in narrow streets. Instead, they want the Pentagon to turn back the clock and re-deploy thousands of Vietnam-era M-113 "Gavin" armoured personnel carriers, which are still used by support and engineering units, and are held in huge numbers by reserve units.

Gary Motsek, the deputy director of support operations for US army materiel command, said: "I have roughly 700 113-series vehicles sitting pre-positioned in Kuwait, though some are in need of repairs. I have them available right now, if they want them."