East Tennessee Heartland

WASHINGTON — The adequacy of protective armor for U.S. troops will be a key focus of a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing early next year, according to a spokesman for panel chairman U.S. Sen. John Warner, R-Va. "The committee plans to hold an oversight hearing on the Iraq mission early in the new Congress, and the subject of armor will play a major part of that hearing," said spokesman John Ullyot in a statement.
   Sen. Warner and lawmakers of both parties will "gather further information on the armor situation on scheduled oversight trips to the region in the coming weeks," Mr. Ullyot said.
   Carrie Sloan, a spokeswoman for the House Armed Services Committee, said in an e-mail Monday that while the 2005 committee schedule has not been set yet, "We held a number of hearings on this issue in the 108th Congress and anticipate that we would continue that in the new year."
   Questions about whether the Defense Department is doing all it can to protect U.S. soldiers in Iraq reignited last week when Tennessee National Guard Spc. Thomas "Jerry" Wilson raised concerns with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in a question-and-answer session in Kuwait. Spc. Wilson, who is with the 278th Regimental Combat Team, asked why soldiers were having to "dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to uparmor our vehicles."
   Many soldiers in the audience of more than 2,000 soldiers cheered.
   The secretary responded that "you have to go to war with the Army you have." He said providing more of the up-armored vehicles was a "matter of physics, not a matter of money."
   Rachel Carter, a spokeswoman for U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., said Monday the Chattanooga congressman "supports the call for congressional hearings early next year on the equipment provided to the National Guard, including Tennessee’s 278 th, and the issue of up-armored humvees."
   Staff members for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, RTenn., were unavailable for comment. They are attending a retreat this week.
   Defense officials defended the armor situation with Lt. Gen. R. Steven Whitcomb, commander of the 3rd Army, saying last week that 22,000 of 30,000 vehicles in Iraq, Afghanistan and other Central Command bases have additional armor.
   Six thousand are Humvees that were "up-armored" in factories. That is about 2,100 short of what the military would like. Some 10,000 Humvees have been outfitted with armor kits. Officials said no Humvees will be deployed in combat situations unless they are armored.
   Still, House Armed Services Committee figures showed that earlier this year, only 479 of 4,814 medium trucks in the Central Command Theater were armored while 663 of 4,314 trucks were armored.
   A member of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga., said the armor issue has come up before the House Armed Services Committee in "at least 15 different hearings" and "we’re told constantly we’re going as fast as we can."
   He said Congress has appropriated around $1.3 billion to address problems.
   While factory production of armored Humvees has increased from some 30 a month to 450, contractor Armor Holdings officials said last week they could boost their output to 550 a month. The statements prompted apparently startled Army officials to begin discussions to boost production.
   E-mail Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com

This story was published Tuesday, December 14, 2004

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