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Marines died short of armor
By Michael Moss
01/08/05 "New
York Times" -- -- A secret Pentagon study has found
that as many as 80 percent of the marines who have been killed in
Iraq from wounds to their upper body could have survived if they had
had extra body armor. Such armor has been available since 2003, but
until recently the Pentagon has largely declined to supply it to
troops despite calls from the field for additional protection,
according to military officials.
The ceramic plates in vests now worn by the majority of troops in
Iraq cover only some of the chest and back. In at least 74 of the 93
fatal wounds that were analyzed in the Pentagon study of marines
from March 2003 through June 2005, bullets and shrapnel struck the
marines' shoulders, sides or areas of the torso where the plates do
not reach.
Thirty-one of the deadly wounds struck the chest or back so close to
the plates that simply enlarging the existing shields "would have
had the potential to alter the fatal outcome," according to the
study, which was obtained by The New York Times.
For the first time, the study by the military's medical examiner
shows the cost in lost lives from inadequate armor, even as the
Pentagon continues to publicly defend its protection of the troops.
Officials have said they are shipping the best armor to Iraq as
quickly as possible. At the same time, they have maintained that it
is impossible to shield forces from the increasingly powerful
improvised explosive devices used by insurgents. Yet the Pentagon's
own study reveals the equally lethal threat of bullets.
The vulnerability of the military's body armor has been known since
the start of the war, and is part of a series of problems that have
surrounded the protection of U.S. troops. Still, the U.S. Marine
Corps did not begin buying additional plates to cover the sides of
their troops until last September, when it ordered 28,800 sets,
marine officials acknowledge.
A secret Pentagon study has found that as many as 80 percent of the
marines who have been killed in Iraq from wounds to their upper body
could have survived if they had had extra body armor. Such armor has
been available since 2003, but until recently the Pentagon has
largely declined to supply it to troops despite calls from the field
for additional protection, according to military officials.
The ceramic plates in vests now worn by the majority of troops in
Iraq cover only some of the chest and back. In at least 74 of the 93
fatal wounds that were analyzed in the Pentagon study of marines
from March 2003 through June 2005, bullets and shrapnel struck the
marines' shoulders, sides or areas of the torso where the plates do
not reach.
Thirty-one of the deadly wounds struck the chest or back so close to
the plates that simply enlarging the existing shields "would have
had the potential to alter the fatal outcome," according to the
study, which was obtained by The New York Times.
For the first time, the study by the military's medical examiner
shows the cost in lost lives from inadequate armor, even as the
Pentagon continues to publicly defend its protection of the troops.
Officials have said they are shipping the best armor to Iraq as
quickly as possible. At the same time, they have maintained that it
is impossible to shield forces from the increasingly powerful
improvised explosive devices used by insurgents. Yet the Pentagon's
own study reveals the equally lethal threat of bullets.
The vulnerability of the military's body armor has been known since
the start of the war, and is part of a series of problems that have
surrounded the protection of U.S. troops. Still, the U.S. Marine
Corps did not begin buying additional plates to cover the sides of
their troops until last September, when it ordered 28,800 sets,
marine officials acknowledge.
Copyright © 2006 the International Herald Tribune
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