{"id":891,"date":"2004-10-22T10:30:29","date_gmt":"2004-10-22T17:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/2004\/10\/humvees_on_parade\/"},"modified":"2004-10-22T10:30:29","modified_gmt":"2004-10-22T17:30:29","slug":"humvees_on_parade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/2004\/10\/humvees_on_parade.html","title":{"rendered":"HUMVEES ON PARADE"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><P>Here&#8217;s a grassroots view of &#8220;the hidden extent of systemically ill-considered acquisition<br \/>\nactions&#8221; for U.S. troops in Iraq, according to a weapons expert who brought it to my attention:<br \/>\n<\/P><br \/>\n<P><br \/>\n<BLOCKQUOTE><FONT face=Courier>Date: 040718<BR>Slug:<br \/>\nVEHICLEARMOR<BR>By: Sgt. Zachary A. Bathon<\/FONT><br \/>\n<P><\/P><br \/>\n<P><FONT face=Courier>CAMP VIRGINIA, Kuwait &#8211; In a large warehouse outside of Kuwait<br \/>\nCity civilian contractors from more than 25 countries around the world work in two, 12-hour<br \/>\nshifts seven days a week. <\/FONT><\/P><br \/>\n<P><FONT face=Courier>They are working around the clock in temperatures reaching 120<br \/>\ndegrees to ensure U.S. Marines are protected from improvised explosive devices and small-arms<br \/>\nfire during convoy operations by installing new panels, dubbed up-armor, to the gunner&#8217;s turret,<br \/>\nundercarriage and sides of their vehicles.<\/FONT><\/P><br \/>\n<P><FONT face=Courier>&#8220;Since February we have installed more than 5,000 kits on Marine<br \/>\nCorps vehicles,&#8221; said Chief Warrant Office 2 Eric Gilmer, who hails from Columbus, Ohio, and is<br \/>\na project team leader from Logistics Command, Marine Corps Base Albany, Ga. &#8220;The guys in my<br \/>\nshop call this &#8216;Operation Armor All.'&#8221;<\/FONT> <\/P><\/BLOCKQUOTE><br \/>\n<P><\/P><br \/>\n<P>The issue raised by Bathon&#8217;s report is not how well protected those 5,000 vehicles may now<br \/>\nbe, our weaons expert says,&nbsp;but rather: &#8220;Do the services buy humvees and tanker trucks<br \/>\nonly for use in parades?&#8221; As we know from recent headlines, inadequately armored humvees and<br \/>\ntanker trucks are still being sent into hot combat zones.<\/P><br \/>\n<P>Sorry, I can&#8217;t find Bathon&#8217;s report online at the moment. But it&#8217;s out there on&nbsp;one of<br \/>\nthe&nbsp;Marine Corps sites. When&nbsp;I have it, I&#8217;ll let you know.<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s a grassroots view of &#8220;the hidden extent of systemically ill-considered acquisition actions&#8221; for U.S. troops in Iraq, according to a weapons expert who brought it to my attention: Date: 040718Slug: VEHICLEARMORBy: Sgt. Zachary A. Bathon CAMP VIRGINIA, Kuwait &#8211; In a large warehouse outside of Kuwait City civilian contractors from more than 25 countries [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-891","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbvgEs-en","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}