Many of these guys make recommendations based on promises of future employment from contractors, a sad but real part of our government.  I just think that IF that is what is happening, then these guys may be trading GI's lives for a sweet retirement.  That is unacceptable.  I'm as much of a capitalist as anyone, but there was a time it would have been deemed un-American to do so, and I don't know what the hell happened to this country that that changed, but it did. 

Aside from being a vet, I am a 20th generation American and a Son of the Revolution.  I believe in what this country does, but believe there are some scumbags who think that tax money is there for their own use.

The six billion these guys squandered is alot of money to not fix a problem.  Try asking the government for $6,000,000,000 to take care of the GI's and the families of those who aren't coming back.  Spend six billion on better equipment.  Hell, for six billion dollars you can probably run a hell of a sting operation to track down IED manufacturers.  But do something to fix the problem.

"The degenerative and loony should never be denigrated but, rather, thanked. In their absence, the rest of you would be obliged to fill congressional seats... positions naturally unsavory to the sane and honorable."

Thorax

It was a female officer who made that post and she is currently deployed in support of OIF.  OPSEC is a very real concern for her and her husband, also deployed.

Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you, Jesus Christ and the American GI.  One died for your soul, the other for your freedom.

"History teaches that when you become indifferent and lose the will to fight someone who has the will to fight will take over." COLONEL BULL SIMONS

For the sake of my story it does.  The Congressional Record Report states JIEDDO reported to Congress in September 2006 that the Stryker was effective and used that report as the basis for a large purchase from General Dynamics.  Here is the report.

  http://research.fit.edu/fip/documents/SecNews1.pdf

Top of page 3, the writer reports that there has been no loss of life after 56 "news reported" IED attacks on Strykers from Dec 03 to October 04. 

My question is, why would a report from a Department of Defense Organization only use "news reported" and only comment on Stryker attacks from Dec 03 to Oct 04 in a report written in September 2006?

My story is on the fact that they didn't do enough, based on the fact that IED casualty numbers have doubled since JIEDDO's inception.  I come here and a thousand other places looking for perspective on the story.  The story isn't about Strykers, it is about an inefficient bureaucratic government agency.  If there only answer is the Stryker, then it better be a good answer.

• Tires vs Track and the vulernability of tires
• Vehicle height, turn/roll possibilities
• Issues with RPG hits and the additional "fence" that they were adding
• Airdrop issues - being an airborne board, anything you cant drop from an aircraft gets hammered

At that time... I dont believe IEDs were really even a known issue so our discussions on Stryker/IED survivability is limited to I think that one post showing an IED that rolled a stryker.

I think we can all agree that the stryker seems to be doing a good job in the field, since we dont have any stryker types, there is no hard and fast details, only what we read and hear about. Im sure that if given the choice between HMMWV and Stryker, I'll hop in the Styker because my odds of surviving an IED increase substantially but I still say that wheels always seem like an easy point of failure.

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The discussion centered around upgrading M113 APC's for less money than the cost of purchasing new Strykers.  The M113 could be upgraded with better armor and not only could be deployed by C-130 but could be airdropped, providing Airborne and light forces with more mobility than the standard issue boot.  This would truly increase the Army to rapidly put mobile forces on the ground(the ability of the AF to transport and drop a brigade or more with APC's, of course, is another discussion).  There are thousands of APC's in storage in this Country that could have been upgraded quickly for this mission and provided Soldiers with more protection than the Stryker.

What happened is that at least one brigade(the 3rd Brigade 2nd ID at Ft. Lewis) was converted to a Stryker brigade, giving it less armor protection than the Bradleys they had been using while not increasing the deployment time.  And two light brigades, the 3/25th(then at Ft. Lewis) and the 172nd in Alaska, were converted to Stryker brigades, which provided them with more armor protection than previously but making deployment slower.  Also, the 75th Rangers have been provided Strykers specifically for ongoing operations in OIF and OEF in order to provide them with more armor protection than HMMWV.

One final note, prior to the deployment of the first Stryker brigade there were reports about how the terrain in Iraq was eating up the tires on HMMWV quicker than normal.  Initially the Army was having a hard time keeping HMMWVs on patrol because of this.  After the Strykers were deployed there was no more discussion about replacing tires.  Of course, this would also be a problem with the uparmored HMMWVs.

Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you, Jesus Christ and the American GI.  One died for your soul, the other for your freedom.

"History teaches that when you become indifferent and lose the will to fight someone who has the will to fight will take over." COLONEL BULL SIMONS