2008 Woodie Awards
U.S. Air Force begins using Kevlar shorts
Richard Whittle ; The Dallas Morning News
Issue date: 4/27/05 Section: News
- Page 1 of 3 next >
|
That blast last July killed a gunner in the back of the truck and wounded a passenger in the cab. A metal shard dug six centimeters into Chege's butt. The 26-year-old Seattle native's legs went numb. For a while, he couldn't walk or use the toilet. "They had to put a colostomy bag on me."
Now, thanks to the ingenuity and cooperation of a small group of military officers and civilian equipment specialists, the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab at Quantico has developed a novel form of body armor--Kevlar shorts--to save troops from death or maiming injuries.
But the new armor has been issued to only a handful of the troops at risk. After public outcry over shortages of flak vests and armored Humvees, the Army and Marines ordered those items by the thousands. The unfamiliar Kevlar shorts have yet to inspire such fervor.
The manufacturer calls it a classic illustration of bureaucratic inertia.
Nine months after the Marines began trying out the new shorts, only the Air Force has bought a significant number for personnel on dangerous convoy duty in Iraq.
The Marines, who pride themselves on being the nation's quick reaction force, are still testing a batch of 10 pair and don't plan to make a decision on buying more for months.
That frustrates John Clark, one of the principals at L.B. Technologies, the Frederick sburg, Va., firm that devised the shorts. "It's not rocket science to figure out they need something to protect them," he said.
Navy Lt. Deborah Packard, the officer in charge of the Kevlar shorts project for the Warfighting Lab, said feedback is needed from Marines in Iraq.
"If commanders in the field are saying they want this, we'll make it happen," she said. If they don't, she added, "There's a process. You have to do a request for information, a request for proposal and all that."
"If you go through every single step, it could take quite a while."
The Army, with thousands more troops in Iraq than the other services, considered the Kevlar shorts but instead is buying a far more elaborate suit of armor for its gunners.