Don't know how old you are, however, I am surprised you do not remember the families begging for better armor, sending their children body armor bought with their own money, the military preventing the troops from getting privately bought body armor, soldiers scrounging in junk yards for iron to re-enforce the armor on the HumVees, body armor issued missing armor plates, etc.
If you do a little searching you can find articles from Fox, etc., on the situation. We invaded in 2003, and still in 2007, and 2010, they had inadequate equipment. Now people are upset about Benghazi, and we still don't know why Stevens was there at the compound, yet nothing will ever be done about the thousands of troops killed, and maimed, by the lack of protection in Iraq/Afghanistan.
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/6676765/n...-soldiers-equipmentgripes-heard/#.UgeDJm0nRnA
Those complaints, and others, were aired Wednesday when Rumsfeld held a “town hall”-style meeting with about 2,300 soldiers at Camp Buehring in northern Kuwait, a transit camp for troops heading into Iraq.
Wilson asked Rumsfeld, “Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up-armor our vehicles?” Shouts of approval and applause arose from other soldiers who had assembled in an aircraft hangar to see Rumsfeld.
Rumsfeld hesitated and asked Wilson to repeat his question.
“We do not have proper armored vehicles to carry with us north,” Wilson, 31, of Nashville, Tenn., concluded after asking again.
“You go to war with the Army you have,” Rumsfeld replied, “not the Army you might want or wish to have.
<snip>
He added: “Does everything happen instantaneously as the brain in the enemy sees things and makes changes? No, it doesn’t happen instantaneously.” But the Army has adjusted “pretty rapidly” to the evolving tactics of the insurgents, he said, including the need to have more armor on vehicles like the Humvee.
MSNBC.com reported earlier this year that the Army was aware that Humvees were under-protected as far back as 1993 but was still officially advising soldiers as recently as March to put sandbags on the floorboards to deaden the impact of mine explosions.
Rumsfeld promised that steps were also being taken to deal with explosive devices, a leading cause of death in Iraq, where more than 1,000 U.S. soldiers have been killed in action.
http://jonathanturley.org/2007/08/20/body-armor-us-soldiers-lack-best-protective-gear/
Both the sergeant and his wife are serving in Iraq, and both have seen action. But, like thousands of U.S. soldiers, his wife was not given the vital ceramic plates for her Kevlar Interceptor vest to protect her from bullet wounds. Instead, he said, she had to scavenge to find plates left behind by Iraqi soldiers — plates of inferior quality that do not properly fit her vest.
The Pentagon confirms that at least 40,000 of the 130,000 U.S. troops in Iraq don’t have basic Kevlar Interceptor vests or the ceramic plates needed for full protection.
http://www.armytimes.com/article/20101204/NEWS/12040306/Soldiers-Iraq-will-get-new-body-armor
A better body armor that was shelved last year is now making its way to soldiers in Iraq — but not Afghanistan.
All-Army Activities message 347, dated Nov. 17, outlined the limited fielding of the X Small Arms Protective Inserts, or XSAPI, as well as X Side Ballistic Inserts, or XSBI. Distribution will begin Dec. 15.
Soldiers deploying to Iraq in support of Operation New Dawn will receive XSAPI plates, which will then remain in theater. This will continue until U.S.-based stocks are emptied. Distribution of XSBI plates will follow a similar procedure, but will not begin until February or March.
But soldiers headed to Afghanistan will continue to deploy with Enhanced Small Arms Protective Inserts, or ESAPI, as well as Enhanced Side Ballistic Inserts, or ESBI.
