Military Families Forced To Buy Gear For Soldiers In Iraq

Originally posted by Cearbhall
I was in Iraq, I had body armour, my family or myself didn't have to pay for it. Interesting.

How long ago was that? Maybe they're only having problems now, since there are more troops there than ever before? I'm sure it's a luck of the draw kind of thing. Some probably do have everything they need, I'm sure, and have no clue that others don't.

[edit on 8-10-2004 by Damned]

Originally posted by Intelearthling
Maybe Kerry should have voted or fowarded a bill for a larger package to help cover the cost of necessary equipment.

Absolutely! That certainly would have helped save lives,
wouldn't it have? But of course, Kerry ALWAYS has voted
against the US Military and Intelligence (and our security)
.... he actually managed to show up for THOSE senate votes.

My mate is in the Royal marines although he has everything he needs when training in Norway earlier this year he bought better equpiment so he'd be warmer etc. It was also noted that especially when the firrst invasion processes were happening there was'nt enough equipment and soldiers were in woodland kit with boots that melted in the heat

As they say a force of Lions lead by Donkeys!

Originally posted by FlyersFan

Originally posted by Intelearthling
Maybe Kerry should have voted or fowarded a bill for a larger package to help cover the cost of necessary equipment.

Absolutely! That certainly would have helped save lives,
wouldn't it have? But of course, Kerry ALWAYS has voted
against the US Military and Intelligence (and our security)
.... he actually managed to show up for THOSE senate votes.

Please do not turn this into a Kerry vs Bush thread. As I stated,
the purpose is to help military families and soldiers - not to bitch.

There are various ways to help soldiers. Many in VA hospitals need phonecards to call home, for example. Buying 20.00 worth of cards isn't much to ask.

[edit on 8-10-2004 by bushblows]

Here's another letter. Hell there is hundreds of letters like these.
www.yubanet.com...

when are the morons in this country going to admit they have been duped and stop supporting Bush?

When you vote Bush maybe DiRtYDeViL? *shrugs*
Good to see you back in action.



seekerof

[edit on 8-10-2004 by Seekerof]

"I bet the soldiers for hire our gov't has contracted to be there have everything they need...and we wonder why they are leaving the army and opting to get hired in..."

Hmm... 15K a month tax free Vs. 2K and change for doing a much easier job, pick your own weapons, light body armor that hides under your T-shirt, wear civilian cloths, not living like a homeless person and time off. Also, they only want you there 3-4 months at a time, then send you back home for a breather, since they don't want you stressed out - anyone who's infantry over there would take that job in a second.

A while back they were offering 250K (still tax free) if you'd commit a year straight over there. Probably still are.

I am trying to get armor to my baby sister. She has just been deployed. She will be leaving any time but they estimate leaving the US November 28th-Dec 5th. I already started a donation site here: www.thefactotum.com...

I am just not sure what the legality is with sending armor. Does anyone know if the military has a problem with this? Any help would be wonderful. Thanks.

I take it you mean body armour....has she asked for it? If you know what outfit she is with then I assume they have a family liasion and support officer for the outfit or the parent command (ie. the formation her unit belongs to). Contact them and see if they have any issues......They may see it as a very civic minded and caring guesture.

If theyre not, then theres no point trying to send one. It'll never get through.


On another point, Soldiers buying items of kit because they are short, or because they individually find something else better or because its not standard issue but is "nice to have handy" is not unusual.

In peacetime the budgets which civilians do not usually complain about on behalf of service members (a minority in the general population) do not provide for every man and woman to have those items. Mainly because they are not all expected to deploy at once. They will have a fraction of it, and even the conflict is expected to be short in duration they will not go to the trouble of buying much extra.

I was trained as a storeman in my last year in the Australian Army, and what a unit has in peace and is supposed to have in war are too very different things......and even more different to what they actually go to war with.

I assume it is the same with the US Army. Maybe if people shocked by this report were prepared to support paying more taxes.....

I remember on the news there was a big thing about police and emergency service units in the US doing a big drive to collect and send tens of thousands of surplus or spare vests to troops deploying when the stockpile of Army issue ran short......last year?

I knew lots of soldiers who agreed some unsupplied items of kit were desirable or others that were better than the issue (Give me a group of 30 soldiers and I'll find you no two guys who agree on what extras/different items you should have)........................................

....A lot of soldiers I know happily buy thier own extras or kit mods on one proviso....On the outside you all look pretty much the same.

Cheers.

[edit on 28-10-2004 by craigandrew]

Some one said their brother didnt have a pillow?....Not getting stuck in btw just explaining something.

Most soldiers doent expect to have one even in camp overseas. Barracks back home maybe. If it was still like when I was in the Australian Army Reserve your kit towel or jumper was your pillow and your bed a sleeping bag on the ground..soft or otherwise. Sometimes we were even in barracks for courses and slept in sleeping bags to save money for training and other more necessary things than sheets and blankets.

In wartime moreso.

Soldiers have more immediate concerns......sufficent food, medical supplies, good boots, wet weather gear, basic construction supplies for setting up defensive positions, ammo, generator fuel and a million and one other items that the supply chain must get up to them.

Send your brother a pillow and best wishes and write your congressman asking him why your brother and his mates havent got all the kit they need eighteen months down the track and what THEY are going to do about it before they are next up for election.

Thats what everybody should do who is worried about those they care about in the warzone.

Well that is waht we get for outsourcing the comapassionate job of supplying and feeding our troops to companies like Halliburton. Funny their own private mercenaries guarding their offices and oil interests over there are well equipped.

And in your job or service that you call your occupation.......do you give it away for free or spend your money freely for no return to make goods or provide services, or are there those (if only your family) who expect you to bring home an income and god forbid, a profit maybe.

Corporations are just income writ large.

But back to the point of this post. Its supposed to be about seeing what can be done to get to the troops what those soldiers need, and trying to explain what they reality is when it comes to the supply situation.

If you want to bitch about the war, there hundreds of other threads for you to do it on.

[edit on 28-10-2004 by craigandrew]

[edit on 28-10-2004 by craigandrew]

Originally posted by craigandrew
And in your job or service that you call your occupation.......do you give it away for free or spend your money freely for no return to make goods or provide services, or are there those (if only your family) who expect you to bring home an income and god forbid, a profit maybe.
Corporations are just income writ large.
But back to the point of this post. Its supposed to be about seeing what can be done to get to the troops what those soldiers need, and trying to explain what they reality is when it comes to the supply situation.
If you want to bitch about the war, there hundreds of other threads for you to do it on.

LOL
Dude, my point is, if you want to take care of our soldiers, don't trust a corrupted private coporation to do it through no-bid contracts awarded to them by their former CEO. And my job is acting, but if I was awarded a huge no bid contract to feed and clothe a group of guys, I'd probably spend some of that money, you know, on food and clothes.

Point taken.

We recently had a big fanfare about more money being put into defence here, and a lot of service guys I talk to are complaining that most of it seem to have gone into consultancies planning on how to recruit more people into uniforms or on how to spend the money on equipment. The guys are worrying there will not be enough left to buy paperclips!

Last year a major consortium opened up a south-north commercial freight rail link through central Australia (Adelaide via Alice Springs to Darwin) for the first time.

Thier biggest ongoing contract? The transportation of ADF equipment between Darwin and Adelaide for exercises and maintenance. In the wet season in the tropics (Darwin) the rains can submerge roads for hundred of miles and the rail link is the only way to ship heavy goods. It also saves road wear on the ADF vehicles. Why am I mentioning this?

Because after it was announced last year, a major newspaper here revealed Halliburton was a shareholder in the Australian operating company and it was proving a tad difficult to get info on what the tender process was or what Defence is paying out annually on the contract.

This was just after the US Forces Iraq fuel bill brooha last year.

But my point is. If your not registered over there to vote now, do it and use the fact to pressure your congressmen and senators to do something about it BEFORE they are up for re-election. Time to pay for the trough.Soooooeeeeee!

[edit on 28-10-2004 by craigandrew]

Originally posted by craigandrew
Because after it was announced last year, a major newspaper here revealed Halliburton was a shareholder in the Australian operating company and it was proving a tad difficult to get info on what the tender process was or what Defence is paying out annually on the contract.

Do you have a link to this information, I would like to read up on it as I am collecting information on Halliburton and it's subsidaries and haven't heard of that one.

Here's another article.....

www.military.com...

I ran across another article on the military.com site that said the body armor problem was taken care of and they were reimbursing the families. Weather or not they got behind again, I don't know.

As far as the problem being that we aren't taxed enough.....sorry, don't buy it. If anything, the government needs to learn to spend their money more wisely.


www.cnn.com...


If there's anything out there, a charity or something to help get the troops what they need.....I imagine the military. com site might know about it.....maybe email them and ask....

I couldn't find a link but the story would most likely have run first in "The Australian" national weekly or "The Weekend Australian" national weekend news paper......it ran last year a short time after the fuel pricing issue in Iraq came up.

I dont know if you would have better luck.