ASsman
10-19-2004, 06:51 AM
AMY GOODMAN: They're talking about the difference between how the army is protected, and how National Guardspeople are protected. Can you talk about that?
PAUL RIECKHOFF: Let me give you an example. When I deployed through Ft. Stewart, Georgia, with my infantry platoon. You go through an area called the central issuance facility. It's where you get all your equipment, your boots, your helmets, your flak jackets. And a transportation company from an active duty unit went ahead of us and got interceptor body armor, the ceramic plates, the top of the line body armor we’ve heard so much about recently in the presidential race. They got it, and as soon as my first guy came through the line, the guy said, “Oh, you guys are National Guard. I’m sorry. You can’t have that. Here’s the old stuff, the Vietnam flak jackets off the shelf.” And I said, “Sir, you’ve got to be kidding me. We are front line infantry units. We need the best stuff you’ve got.” He said, “I’m sorry. We don't have enough to go around. You’re going to have to deal with what we’ve got.” And that was the inferior Vietnam-era flak jackets that stop next to nothing.
----
(Here are some facts, he was IN THE IRAQ AS A SOLDIER. You tell him he is a liar. )
PAUL RIECKHOFF: At the outset in the first invasion, active duty soldiers received priority on body armor, so my unit, 38 Infantry soldiers and 40,000 other troops went into Iraq without body armor, went into Iraq with the old Vietnam-era flak jackets, 40,000 people of the initial invasion.
Rushed Transcript
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/18/1438232
PAUL RIECKHOFF: Let me give you an example. When I deployed through Ft. Stewart, Georgia, with my infantry platoon. You go through an area called the central issuance facility. It's where you get all your equipment, your boots, your helmets, your flak jackets. And a transportation company from an active duty unit went ahead of us and got interceptor body armor, the ceramic plates, the top of the line body armor we’ve heard so much about recently in the presidential race. They got it, and as soon as my first guy came through the line, the guy said, “Oh, you guys are National Guard. I’m sorry. You can’t have that. Here’s the old stuff, the Vietnam flak jackets off the shelf.” And I said, “Sir, you’ve got to be kidding me. We are front line infantry units. We need the best stuff you’ve got.” He said, “I’m sorry. We don't have enough to go around. You’re going to have to deal with what we’ve got.” And that was the inferior Vietnam-era flak jackets that stop next to nothing.
----
(Here are some facts, he was IN THE IRAQ AS A SOLDIER. You tell him he is a liar. )
PAUL RIECKHOFF: At the outset in the first invasion, active duty soldiers received priority on body armor, so my unit, 38 Infantry soldiers and 40,000 other troops went into Iraq without body armor, went into Iraq with the old Vietnam-era flak jackets, 40,000 people of the initial invasion.
Rushed Transcript
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/18/1438232