Marines Give Modular Tactical Vest (MTV) Thumbs Down

[Uboat509]

This has been one of my biggest pet peeved for years, the military's unwillingness or inability to think all the way through the problem. Body armor is a prime example. The thinkng seems to be "Bullets are bad ergo, things that stop bullets must be good." That is a bit of an oversimplification. But not as much as you would think. I had a team sergeant who used to joke about being issued a hundred pounds of lightweight equipment to carry. That joke isn't as funny as it used to be. The powers that be consider protection but don't consider weight or bulk or at least they don't seem to do so the way the soldier on the ground does. Combine that with commanders that cannot or will not allow subordinates to tailor the load to the mission and you have a problem.

We used to joke that it was only a matter of time before they started dipping us in concrete. We all thought that was pretty funny until we got orders to report to be fitted for rebar.

SFC W