MISSING IN ARMOR

When 18 soldiers in Iraq refused an order to join a fuel convoy, the Army immediately locked them up and questioned them. It is unclear if the soldiers’ concerns – that they were being sent on a dangerous mission in poorly maintained trucks lacking armor – got such quick attention. They should. Just as the Army said it would conduct an expedient review of the action of the soldiers and determine what punishment was appropriate, it must also quickly review the claims of the reservists and why they were not heeded. Any deficiencies in the trucks they were ordered to drive should also be repaired.

Last Wednesday, 18 members of the 343rd Quartermaster Company refused to participate in a convoy of seven fuel trucks headed from Tallil air base near Nasiriyah to Taji north of Baghdad. The soldiers said the trucks they were asked to take were in poor condition and lacked armor. They also said the fuel they were to haul was contaminated.

The soldiers were immediately detained and questioned. It was not until Sunday that Army officials said they would look into the soldiers’ concerns about the trucks. Although the military operates under a strict chain of command and disobeying orders is a serious offense, the soldiers’ concerns should have been addressed when they were first raised.

The soldiers’ commanding officer acknowledged during a Sunday news conference in Iraq that his troops, which man some 250 convoys ferrying fuel, food and ammunition across Iraq each day, face dangerous duty. “In [my] opinion, the most dangerous job in Iraq is driving a truck. … it’s not if, but when, they will be attacked,” said Brig. Gen. James Chambers, commanding general of 13th Corps Support Command or Coscom.

Yet, 20 percent of 13th Coscom’s 4,000 trucks are not fitted with custom steel armor plating. Those who balked at making the convoy last week were among the last left unarmored, because the unit’s missions normally took it to a less dangerous part of Iraq.

None of the unit’s trucks arrived in Iraq with armor. Since February, the unit’s engineers and private contractors have been working in impromptu maintenance yards to weld heavy metal boxes over truck cabs. Because of the incident, new armor is being bolted on trucks and vehicle maintenance has been upgraded.

The 15,000 troops under Chambers’ command – almost 90 percent of whom are Reservists or National Guard soldiers – have completed 75,000 convoy missions throughout Iraq with 26 soldiers killed since April, he said. No members of the 343rd have been killed in the nine months they have been in Iraq.

The soldiers under investigation must complete additional training

and win recertification to regain permission to perform convoy missions, Chambers said.

Just as the soldiers must be certified as fit for duty, so must their equipment. In a war that’s costing $1 billion a month, there’s no excuse for ordering soldiers to drive unarmored trucks through imminent insurgent attacks.