Collins discusses Iraq troop needs

PORTLAND – Sen. Susan Collins said Thursday that she largely is satisfied with the Army’s effort to provide armor for Humvees in Iraq, but that more needs to be done to ensure that trucks and other vehicles have protection as well.

Collins said in an interview with The Associated Press that she was frustrated by what she saw as the Defense Department’s lack of planning and slow response to concerns about the lack of protective armor for vehicles and soldiers in Iraq.

Collins said she is encouraged by Army Gen. George Casey’s order that soldiers in Iraq not leave their compounds unless they are in a Humvee with armor plates. But there are still heavy trucks and equipment that lack the same protection, she said.

“We need to up-armor not only Humvees, but also trucks and other vehicles,” she said. “And I believe it’s still lacking.”

Collins, who serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee, has made armor protection in Iraq a top priority for more than a year. She said military officials repeatedly told her they had the situation under control, but that she would continue to hear from soldiers on the front lines or from their families back home that protective armor was lacking for vehicles and soldiers.

Maine’s 133rd Engineer Battalion took it upon itself to weld armor onto trucks and bulldozers in Iraq after Spec. Christopher Gelineau of Portland was killed by a roadside bomb in April 2004.

Battalion members created armor plates from scrap metal to transform Army trucks never intended for combat into rolling shields against rocket-propelled grenades, roadside bombs and assault rifle rounds.

Collins said the war in Iraq also has shown that the Defense Department perhaps is relying too heavily on National Guard and reserve in Iraq.

“It’s one thing to ask the guard to supplement the active duty forces, but we’re treating them as if they were active duty forces in many cases,” she said.

Collins is not surprised that the Army has been falling short of its recruitment goals.

The Army missed its recruiting goal for February by 27 percent – the first time it had missed a monthly goal since May 2000. The last time it missed its full-year goal was 1999.

As of the end of February, the regular Army was 6 percent below the number of recruits it had expected to sign up at that point in the recruiting year, which ends Sept. 30. The Army Reserve was 10 percent off projections and the Army National Guard was 25 percent off.

“I am convinced we’re going to see a further erosion of recruitment and retention because we’re simply asking too much of these citizen soldiers and their families,” Collins said, adding that the regular Army needs to enlarge its ranks by at least 30,000.

“To be asked over and over again to put aside your regular job and your family obligations to go serve repeatedly in prolonged, dangerous and repeated deployments is too much to ask,” she said.