been there, done that.. fighting a war w/o the right gear....welcome to the United States Military..

Going to the war on terror without the right gear
Matt Bangston
August 7, 2004 BANGSTON0807
I saw a bumper sticker once that read something like this: "It will be a fine day when schools have too much money and the military has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber." As an Army Reservist, I got a good chuckle out of that. Funny thing is, that time has come.

This fall I will be deploying for a second time to Southwest Asia. I know what the Army will and won't give me as far as supplies. Therefore, I have a list of equipment I will be buying in order to stay alive and do my job effectively.

When I mentioned to my employer, Central Bank, that this list had grown to over $500, I was told to draw up a "wish list" of equipment I would use in theater, and it would be "taken care of." I did as bank officials said, and $1,400 later they wrote me a check so I can buy these items. Because of the generosity of Central Bank, because they thought it so wrong for me to buy so much of my own equipment, I can afford to buy the gear that will keep me safer on this deployment.

As an example of what the Army gives its soldiers, the vests issued to grenadiers to hold the 40 mm grenade rounds do not hold the grenades securely; in Iraq, after every movement we would search around the vehicle and the ground for all the grenades that fell out, most of which were rattling around on the floor.

So we taped them into the vests, which made them virtually useless in combat. But this is what the Army issued, and we didn't know enough ahead of time to buy better vests. As a grenadier for this deployment, I have bought my own vest with grenade pouches and magazine pouches that I know will work.

I also bought a medical bag called a Combat Lifesaver (CLS) bag. Army units are supposed to supply each CLS-certified soldier with a bag. Before, in Iraq, the only CLS bags my team had were ones my teammates bought; the unit just didn't have more bags to give.

My reserve unit also knows what the Army will and will not supply, so they too have drawn up a list of equipment they will need to buy on their own -- almost $300,000 worth. The Spring Lake Park VFW, which has adopted us, will be holding fundraisers in order to purchase some of this equipment, such as GPS systems, ballistic eye protection and knee pads. These are basic items the Army will not be providing.

When we deployed to Iraq, we took green-painted vehicles and equipment because there was no more tan paint. As our commander wryly put it, "This isn't so bad. This way we can easily identify our vehicles from the other units' vehicles."

So, yes, we are about to hold some bake sales, not to buy bombers but to buy the basics we as soldiers need to be effective. Thanks to Central Bank, I have been able to afford some of this equipment. Thank you, Mitch, Larry, Brenda and everyone else at Central Bank for caring enough to help out.

For anyone else who knows people heading to the global war on terror, find out what equipment they might need to buy, hold some bake sales or other fundraisers, and see if we can't give these guys the gear to keep them a little safer.

Sgt. Matt Bangston, St. Louis Park, is a loan processor.

 

That is indeed sad, and it is everywhere trust me. I have an issued glock 19/23 holster for issued Berreta 9mm that doesnt even fit, when I force the pistol in it racks the slide back. AWESOME. I know my story doesnt hold a candle to our troops in Iraq, but I hope it illistrates the point.

Semper Fi, Erik

 

Much props to your bank for hookin you up, that is truly awesome. Isnt there something else that can be done? When you sign up for the military, isnt there anything in the contract that states that they have to provide you with what you need to perform your duties as a soldier?

That truly sucks and I hope things change for you guys.....

 

Yea, it blows, I know I've spent plenty on gear. O well Whats done is done, At least I'll be ready for next time, or I can give the **** to my lil bro so he won't have to go through it like I did.

 

Big problem is not that the Military doesn't buy these things it's that the f@*ked up people here keep electing to cut the defense budget and invest in stupid crap that doesn't matter. I been to the field plenty of times and I've had to buy a lot of my own gear so I understand. What we need to be doing is making sure that we do what we can to rectify this for the future. Start bitchin.......

 

I dunno if the money is there or not... My National Guard unit is getting ready to mobilize.. The state will not give us ANY money to get Conex boxes or to lease trucks to move our stuff. We estimated a certain amount of trucks to move the equip, they offered up less than 10% of what we needed... Our wish list keeps growing since the mission of the unit has changed, but the authorized inventory has not changed to match it... One thing for sure though, we're going either way, and we'll get the job done because that's what the US military does... i'm gonna bring up the idea of a bake sale tomorrow to the honcho, I bet everyone in the shop will get a good laugh...

 

For some odd reason, I can see your unit traveling to port in the back of station wagons and U-haul trucks.. kinda sad. Make sure to take pics and call all the local newspapers. The mass media loves to manipulate stories into anything that will provide revenue, maybe your story will be good for their wallets at the same time shedding some light on your problem!

 

Friggin' great idea... I gotta ask around and see if I can get the whole story on why they wont pay... I just heard our equipment (which is at 2 stations about 300mi apart) will be consolidated down here so we can actually inventory it, so I wonder where the money came for that...? I'm so used to things being F'd up it never even occured to me to go somewhere outside the chain of command- let alone the military- to get some satisfaction... Since most of our equipment is out of date, we could really just leave with our tool boxes and our uniforms and be just as well off But like I said, we'll get it figured out at some point and we'll get the job done regardless. It would be nice though if every little task wouldn't be such a battle... The military is like an 18yr old girlfriend. Everytime you try to do something they want to know why and when and how, but when you need any real support from them they are unequipped to do anything.. Big difference is it's not nearly as much fun when the military is f_cking you, and they don't need any foreplay to get into the mood...
Bastards.
-SPECTOR

 

Holy ****, you hit the nail on the head!! I'm going to use that in my sig line!

 

ROCK ON!!!!

That's actually part of a rant I was doing the other day (we have a lot of downtime to be pissed off while we wait to get connex boxes)... We went on for like 10 min and the similarities are startling... Needy and demanding, can never do things good enough for them, making you go places you dont want to, and sometimes they get you into fights... One good thing about an 18yr old girlfriend is they think something like Olive Garden is a swank establishment, just like the military thinks it's a good days work to have 4 people drive around in a van for 4 hrs to pick up 3 boxes of paper that are only 20 min away...


Yay me... I made a funny... Jeff foxworthy look out!!!
-SPECTOR

 

Damn-I guess you can look at it like this, atleast you guys are not wearing flip flops like some of your opposition.(atleast not yet). I seen a pick the other day from Iraq and it showed 3 Iraqi men in Najaf. They were hiding on the side of a building, 2 men had ak's one in dress shoes and the other in sandles, the 3rd man had a rocket launcher w/some sort of flip flops....that ***** hilarious.........I imagine they just try to fit in and grab that equipt. at the last minute to attack our soldiers......Reminds me of how some of the VietNam war was fought. **** roaches!!!!!!!!!

Hey, Central was cool, we need other Companies to step up and help out.
The Companies that have the equiptment should help out more IMO. I also agree the Govt needs to take care of our troops and people need to start voting in a direction to strengthen our military.

 

Went through the same exact **** when I got deployed man. It's neverending. especially for national guard and reserve units! I'm glad you got your bank to hook you up. I wish I would have had that! Stay safe when you go over there man! Best of luck to you and your unit in gettin all your battle rattle.

SGT Hawk

 

Jesus Christ I nearly choked to death on my grapefruit juice when I read that, assole!

But serioulsy, I used to skate out of work (when there was none to be done) like it WAS my job. Ah, good times.

What's your MOS?

 

When I was in the USMC I was a 3531 (motor T operator) but I switched into the wing now that I'm in the Guard... I'm supposed to be a helo engine mech but I have yet to even get a toolbox issued.. I did the MOS school though and I'll be turning many a wrench when I get to the desert, so fuggit. Right now I'm Mr. whatever... Supply, armory, embarker, driver, admin, just whatever is going on at the time, which is often nothing since we get litle word from higher up and dont have much in the way of supplies... I'm taking 1 more step backward when I get back and going in the Coast Guard... Their equipment is NICE and you're 99% sure to be stationed on the coast if you go fixed wing...
-SPECTOR

 

**** yeah buddy, c-130's and the best helo pilots in the world, its undisputed so dont be upset if your in one of the other services and you disagree cuz we have the very best. Blowing **** up is easy, you pic a 5 foot guy up out of the water in a 45 foot helo in 60 foot surf in the middle of the night pouring rain with zero visibility biatch, there is no one else but us.

 

**** my unit is a lil detachment that has drill in an industrial area. We dont even have enough kevlars for everyone that fit the person, deff. not enough gas masks to go around, cold weather gear, medical aids. Our hummers suck ***, we always get flats, and the oil drains. And our commander doesnt see anything wrong with us being ill equipped. Well now I think we're merging with all four branches of the military, to make a "superunit" and to be more "effective". It'll be a trans co. Hopefully the other guys have more than the army and can help out, or else we're holdin a bake sale goddamit.

 

Whenever the USMC merged anything with the Army they ended up getting F_cked cuz the Army didnt kick down like they said they would.. Hope that dont happen to you...
As for the Coast Guard, I said best EQUIPMENT, not best pilots... Dropping Rangers into a clearing at night isnt easy either, epecially when taking fire.. It takes huevos to do either though, and I wont slam anyone who puts on a flightsuit for our country (unless I know them personally and I think they're an ***, cuz quite a few are)...
-SPECTOR

 

I feel ya brother, we've been running around with the worse equiptment know to man for god knows how long.
We just got back from JRTC, we went out there with almost every vehicle in the company broken down, our weapons are beat up, gear is crap and yet they expect us to perform at 100%. They issued me a new weapon before we left to JRTC, my fav weapon in the army inventory the M249, unfortiounitly the one they gave me was a piece of **** and wouldn't fire any rounds, double fed and bent rounds in half, this weapon belonged to a buddy who it did the same thing for him but they never fixed it. I took it to the armorer and told him to fix it or give me a new one, cause I will never goto war with a weapon like that and I will not sign it out again. The whole incident made me furious! I knew it was reported but still nothing ever happend and it went back on the shelf, total B.S.
Enough ranting, we're starting to get some more funds right now since we're deploying but still, we needed them a year ago.

 

I know what your talking about. I'm in Iraq now driving the first Hummer in all our BN's convoys into Bagdad. It's been 6 months and we just got it aromer-up last week. All that money and what do we get?