A soldier in the 351st MP Company asked his peacetime boss, Sheriff Ed Dean of Ocala, Florida, to send extra bullet-proof vests to put on the unprotected floorboards of his company's Humvees. Like a good Support Our Troops guy, Sheriff Dean gathered all the old vests he could find, and even had other departments do the same. Word is they collected over 1,200 pieces of body armor.
Wow. Heroes, right?
Uh, no. In fact, the soldier who made the request is getting a whole lot of shit for it.
See, sending the Army surplus bullet-proof vests to line their unarmored Humvees draws attention to the fact that our soldiers are running around in unarmored vehicles. That John Kerry voted to deny body armor to the troops is a key Bush campaign lie, so this can't be allowed. And really, what's a few more blown off legs?
