Thursday, July 10, 2003

SFFT.org (Soldiers for the Truth) posts this letter, which it says was sent by a noncommissioned officer in Iraq to Colonel David Hackworth. The letter is dated June 19, and what it reports about the treatment of troops, if it's accurate, is a disgrace. Here's an excerpt:

We crossed the line of departure [from Kuwait] and finished the missions in a pretty much "as is" state of readiness with our vehicles. We did not receive a single piece of parts support for our vehicles during the entire battle....Now the [supply] system is turned on, but with the amount of soldiers in theatre and the subsequent amount of equipment that require repairs, not a single repair part has made to our vehicles to date. (This system applies to the units that have received follow on missions to places like Fallujah.)

...my unit had abandoned around 12 vehicles and transferred the soldiers to others in very cramped riding conditions.

This did two things detrimental to combat effectiveness. It overcrowded the vehicles that we fought from, thus reducing our ability to effectively defend or attack as warranted. It also provided a possibility of greater soldier casualties if the vehicle took and RPG round or other significant attack. To our amazement, our people made it to our objective, but others did not....


And the letter says supply logistics didn't really get better after that.

Please read the whole thing.

(Thanks to Phil for finding this.)

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