EDITOR'S LETTER

"Dude, Where's My Humvee?"

Among the more than 80 U.S. troops killed in Iraq in the first two weeks of April (along with upwards of 540 wounded) were a number of soldiers whose Humvees—the original, military version of a Hummer—were hit with rocket-propelled grenades or roadside bombs. These are not the hulking, threeton behemoths soccer moms ferry their kids around in. The Humvees that an estimated 85 percent of American troops are still traveling in are basically desertcamouflaged pleasure vehicles, with fabric roofs and doors that would have trouble withstanding a rock attack, let alone rounds from an AK-47. (Soldiers, never at a loss for humor, call them "soft-tops.") In its rush to invade Iraq last year, the Pentagon shortchanged the young men and women it sent to fight its battles. More than a year after President Bush declared the war over, only 15 percent of the Humvees being used by American forces in Iraq are outfitted with armor capable of stopping armor-piercing bullets and protecting their passengers against roadside bombs and land mines. As Lieutenant Colonel Vincent Montera, of the 310th Military Police Battalion, told Newsday, "We're kind of sitting ducks in the vehicles we have."

Montera and the other troops from the-310th do the best they can to protect themselves in their 80 or so unarmored Humvees. When on patrol they remove their Kevlar vests and hang them on the doors, and line the floors of the vehicles with sandbags. National Guard troops such as those in the 143rd Military Police Company, from Hartford, Connecticut, try the same jury-rigged protective shielding on their Humvees. The 310th at least has new—or newish—vehicles; many of the Humvees used by the 143rd are 17 years old.

More than 100 troops have been killed in unarmored vehicles since the end of "major combat operations." Many of those lives would have been spared if the troops had been riding in armored vehicles. Add to this the huge number of young soldiers returning home minus arms or legs because they were traveling in unarmored Humvees when they were attacked. (Marines may be short of armored personnel carriers, but they were sent something from on high they probably weren't expecting—a pocket-size prayer book called A Christians Duty in Time of War. It requests leathernecks to: [a] pray for the president, and [b] fill in a tear-out page and send it to the White House, saying that they had.)

In late 2003, during a hearing of the House Committee on Armed Services, Democratic congressmen Victor Snyder, from Arkansas, and Neil Abercrombie, from Hawaii, quizzed Lieutenant General Richard Cody about the shortage of armored Humvees.

SNYDER: If I might bring this question home, we had dinner [in Iraq] a couple of times with soldiers from our home states; and I met with Arkansans and a couple of young soldiers in order to understand what their daily life has been like. In order to have them drive me for thirty minutes, they were putting their life at risk to have din- ner and then it would be a lot less risky if they had the up-armored Humvee. This is a very important question.

CODY: Sir, we originally had issued the up-armored Humvee for our combat support and our medical personnel; and it was in small quantities.... [In Iraq] the requirement we received was for about 235 additional uparmored Humvees [in August 2003]. Once the commander came back ... they came in for a requirement of another 1,233. That grew to 1,407 six months later, and now we just received a request for another 1,500 from the combatant commander.... We anticipate to meet the 1,407 initial requirement here soon. The 1,500, we are going to have to go back and look for more money.... Even when we do this we will not have every soldier in an up-armored Humvee.

SNYDER: . .. What you are telling me [is] you do not have a calculation of how much additional money you need? Is that what you are saying?

CODY: Not right now, no, sir. I do not....

ABERCROMBIE: Surely, surely, we know how much 1,280 of them are.

CODY: Yes, sir.

ABERCROMBIE: Well, how much?

CODY: Sir, I do not have the figure. It changes.

ABERCROMBIE: How much is one?

CODY: Sir, I do not have that figure.

In fact, the Pentagon's full complement of $150,000 armored Humvees (roughly twice the cost of a Hummer) is not expected to arrive in Iraq until the summer of 2005. As replacement troops prepared to head off to the Middle East earlier this year, their hometowns were taking matters into their own hands. The 29 vehicles being used by the National Guard's 711th Signal Battalion, from Foley, Alabama, were being fitted with steel plating by members of the community, including technical-high-school students. An Associated Press story quoted Keith Langham, a local metal-shop teacher who helped with the plating, as saying, "It doesn't give you 100 percent coverage, but it gives you a lot more than zero." Because the army turns a gimlet eye on equipment it doesn't provide itself, the soldiers who would be using the Humvees were reluctant to talk to the A.P. reporter.

There is a six-passenger vehicle that could keep U.S. soldiers out of harm's way. It's heavy: 8,000 pounds. And it's safe: the 22foot-long body is made of five-inch-thick military-grade armor; even the windows can withstand armor-piercing bullets; the chassis has a blast shield designed to weather a land-mine explosion; the puncture-proof tires are reinforced with Kevlar; and it's environmentally sealed to protect against chemical and biological attack. It even has a 10-CD disc changer. It's the Cadillac DeVille the president was driven in through the dangerous streets of Piccadilly during his trip to London last fall.

GRAYDON CARTER