Grunts Share Their Load With Congress

The #2 guys in the Army and the USMC were up on the hill today for a little man-pack show & tell.  Congress got to look at a combat loaded grunts from both services as they heard them talk about moving and fighting in their respective battle-rattle.

It was an eye-opener for everyone. Seeing the sveltly kitted Marine up there next to the lumbering soldier made it pretty clear which service was better equipped to deal with moving in Afghanistan’s restrictive mountainous terrain.

All sides showed their strengths and weaknesses during more than an hour of testimony in front of the House Appropriations Committee’s subcommittee on defense.

Some highlights (and a lowlight):

• Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. John Amos said the Marines will be using UAV’s for tactical resupply in Afghanistan as early as this summer.

• Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli said he didn’t know if the Army would go UAV, but talked a little about the Big Dog UGV –but didn’t offer a timeline.

• Chiarelli also pulled the reigns in on a statement he made a while back about twenty thousand soldiers getting sidelined by injuries resulting from carrying bone crushing loads. He told Congress that he was sorry if anyone got the impression that all 20k of the Army’s non-deployable soldiers were out due to combat load overload when it was really only a fraction of them.

• One Representative helpfully suggested the use of something called “Kevlar” as a lighter weight alternative to current ballistic protection material. No kidding. ISYN.

Check out Matt Cox’s brief on the Marine UAV initative and another story from the AP on the Army’s combat load related injury rate, both from today’s hearing.