Army Orders Soldiers to Shed Dragon Skin or Lose SGLI Death Benefits

[baldguy]

Two deploying soldiers and a concerned mother reported Friday afternoon that the U.S. Army appears to be singling out soldiers who have purchased Pinnacle's Dragon Skin Body Armor for special treatment. The soldiers, who are currently staging for combat operations from a secret location, reported that their commander told them if they were wearing Pinnacle Dragon Skin and were killed their beneficiaries might not receive the death benefits from their $400,000 SGLI life insurance policies. The soldiers were ordered to leave their privately purchased body armor at home or face the possibility of both losing their life insurance benefit and facing disciplinary action.

more:
http://www.sftt.org/main.cfm?actionId=globalShowStaticContent&screenKey=cmpDefense&htmlCategoryID=30&htmlId=4514

"We're not going to give adequate body armor, so we won't let you buy your own either" :grr:

[shadowknows69]

1. WTF?

Could we screw our soldiers any further? I have an idea. Lets just make a rule that they all have to shoot themselves in the foot once before they go on patrol and wear big red and white uniforms painted like a target. Unfreakinbelieveable. We're living in a twilight zone episode and it's one of those that ends badly.

[SpiralHawk]

2. "All your war-profiteering contracts are belong to us." - BushCo & Cronies

So shut up and sit down. There's nothing to see here.

[mom cat]

3. Outrageous! Bush hares the enlistees.

[GrpCaptMandrake]

4. Anybody care to snoop around online

and find out whether the Carlyle Group has an interest in the "approved" body armor? :wtf:

[ReadTomPaine]

6. You are close - a major Bush contributer owns part of the company.

Note that generals and other top brass are wearing the Dragonskin armor in the field, but the rank and file aren't permitted to do the same.

Here's a link to a longer thread about this here on DU:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=158610

[GrpCaptMandrake]

12. Don't you wish

it wasn't so easy to predict the mercenary actions of these bastards?

Will hit this one on the show tonight.

[ReadTomPaine]

17. I wish even more...

that Dems would take advantage of this predictability to knock the political wind out of these freaks, at least once in a while.

There are two ways to look at this GOP flaw - one is like the parable of the Scorpion and the Frog (eg the Scorpion will always sting you) but the other is the fool who can't resist picking up the bulging wallet in the dark alley, even tho he knows he's going to be mugged.

They need a good old fashion political beating to develop some respect for the opposition and learn to stay out of dark political alleyways.

[drm604]

5. Okay, to be fair here...

This is what I think might be happening. It may be that the insurance company that carries the life insurance policies says in it's policies that it will not pay if death occurred because of the use of equipment that has not gone through some standard military approval process. The armor may actually be better, but if it hasn't been approved then the insurance may not pay. So this may not be totally within the Army's control. The answer would be to test and, if it is actually found to be better, approve this armor.

[txindy]

7. I can see how that could be a possible reason

But if the post above yours is correct that generals and other officers are still wearing the 'non-approved' armor, then something is seriously wrong. The first enlisted soldier that dies wearing the Dragon Skin and his family is subsequently denied his benefits,.... Well, I hope they go on the air and scream very loudly for a long, long time.

[ReadTomPaine]

Duplicate posting glitch. n/t

[ReadTomPaine]

8. When it comes to Bush, never play fair.

A Bush "ranger" owns 6% of the company that makes the inferior armor currently being used. That's the reason the contract hasn't been rescinded for better protection. The Mercs currently employed throughout Iraq and elsewhere all already use better armor of varying types, including the Dragonskin armor mentioned above. When will progressives learn never to give Bush the benefit of the doubt?

Democratic rule of thumb #1: If you find yourself siding with Bush on any issue- you are almost certainly wrong and need to reexamine your stance.

[lectrobyte]

9. and rule #2 -- in case of any confusion, see rule #1. Good post.

[drm604]

11. I'm not siding with Bush.

I'm just saying that the Army may not be to blame for this. If they are using inferior armor then it may be due to bureaucracy or it may be due to shady procurement processes that they may not be in control of (because of Bush). In any case, this may be an issue of what the insurance will and won't cover, and may not totally be within the Army's control. But yes, I agree that the ultimate cause of this is probably Bush.

[GrpCaptMandrake]

15. The only flaw in this reasoning (and mine above)

is that if a Bushevik is a stakeholder in the "approved" armor company, and if, as we all seem to believe, BushCo always rewards its cronies, why the hell haven't all our soldiers been provided the armor they need?

Economically, it's a crony capitalist win-win.

Thoughts?

[ReadTomPaine]

18. Production problems, Army logistics, cash diversions, you name it...

As long as the company making the armor gets the money, what do they care if it's actually distributed or not? The main goal - personal enrichment, has been achieved.

[wakeme2008]

10. this is what pisses me off

"Currently nine U.S. generals stationed in Afghanistan are reportedly wearing Pinnacle Dragon Skin body armor, according to company spokesman Paul Chopra. Chopra, a retired Army chief warrant officer and 20+-year pilot in the famed 160th "Nightstalkers" Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne), said his company was merely told the generals wanted to "evaluate" the body armor in a combat environment."

[GrpCaptMandrake]

13. That means the generals got it for free

while the grunts are shelling out $6K per suit.

How sickening! How typical.

[ReadTomPaine]

19. And thats 6K worth of armor they can no longer use.

These are Army families, let's not forget. 6000$ is a lot of money to the typical enlisted family. That's real hardship at that pay grade.

[cantstandbush]

14. Now will the MSM report about this? n/t

[trof]

16. Sounds like what I'd want. Website:

http://www.pinnaclearmor.com/body-armor/sov.php