Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
USA Today
January 23, 2008
Pg. 8
Troops at Risk -- IEDs in Iraq
WASHINGTON-- The U.S. military on Tuesday announced the first death of a soldier in a bomb attack involving one of its newest models of armored vehicles.
The death occurred Saturday when a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle rode over a homemade bomb buried in a road in Arab Jabour, south of Baghdad. Three other soldiers in the MRAP vehicle survived the blast, Maj. Anton Alston, a military spokesman, said in an e-mail.
Soldiers have died in the past in older-model MRAP trucks used by explosive ordnance teams and combat engineers. The death of Army Spc. Richard Burress, 25, of Naples, Fla., was the first since Defense Secretary Robert Gates made fielding the vehicles for front-line infantry units the Pentagon's No. 1 priority last spring.
The truck's design-- a crew capsule that rides a few feet above the road with a V-shape hull to deflect a blast-- helps troops survive roadside-bomb attacks better than Humvees.
Saturday's attack came from a deeply buried improvised explosive device, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said. Such IEDs often use hundreds of pounds of explosives capable of flipping an armored vehicle.
Burress was the truck's gunner, Morrell said. Gunners serve atop the truck, in its turret, and are more exposed to attack than those inside. An investigation will determine whether Burress died in the explosion or when the vehicle rolled over, Morrell said.
The vehicle's crew compartment was not punctured, Morrell said. The soldiers inside sustained broken bones. Their injuries would have been worse in a vehicle with less armor, he said.
Gates, who last week visited an assembly facility for MRAP vehicles in Charleston, S.C., remains committed to the $22 billion program, Morrell said. About 12,000 of the trucks have been ordered, and more than 2,200 have been shipped to Iraq.
-- by Tom Vanden Brook
January 23, 2008
Pg. 8
Troops at Risk -- IEDs in Iraq
WASHINGTON-- The U.S. military on Tuesday announced the first death of a soldier in a bomb attack involving one of its newest models of armored vehicles.
The death occurred Saturday when a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle rode over a homemade bomb buried in a road in Arab Jabour, south of Baghdad. Three other soldiers in the MRAP vehicle survived the blast, Maj. Anton Alston, a military spokesman, said in an e-mail.
Soldiers have died in the past in older-model MRAP trucks used by explosive ordnance teams and combat engineers. The death of Army Spc. Richard Burress, 25, of Naples, Fla., was the first since Defense Secretary Robert Gates made fielding the vehicles for front-line infantry units the Pentagon's No. 1 priority last spring.
The truck's design-- a crew capsule that rides a few feet above the road with a V-shape hull to deflect a blast-- helps troops survive roadside-bomb attacks better than Humvees.
Saturday's attack came from a deeply buried improvised explosive device, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said. Such IEDs often use hundreds of pounds of explosives capable of flipping an armored vehicle.
Burress was the truck's gunner, Morrell said. Gunners serve atop the truck, in its turret, and are more exposed to attack than those inside. An investigation will determine whether Burress died in the explosion or when the vehicle rolled over, Morrell said.
The vehicle's crew compartment was not punctured, Morrell said. The soldiers inside sustained broken bones. Their injuries would have been worse in a vehicle with less armor, he said.
Gates, who last week visited an assembly facility for MRAP vehicles in Charleston, S.C., remains committed to the $22 billion program, Morrell said. About 12,000 of the trucks have been ordered, and more than 2,200 have been shipped to Iraq.
-- by Tom Vanden Brook
