The Charlotte Observer story has a few more details -- Rock Hill is a suburb, so they will likely be keeping up with this story better than national sources:

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/9933956.htm

Not well equipped? But the 87 billion passed! Oh, Im so confused. /sarcasm.

court-martial them! hang them! discipline must be maintained!

The story is important - The SF chronicle put the NYT article on its front page.
Rep. Benny Thompson, D-Miss plans to submit a congressional inquiry today. "I would not want any member of the military to be put in a dangerous situation ill-equipped....It concerns me because we made over $150 billion in funds available to equip our forces in Iraq".

I can't wait to see Kerry address this. Mary Beth better tie him to the mast.

According to something I saw over on Operation Truth, the members of the 343rd who did not show up for duty pointed to the lack of air support for the mission. In addition to the lack of maintenance and proper armor for the convoy vehicles, apparently it is routine for these resupply missions to get Apache air cover. This mission had no air cover. They felt this was compromising the safety of the mission.

I have also heard stories of contract security companies performing convoy missions and having active duty military assigned to them to increase firepower. This is patently unsafe in that instead of armored vehicles and military convoy tactics being deployed, a couple of soldiers are assigned to assist Rambo types in unarmored Suburbans whose convoy tactics consist of "drive fast and look tough." It is ridiculous.

While all the facts are certainly not in at this point, if this comes down to a case where, once again, the guys at the bottom take all the heat while Senior Command and DOD braniacs wave a bunch of rules around, it will be a real travesty. Those of us who are supposed to be supporting the troops better start by quesioning their orders, whether it be orders to torture, orders to activate and deploy for IRR guys in their late 30s with health problems, or orders to go on a fools errand without adequate support.

According to something I saw over on Operation Truth, the members of the 343rd who did not show up for duty pointed to the lack of air support for the mission. In addition to the lack of maintenance and proper armor for the convoy vehicles, apparently it is routine for these resupply missions to get Apache air cover. This mission had no air cover. They felt this was compromising the safety of the mission.

I have also heard stories of contract security companies performing convoy missions and having active duty military assigned to them to increase firepower. This is patently unsafe in that instead of armored vehicles and military convoy tactics being deployed, a couple of soldiers are assigned to assist Rambo types in unarmored Suburbans whose convoy tactics consist of "drive fast and look tough." It is ridiculous.

While all the facts are certainly not in at this point, if this comes down to a case where, once again, the guys at the bottom take all the heat while Senior Command and DOD braniacs wave a bunch of rules around, it will be a real travesty. Those of us who are supposed to be supporting the troops better start by quesioning their orders, whether it be orders to torture, orders to activate and deploy for IRR guys in their late 30s with health problems, or orders to go on a fools errand without adequate support.

Sorry for the double post. Had some sort of Server Error message.