thedrifter
11-01-05, 05:22 PM
Hagee: We need help fighting bomb threat
By Andrew Scutro
Times staff writer
PANAMA CITY, Fla. - Attention rocket scientists: The commandant needs your help.
Gen. Mike Hagee needs to figure out two things. One, he needs a way to foil roadside bombs. Two, he needs to make the Marine's basic combat load a lot lighter than 70 pounds.
The commandant asked for help from those who develop and produce military hardware at a conference on expeditionary warfare hosted by the National Defense Industrial Association here Oct. 26.
Although the main focus at the conference was on forming amphibious staging areas known sea bases, Hagee's concerns were more immediate.
"The most significant problem we are facing today in Iraq and in Afghanistan [is] improvised explosive devices," he said. "I do not get the sense we are working 24/7, and we should be on this.
"I think 'improvised' is probably the wrong word. They are getting now to where they are not so improvised, they are very sophisticated devices."
And as IED tactics and ordnance are getting more lethal and difficult to counter, Hagee urged that no good idea go untested.
His message, when it came to combat load, was direct and to the point.
In a military culture that relies on elaborate and often confusing PowerPoint demonstrations to convey a point, Hagee showed a single slide to his audience. He flashed on the screen a photo of a Marine in combat in Hue City, Vietnam, in February 1968, and a Marine in Fallujah, Iraq, in July.
Hagee noted that little has changed in the two photos except that today's Marine carries a heavier combat load. Speaking to a group of people whose companies design and sell complicated, expensive weapon systems to the U.S. government, Hagee asked that they apply the same level of interest and commitment to solving the problems of the combat grunt.
"Human problems are solved by human beings. And it takes boots on the ground to solve these problems, at least that's Mike Hagee's opinion," the commandant said. "We spend a lot of money on sophisticated platforms, and we should. But I would argue that we need to spend the same research, the same amount of money so the most important weapon system on any battlefield - the United States Marine or U.S. soldier - has these same advantages."
Speaking later in the day, Lt. Gen. Jim Mattis, head of Marine Corps Combat Development Command, repeated Hagee's request to industry.
Noting the weight of fighting gear, flak jacket and weapons carried in scorching heat during urban combat in places such as Ramadi and Fallujah, Mattis said there must be a solution.
"There's no reason we can't cut this weight," he said.
Ellie
By Andrew Scutro
Times staff writer
PANAMA CITY, Fla. - Attention rocket scientists: The commandant needs your help.
Gen. Mike Hagee needs to figure out two things. One, he needs a way to foil roadside bombs. Two, he needs to make the Marine's basic combat load a lot lighter than 70 pounds.
The commandant asked for help from those who develop and produce military hardware at a conference on expeditionary warfare hosted by the National Defense Industrial Association here Oct. 26.
Although the main focus at the conference was on forming amphibious staging areas known sea bases, Hagee's concerns were more immediate.
"The most significant problem we are facing today in Iraq and in Afghanistan [is] improvised explosive devices," he said. "I do not get the sense we are working 24/7, and we should be on this.
"I think 'improvised' is probably the wrong word. They are getting now to where they are not so improvised, they are very sophisticated devices."
And as IED tactics and ordnance are getting more lethal and difficult to counter, Hagee urged that no good idea go untested.
His message, when it came to combat load, was direct and to the point.
In a military culture that relies on elaborate and often confusing PowerPoint demonstrations to convey a point, Hagee showed a single slide to his audience. He flashed on the screen a photo of a Marine in combat in Hue City, Vietnam, in February 1968, and a Marine in Fallujah, Iraq, in July.
Hagee noted that little has changed in the two photos except that today's Marine carries a heavier combat load. Speaking to a group of people whose companies design and sell complicated, expensive weapon systems to the U.S. government, Hagee asked that they apply the same level of interest and commitment to solving the problems of the combat grunt.
"Human problems are solved by human beings. And it takes boots on the ground to solve these problems, at least that's Mike Hagee's opinion," the commandant said. "We spend a lot of money on sophisticated platforms, and we should. But I would argue that we need to spend the same research, the same amount of money so the most important weapon system on any battlefield - the United States Marine or U.S. soldier - has these same advantages."
Speaking later in the day, Lt. Gen. Jim Mattis, head of Marine Corps Combat Development Command, repeated Hagee's request to industry.
Noting the weight of fighting gear, flak jacket and weapons carried in scorching heat during urban combat in places such as Ramadi and Fallujah, Mattis said there must be a solution.
"There's no reason we can't cut this weight," he said.
Ellie