Reply #3: I'm far from defending this administration, but... [View All]

[Ready4Change]

Soldiers have been making "hill billy" modifications to their equipment in the field pretty much since there WERE soldiers. Oft times the mods are frowned on, sometimes the soldiers are penalized, and sometimes the modification works and is adopted by the armed forces at large.

There are really 2 problems here. The obvious one is the failure of the higher ups to provide equipment/procedures to solve the problems the soldiers are trying to counter in the field.

The second is the failure of the higher ups to acknowledge that, since we have changed from an assault stance to an occupation stance, that this puts our soldiers into a situation where they are saturated by potential foes. When you are assaulting you can clear out zones wherein more vulnerable, less armored vehicles can operate. But when you are saturated, everything is open to attack.