The DOD is reimbursing soldiers for buying their own gear.
I think we should run a lot of the DOD this way. Soldiers should be required to buy all their little stuff out of an account; they can then choose what how/etc. The camping equipment available to the average civilian is 100x better then the army stuff. Same with boots, hats. etc.
Imagine the FedEx deliveries to the next war... “Hey, my new tent/rifle/tank is here!”
Comments (1)
For minor personal items up to and excluding body armor, this is not that bad of a system. Make sure that the stuff meets some basic quality level and then let people buy what works for them wrt canteens, hats, undershirts etc.
For major items or consumable items once in a combat zone, I would want military provided standardization even if the gear is commercial off the shelf because there is no guarantee by any of the civilian contractors that they will deliver in a combat zone. The most notable example of this was the complete shutdown of all non-fuel, non-ammo convoys in Iraq during April 2004 as KBR and other private contractors responsible for logistics in Iraq forted up in their base camps because it was too dangerous on the roads.
Posted by fester | October 13, 2005 6:23 AM
Posted on October 13, 2005 06:23