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August 20, 2004
[Have an opinion about the issues discussed in this article?
Sound
off in our Discussion Boards.]
By Seth Robson,
Stars and Stripes European Edition
CAMP BUEHRING, Kuwait — Soft-shelled 2nd Infantry Division
vehicles are getting a Middle East makeover that includes armor,
blast-proof windows and air conditioners to enhance safety and comfort
for soldiers.
The vehicles, from the Iraq-bound 2nd
ID’s, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, known as Strikeforce, arrived in
Kuwait last week. They survived tough roads and muddy hills near
the Korean Demilitarized Zone, but now must be refitted for jagged
rocks and roadside bombs in Iraq.
At the Mad Max shop on Camp Buehring,
soldiers work through the night to prepare 2nd ID Humvees, Light
Medium Tactical Vehicles, M923 trucks, M915 trucks and Heavy Equipment
Transport Systems.
The shop got its name from the post-apocalyptic
Mel Gibson film trilogy that features its own version of up-armored
vehicles doing battle in the Australian outback. The workshop looks
similar to a modern version of the sort of blacksmith’s yards that
medieval knights probably went to to upgrade their armor before
battle.
It is the brainchild of Chief Warrant
Officer Randall Menough, 41, of Salem, Ohio, and Staff Sgt. Dennis
Kenney, 36, from East Jordan, Mich., who have 40 years’ combined
experience working with metal.
The pair, from the 699th Maintenance Company
out of Fort Irwin, Calif., were assigned to force protection at
Camp Buehring in April. But when soldiers asked them to up-armor
vehicles not assigned commercial armor, they saw a demand they could
meet.
Menough is an allied trades technician
able to oversee welding, machining, panel beating, canvas repair,
woodwork, glasswork, vehicle recovery and crane operations, while
Kenney is a senior welder and machinist.
The pair set up shop in a corner of the
camp and quickly started. In three days, they up-armored an entire
battalion’s vehicles.
Soon they had five soldiers from the 699th
working for them and hundreds of sheets of Hardox 400, a type of
armor with a high nickel and chromium content.
The Hardox costs $1,200 a sheet, which
for a while caused the Army
to question the volume consumed at the shop, Kenney said.
“We were going through 80 sheets every
four days and they [the Army] couldn’t believe we were going through
that much,” he said. “They thought we were wasting metal, but then
they came and saw our operations.”
The Army changed its view and recently
delivered 590 sheets of Hardox, he said.
“This month we have gone through 490 sheets,”
he said.
Soldiers cut the armor into the shapes
of doors and gun mounts that Kenny has designed for the vehicles.
The shop runs from 12 to 15 hours each
night because, by day, the metal plates get too hot to pick up.
In a single night, the soldiers can up-armor as many as 140 doors
on 70 LMTVs. Since April, the shop has up-armored more than 1,900
vehicles, Menough said.
Units receiving the armor have reported
that it has saved seven lives when roadside bombs exploded, he said.
“They say our armor is preferred to the
factory armor because we cover just the head shot so they have a
lot more area to fire out of. It is a deterrent to the enemy. They
pick the easy targets — the vehicle that is up there with no doors
at all,” Menough said.
On Wednesday night, the Mad Max shop was
a hive of activity.
Blowtorches threw sparks into the night
while off-cuts piled up in the dust and rows of armored doors were
spread on the ground.
One of the soldiers doing the work, Pfc.
Trinity Luesehow of the 2nd Forward Support Battalion, 20, from
Gillette, Wyo., cut 34 doors in two days, he said.
“I enjoy cutting and welding. You need
to be careful and watch your line. The difficult part is cutting
a straight line,” he said.
Several hours’ drive away, at Arifjan,
dozens of 2nd ID Humvees are being made over with commercial up-armoring
kits.
On Monday, Sgt. 1st Class Norris Evans,
39, of Haynesville, La., the maintenance control sergeant for Company
B, 2nd Forward Support Battalion, supervised work on several Humvees
assigned to the 1st Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment.
“We are preparing the vehicles for the
guys putting the armor and air conditioners in them,” he said.
The soldiers take off the old doors and
the bolts where the armor is going to mount so that all the mechanics
have to do is drill holes and put the armor on.
After the 2nd ID soldiers prepare the
vehicles, civilian Department of Defense mechanics add the armor
and air conditioners. Most are former servicemembers and many are
Vietnam
veterans.
The mechanics wear stars-and-stripes bandanas
dipped in cool water to keep their heads cool while they work.
“[The Humvees] come here soft, and we
make them hard, and they send them up north,” said Merlin Jones
from Rock Island Arsenal, Ill.
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A 2nd Infantry Division Humvee from South
Korea has new armored doors and windows and an air conditioner
unit installed at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait. (Photo by Seth Robson,
S&S)
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| Pfc. Mark Greene of the 699th Maintenance
Company, 21, of North Carolina works on an armored door at the
Camp Buehring "Mad Max" shop. (Photo by Seth Robson, S&S) |
A typical push sees the mechanics service 75 Humvees. Since March
2003, more than 8,000 armor kits, 2,000 air conditioners and 4,500
windshields have been installed in Kuwait and Iraq,
officials said.
Jones, a stocky veteran who served in Vietnam with the 1st Infantry
Division, said the vehicles are a lot tougher than the jeeps and
Hueys he rode in Vietnam that had no armor.
“Compared to Vietnam, this is a whole different ball game,” he
said.
Nearby technicians installed Blue Force Trackers and movement tracking
systems in the Humvees. Almost 3,000 Blue Force Trackers have been
installed since the war started, officials said.
The tracking system allows soldiers to chat or e-mail other vehicles
on the battlefield, all the while tracking each other and possible
targets. A touch screen allows operators to zoom in on their area
of operations using satellite images updated every few minutes.
“People can plot routes and enemy positions on maps and satellite
images displayed on a monitor, then share them with everybody else
in theater,” said defense contractor Greg Garrett, who is helping
install the systems.
After the 2nd ID Humvees finish their makeovers, they roll out
of Arifjan sporting new yellow doors on their green frames.
“It kind of feels like a new vehicle with the armor on it, but
we still have to keep the maintenance up. When you drive it, it
feels heavier but it feels good,” said Evans, who believes soldiers
will be particularly impressed by the air conditioners.
“The guys won’t be getting baked in the vehicles when they are
driving in 120 degrees Fahrenheit weather,” he said. “In summertime
it would be nice [to have air-conditioned Humvees] in Korea.”
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