| A serving solider has risked his career by speaking out over equipment shortages in the Gulf conflict.
Just five bullets each were issued to him and his men, who were serving along frontlines in southern Iraq, the unnamed soldier told Channel 4 News. "We had five rounds each to defend ourselves. I actually crossed the border with five rounds," he said. "The magazine held 30 separate bullets but I was issued with five separate bullets to last the entire hostilities of the war. We came under fire in Um Qasr three or four times. "Not fire, it was more like ricochets. There were firefights going on all around us. It was scary." The claims threaten to reignite the controversy over equipment shortages, dramatically highlighted by the death of Sgt Steve Roberts. Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon came under mounting pressure when Sgt Roberts' widow Samantha revealed he was ordered to hand body armour to a colleague, shortly before he was shot and killed. ..."I mean, in training you get the equipment," he said. "You go through all these scenarios, I mean, if I'm ambushed in a truck, there's five or six different scenarios you go through but they all involve letting off around 200 to 1,000 rounds of bullets in a minute. I mean, what could we do with five bullets?" |
That's a UK article, and it isn't made clear whether that's a U.S. or UK soldier. I'm guessing it's a Brit. But, there are plenty of similar articles about U.S. soldiers. More on the lack of true support for the troops is on my webpage here.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
