BAUMHOLDER, Germany -- For as long as the Army has used Interceptor Body Armor, Soldiers have complained that it is too heavy, too hot and too cumbersome.

But those complaints may be a thing of the past for Soldiers in U.S. Army Europe's 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division. Those Soldiers recently donned the Army's newest body armor -- the Improved Outer Tactical Vest.

"The IOTV is a lot more comfortable because of the mesh lining inside," said Sgt. Brian Freeman, a tanker with 2nd BCT's 1st Battalion, 35th Armor. "The waist strap also makes it fit better by redistributing the weight off my shoulders and moving it around my waist."

Freeman ought to know. He deployed with the 2nd BCT for the first iteration of Operation Iraqi Freedom carrying woodland camouflage pattern IBA.

"We didn't even get small arms protection insert plates until the fifth month in country," said Freeman. "I like the mesh lining; it makes it more comfortable."

The mesh is intended to keep the wearer's body cooler by improving ventilation.

The IOTV is the Army's latest evolution of body armor designed to protect the Soldier's torso area.

According to information released by the Army's Program Executive Office Soldier, the agency in charge of developing and fielding new equipment, the IOTV meets PEO Soldier's goals of providing troops the most advanced protective gear available, while also improving comfort and mission effectiveness.

The Army spent a good deal of time asking Soldiers for suggestions and feedback about existing body armor, and then tested new designs based on their responses.

As a result, the IOTV has several advantages over its predecessor. It is three pounds lighter; it provides more coverage in the small of the back; it sits higher around the armpit area; and it sits lower on the torso, said Tony Perez, Team 5 fielding leader for Engineering Solution Products, the contractor selected by the Army to field the IOTV to the 2nd BCT.

Perez noted that the new design addresses one of the biggest complaints about earlier body armor models -- that the addition of side SAPI plates forced the Soldier's arms awkwardly away from his body.

"The side plates on the IOTV are in a better position, decreasing the profile and allowing better arm movement," Perez said.

Brigade Soldiers who tried on the IOTV called it a welcome improvement.

"The IBA had zero cushioning inside, especially on the shoulders," Freeman said. "The IOTV fits better and it has a quick release, which makes it better than the IBA."

The quick-release cable feature allows Soldiers to get out of the IOTV with one pull by disassembling the vest into two parts that fall to the ground. That innovation should help a Soldier get out of the IOTV quickly when needed -- such as when a military vehicle rolls over into water -- allowing him to escape the submerging vehicle or be pulled more easily to safety. The quick release should also help medics to treat injured or wounded Soldiers quickly.

Pfc. Tony Gonzales, a tank driver for 1-35th Armor, said the IOTV "is a lot better, because it fits better around the body and is more comfortable."

Pfc. William Fraleigh, an infantryman from the 2nd BCT's A Company, 1st Battalion, 6th Infantry, conceded that the IOTV allows for better flexibility and movement, and even admitted that the quick-release could prove invaluable if needed during an emergency. But giving up his IBA will be like throwing away a comfortable pair of old shoes, and he was a bit superstitious about the idea.

"It always worked for me in combat and I felt comfortable in it," said Fraleigh.

"I liked the IBA better, because it is easier to put on than the IOTV. I don't like the emergency quick-release, because it might get snagged on something during a patrol and the body armor comes undone. You don't have time to put it back together while patrolling."

The 2nd BCT continues its preparation for its scheduled spring deployment to Iraq.

(Maj. Wayne Marotto is the public affairs officer for 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division.)

Learn more about Army service opportunities.

Yep, I think its gonna be these two.

If Michael Weiner gets hold of the above title he'll claim it for his though.

It will be these two coming out of Fla and then it will be a question of melding the economic man into the military leadership man to make a ticket acceptable to conservatives but grab the middle ground as well.

Meanwhile Clintons will continue to triangulate the blacks, whites, and browns.

Its gonna be a real show whichever way ya go........................

The Monterey County Herald
Schwarzenegger OKs lead-bullet ban
Such ammunition can't be used for big-game hunting in condor range
By KEVIN HOWE
Herald Staff Writer

10/14/2007

Disregarding a plea from his own Fish and Game Commission, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law Saturday a bill that would ban the use of lead ammunition for hunting big game in the California condor range.

Assembly Bill 821, the Ridley-Tree Condor Preservation Act, written by Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara, requires the use of nonlead centerfire rifle and pistol ammunition when shooting big game or coyotes within specific areas of the state identified as the condor's range.
Those involved in restoring wild condors to California hailed the bill as a necessary step to ensure the success of the giant scavenger's reintroduction.

"This is a great day for the California condor and the state of California," said Glenn Olson, executive director of Audubon California. "I would like to commend Governor Schwarzenegger for signing the Ridley-Tree Condor Conservation Act and again putting our state at the forefront on wildlife protection."

"The Condor Preservation Act will significantly reduce lead poisoning of condors in California and is an important first step in getting lead out of the food chain," said Adam Keats of the Center for Biological Diversity in San Francisco.

The center, Keats said, hopes to see the Legislature or the Fish and Game Commission extend the ban on lead to include pistol and .22 caliber rimfire cartridges, and shotgun pellets or slugs used for big game, as suitable alternative ammunition of those types of weapons becomes available.

"We very much appreciate that Gov. Schwarzenegger chose to do what's right for the California condor by signing this bill into law," said Dr. Michael Fry, the American Bird Conservancy's director of conservation advocacy.

"Governor Schwarzenegger is very pro-hunting and pro-gun rights. His signing this bill is a confirmation that this law is not anti-gun," Fry said, "it is an anti-lead measure."

The California condor hovered on the brink of extinction when its numbers dwindled to 22 birds in 1982. In 1987, the remaining seven wild condors were captured for captive breeding programs at the Los Angeles and San Diego zoos.

The birds raised in captivity have gradually been released back into the wild in Arizona, Southern California, the Big Sur Coast and Pinnacles National Monument. There are nearly 300 condors in zoos and flying free.

The free-flying population stands at 127 condors, 70 of them in California, including 28 in Big Sur and 13 at Pinnacles, with other wild populations in Southern California and Arizona.

Condors have proven to be especially sensitive to lead poisoning. In August 2006, scientists at the University of California-Santa Cruz published findings in the journal Environmental Science & Technology that lead from bullets left in carcasses or gut piles from game animals shot by hunters is a major source of lead poisoning in the endangered birds.

Since 1992, according to the Center for Biological Diversity, at least 12 condor deaths in the state have been caused by lead poisoning, and other condors have had to undergo treatment after ingesting lead.

Lead-caused deaths this year accelerated pressure on the Legislature by wildlife groups to move for a ban on bullets to prevent condors from eating them along with carrion from shot game carcasses or gut piles.

A ban on using lead bullets for hunting is already in effect in Arizona.

The condor range specified in the bill takes in the coastal mountain ranges and the Sierra Nevada, but excludes most of the Central Valley, and is based on data gathered by the Ventana Wildlife Society and others involved in the release of condors that have been raised in captivity back into the wild since 1997.

Many free-flying condors have global positioning satellite transmitters affixed to them, and their movements can be tracked.

Based on that tracking, the current condor range was determined to extend north of the Pinnacles to Diablo Mountain, the Coast Range and Big Sur, down to Ventura County and across the Tehachapi Mountains to the southern Sierra.

One proposal had been to simply declare identified deer ranges as condor range, but that would have included wide areas where no condors fly.

Members of the state Fish and Game Commission, who are responsible for regulating hunting and fishing in California, had asked Schwarzenegger last month to veto the bill. The commission is expected to vote on defining the new lead ammunition regulations at its Nov. 1 meeting.

One possibility is extending the nonlead ban to encompass the entire historic condor range, or making the ban apply statewide.

The commission will also have to define "nonlead" bullets. A letter to Schwarzenegger, signed by Fish and Game Commission executive director John Carlson Jr. and commission president Richard Rogers, urging the governor's veto noted that recent testimony before the commission from gun and cartridge makers was that the technology does not exist to manufacture bullets that are 100 percent free of any trace of lead.

"The requirement for ammunition to have no lead content," the letter said, "would essentially completely ban hunting of big game and coyotes throughout the condor range."

Even the "lead-free" bullets considered acceptable by wildlife biologists contain some lead alloy in the "gilding metal" that softens the outside of the bullet sufficiently to let it pass through a rifled barrel smoothly.

In a related development, Tejon Ranch Corp. announced in February that nonlead ammunition will be required for all hunting and predator control on its 270,000-acre property in the Tehachapis starting in 2008 to protect condors that forage there. Tejon Ranch operates the largest private hunting program in the state.

AB 821 also requires that the state Department of Finance determine if sufficient funding is available to pay for a coupon program for free or reduced-charge nonlead ammunition for hunters.

Condors remain a fully protected species under state law. The state and federal governments both list the California condor as an endangered species.
 

Pat Cadell, Democrat political analyst and contributor for Fox (a guy I find unusually reasonable for a Democrat BTW) News, made an inter sting point last night.

He wondered aloud why John McCain is treated so badly by the rank & file Republicans?

His war hero status and obvious "media darling" and McCain-Fiengold type boo boo's notwithstanding, why do those of his party eschew his success?

Especially when he (according to Pat) would be the only Republican going right now who could flat out destroy HRC in a general election by grabbing that vast middle ground!

I have wondered this myself. I guess it still comes down to the old "lesser of evils" ethic doesn't it?

But worse

A Scott Pelley hit piece on Bush via Global Whining

Gee, no wonder the Left are jumping on Al's bandwagon!

If they didn't. they wouldn't be mainstream!

What a load!

I have a real basic question for all the liberal socialistic Democrats on here:

“you all blame the current deficit and concomitant “general malaise” in govt and the country on the Bush Administration’s profligate spending primarily on the Iraq war. Your candidates cannot wait to pull out from the war post haste and that will solve the deficit problems and allow money to be spent on your social programs. We will all be happy.

This being the case, what about the great welfare state of California? Taken as a microcosm (a rather large one at that) if the Country’s problems are due to the Iraq war and concomitant profligate spending, what about the State of California taken as a stand-alone entity? Why is the “great social experiment” of California not working? Why $14 plus billion in debt with another $14 plus to be tacked on for health care?”

California has been running deficits for years and they are getting worse, and portend to get much worse with the proposed social programs. Is this the fault of the Bush Administration and the Iraq war? Please enlighten me.  

While Curt, myself, and others on here have been defending private enterprise and the evil corporations, the majority of you good socialist lock step Californians have been blaming the ills of the world on the Iraq war, conservatives, and Bush. Well, what about your great welfare state of California? Hmmmm? Gonna Blame that one on Iraq and Bush?

(actually I bet you will)

http://www.travisandjonatha...>http://www.youtube.com/watc...

They combine the best of Olberman and O'Rielly

http://www.dailydemocrat.co...

And its gonna be ugly for Tulare and Kern too.

If the County budgets look tough now, just wait......................

Diesel Motorcycle Developed for Marines

edited by Robert H. Williams

The U.S. Marine Corps has ordered 522 diesel-powered motorcycles for use on rugged terrain. The propulsion technology was developed at Cranfield University, Shrivenham, United Kingdom and Hayes Diversified Technologies, of California.

The motorcycles were designed to run on diesel fuel or aviation kerosene, and intended for NATO military forces.

A spokesman said the design team successfully produced a “motorcycle engine powerful enough to be used on the battlefield for reconnaissance, policing and courier duties, as well as for on-road and off-road performance.”

The engine is a liquid cooled, single cylinder, four-stroke device. The motorcycle, which achieved speeds of 85 miles per hour in recent tests at Bonneville Salt Flat, Utah, goes 110 miles on a gallon of diesel.

The bike soon could be sold on the commercial market.