Support: April 20, 2003

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The new "Interceptor" protective vests saved lots of lives in Iraq. Medical personnel have noted the relative lack of soldiers with wounds in the trunk (where the ceramic plates of the Interceptor vest stop high powered rifle bullets.) One soldier, ambushed by several Iraqi snipers, was shot eight times. Two of the bullets hit him in the chest, and were stopped by the vest. The other six caused minor wounds in the arms and legs. But not all troops had the Interceptor vests. Support troops had older vests, that only stopped shell fragments and pistol bullets. Because of the number of battles involving support troops and irregulars along the supply routes, there may be calls for distributing Interceptors for rear area troops. One other argument made for this will be that these troops are generally in unarmored vehicles, so their vests are the only protection they've got. It would cost several hundred million dollars to equip support troops with Interceptor vests.

 

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