Credit: Part I

Last Sunday I gave a ride to a soldier going my way. Noting my civilian attire, he asked what I did. After explaining how our Add-on Armor (AoA) crew puts on the turret armor and thicker windshields he gratefully said, “That stuff really works!” I asked him if he had any personal experience. Did he! His 1025 HumVee had just run over an IED and then they received a volley of about 40 rounds to the windshield and ten to the front of the turret. The bullets were deflected off the turret’s front shield and the windshield held. The rest of the armor protected those inside and the mortally IED-wounded HumVee ran just long enough to get them out of harm’s way.

He thanked me for what we do and I returned the gratitude, “Hey, thanks for what YOU do!” I guess we all make a pretty good team. The other half of our group does basic services: lubes and filters and so on. Now soldiers aren’t as excited about an oil change as they are about getting armor added-on, but both are equally important to the happy ending in the soldier’s story. Part 2 next…