[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 16]
[House]
[Pages 22150-22151]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




       UP-ARMORED HUMVEES AND THE PROTECTION OF AMERICAN SOLDIERS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Hunter) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I thought it might be appropriate at this 
time, when all of our focus is on the financial crises, to remember 
that we have just now passed the defense bill out of the House. It is 
awaiting passage in the Senate. At this time, we have Americans 
fighting in two theaters of action in Afghanistan and in Iraq, and 
their protection is paramount to the people of the United States, to 
this body and, of course, to the Armed Services Committee.
  I thought it might be appropriate to talk about the precedent that 
has been established by the Armed Services Committee and by some great 
staff people on the Armed Services Committee who have helped to ensure 
that more Americans are protected earlier than they otherwise would 
have been in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
  We just passed the House bill in very difficult circumstances under 
the great leadership of Ike Skelton. His staff director, Erin Conaton, 
is doing a wonderful job, and the minority director, Bob Simmons, is 
also doing a wonderful job. With their guidance and with the team of 
staff members behind them and helping them, we managed to get a very 
complex bill through the House floor very quickly.
  Back in 2004, we were seeing the roadside bombs increase in Iraq, and 
we started to see increased casualties WIA, wounded in action, and KIA, 
killed in action. We were seeing those increased figures flowing out of 
that combat theater as the insurgents placed more and more bombs along 
the roadside.
  We moved very quickly on the Armed Services Committee to get as many 
armored vehicles, up-armored vehicles, known as up-armored Humvees, 
into that theater as possible. In 2004, we looked at the plan, the 
blueprint, to get the 7,000 up-armored vehicles over there very quickly 
so that soldiers and marines in places like Mosul and Tikrit and 
Fallujah could have up-armored vehicles. We thought that that schedule 
took too long and that we saw those 7,000 vehicles coming into country 
around the end of the year in 2004.
  So our great staff director, Bob Simmons, who had been an 
industrialist, who had been a CEO of an aerospace company in San Diego 
and who had known how to move components and how to move people quickly 
to get a product finished, went to the Army and asked them why their 
schedule was as long as it was. They said, you know, we think the 
driving factor here is the steel. Our schedule for receiving the steel 
is such that it's not going to be until the end of the year when we get 
these up-armored Humvees, these protective vehicles, into theater.
  So Bob Simmons said, ``Why?'' like any good CEO. They said it was the 
steel production.
  So he went to the steel companies, and he asked them, ``Why can't you 
put on more shifts and get this steel produced earlier and get it out 
to the Army and get those Humvees over there?'' They said, ``You know, 
we don't think we can get another shift on here, and we don't think 
that the unions will help us here or will comply with adding another 
shift to the time schedule.''
  So Mr. Simmons said, ``Let me talk to the union leaders,'' and he sat 
down with the union leaders, and our great staff director talked to 
them about what was happening in Iraq. They said, ``You know, we have 
kids in Iraq, and we'll put on another shift, and we'll get that steel 
out.''
  As a result of this, we accelerated the steel to the Army and to the 
Humvee makers, and we got those Humvees up-armored with more steel 
between those roadside blasts and those marines and soldiers inside 
those vehicles. We got those 7,000 Humvees into theater 7 months ahead 
of time.
  I want to just say, Mr. Speaker, that it's a blessing to have those 
honest brokers--those great staff members like Mr. Simmons--and like 
his great team. I'll just mention a couple of them who worked this 
issue. John Wason was one of our great team members. Jesse Tolleson is 
another one. Steve DeTeresa is another.
  You know, Steve DeTeresa with his team, in working with Lawrence 
Livermore and in working with DARPA, actually moved the first heavily 
armored trucks into Iraq, some 130 trucks that were double-hulled, that 
had two layers of steel and that had a layer of an inch and a quarter 
of what we call E-glass on the inside of that steel. I've seen

[[Page 22151]]

some of those trucks that were hit with massive IEDs, with massive 
roadside bombs, and I've read letters back from the people who drove 
those trucks, saying, ``Our lives were saved because of the steel on 
those trucks.'' To my knowledge, none of those 130 or so trucks that 
were directed to be built by the Armed Services Committee were ever 
penetrated by fragment from roadside bombs.
  So thanks to Mr. Simmons and to his great team and to all of his 
wonderful staff folks on the Armed Services Committee.

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