Quote:
Originally Posted by Anaraxes
Another article I found, transcribing a presentation by Major General James Delk (40th Infantry Division commander, I believe), says "Transportation for a heavy division relies mostly on tracks. We couldn't use them; we didn't want to drive into Los Angeles with tanks and armored personnel carriers. We had to contract for buses, which meant that civilians had to help us out a lot." From that, it seems that there was a deliberate decision to leave the armor behind in this case. They did have unarmored HumVees, including some with mounted grenade launchers. (These apparently impressed the rioters, who mistakenly thought they were armored -- no one ever took a shot at one -- and also didn't know that they didn't have ammunition issued for the grenade launcher.) |
This is interesting. Given a situation like the one described in the article you quote, what are the odds they were short on things like gas masks and night vision optics? Even if they had some on hand, only having enough for a fraction of your soldiers could have been crippling in the wrong situation.