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Nathanial Helms: Is America's Best Getting America's Best? Part II

Submitted by Guest on Wed, 11/02/2005 - 06:00.
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Source: DefenseWatch/SFTT.org
By Nathaniel R. Helms



At the time of this report, despite repeated inquiries, the Department of Defense and the US Army had not commented on this report.



On August 2, 2005 Staff Sgt. James McNaughton, a New York City police officer serving in the US Army Reserve, was killed by a sniper's bullet while standing guard in a tower at Camp Victory, outside Baghdad, Army officials announced. The 27-year-old soldier from Middle Village, New York was assigned to the Army Reserve's 306th Military Police Battalion, 800th Military Police Brigade, out of Uniondale, New York. His passing was noted in a three-line communiqué issue by the Pentagon.

On the same day in Jacksonville, Florida Armor Holdings, Inc., the leading manufacturer and distributor of body armor for the U.S. military announced that it had completed acquiring all of the domestic assets of Second Chance Body Armor, Inc. Armor Holding and Second Chance both make DOD's home grown "Interceptor OTV body armor" that war fighters in Iraq and Afghanistan are issued to protect them from sniper bullets and other threats. Armor Holding's latest acquisition was trumpeted across the nation in the country's leading news and business wire services.

Scott O'Brien, President of the Armor Holdings Products Division, commented September 2 that, "We are delighted to welcome Second Chance to the Armor Holdings team, and we believe this transaction creates a fresh start for Second Chance."

Neither announcement mentioned the string of failures, miscalculations and allegations of fraud, deceit, and outright lies that have plagued the nation's body armor industry that its legion of critics say unquestionably contributed to the deaths of an unknown number of war fighters who are left holding the bag for the Pentagon's miserable failure to provide the best armor protection money can buy for America's war fighters.

When O'Brien welcomed Second Chance into its burgeoning company Sept. 2 he neglected to mention that Second Chance was desperately in need of a second chance because the company and its former officers are currently under investigation by the Justice Department for fraud for knowingly selling body armor that can't stop bullets from killing its wearers.



Prosecutors in Washington presented evidence September 25, 2005 showing that Second Chance was alerted as early as 1998 by the Japanese material maker Toyobo Co., that there were problems with a material called Zylon, that primary component of Second Chance's "bullet-proof" vests. Toyobo sold the material to Second Chance. Toyobo officials told Second Chance scientists that the protective properties of Zylon deteriorated under certain conditions. The problems came to light the same year after a California police officer was shot and killed while wearing a Second Chance vest, court records show.



Since at least 1999 the U.S. Army Soldier Systems Center-Natick (SSC-Natick), in
Massachusetts, has known that its in-house designed body armor was not nearly as efficient as at least one product already in production in Fresno, California. The product, Pinnacle Armor's "Dragon Skin," was shown by the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Maryland to be "35 to 40 years ahead of Interceptor body armor in capability," claims Paul Chopra, a Pinnacle spokesman and retired Army Chief Warrant Officer.

It is so superior to what America's warriors are issued that nine American generals currently serving in Afghanistan, as well the US Secret Service's Presidential Protection detail, hundreds of civilian operators, and as many soldiers as can afford its hefty $6K price tag are wearing it in active combat theaters. The basic Interceptor vest costs about $1,100, DOD says.

The Army's own research showed that Dragon Skin wearers are protected by body armor superior to any Level III and Level IV body armor made in the world. Ballistics tests made by the Army Research Laboratory at Aberdeen Proving Grounds on a standard Dragon Skin vest showed it capable of defeating most common military ammunition and many of the armor piercing and super hot specialty rounds including the super-hot 7.62 x 63 mm 166 GR, M2 AP slamming into it at an incredible 2850 ft per second. Inceptor OTV body armor cannot claim that distinction, Pinnacle president and Dragon Skin inventor Murray Neal said. Dragon Skin is so good its actual ballistics characteristics have been classified, the Army says.

Despite Dragon Skin's clear superiority Armor Holdings, the current darling of the Pentagon's body armor acquisition process, has been awarded $443.4 million since March 15, 2005 to produce inferior Interceptor OTV body armor and ballistic helmets for the Armed Forces. The contracts include an exclusive contract to produce 156,000 new vests to replace 156,000 defective armored vests Second Chance made for the Army and Marine Corps between 2001 and 2004. The Second Chance vests are being replaced because they do not meet the military's own manufacturing standards. But because of huge shortages in body armor those same vests are still being worn by service members serving in the Global War on Terror.

That doesn't mean Armor Holdings doesn't have some skeletons in its own closet. In 2004 the Southern States Police Benevolent Association sued Armor Holdings in a Florida court for making and selling Zylon body armor vests. That case has since been resolved as part of a larger class action settlement called the "Southern States Police Benevolent Association, et al., vs. Armor Holdings, et al." heard in the Fourth Judicial Circuit Court of Florida. Armor Holding's acknowledged failures in the civilian body armor market apparently held no influence in the Pentagon's decision to make Armor Holdings its primary contractor for manufacturing Interceptor body armor following Second Chance's fall from grace.



On September 26, 2005 in Washington, D.C., Second Chance whistleblower Dr. Aaron Westrick said in sworn deposition testimony for an ongoing federal investigation that the President of the United States, the First Lady and members of the US Army Central Command (CENTCOM) all wore defective bullet proof vests sold by Second Chance, according to Stephen Kohn, an attorney from the law firm of Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto representing Westrick. CENTCOM provides special operations "operators" to guard high value targets in Iraq and Afghanistan. Westrick testified that the armor they wore was sometimes incapable of stopping assassin's bullets.



Even as the scandal unwound the Department of Defense began buying thousands of body armor vests from Second Chance to protect its war fighters. The Defense Department has said that Second Chance's deceitful conduct in the Zylon scandal had nothing to do with the quality of the armored vests Second Chance was making for the DOD because Second Chance didn't use Zylon in the manufacture of Interceptor armor. Of course that was before it discovered it has to replace 156,000 defective vests it has already purchased from Second Chance.

The US Department of Justice is not waiting for the dust to settle before it goes after its pound of flesh. It has already civilly sued Second Chance and Toyobo in federal court based on the fraudulent sale of the defective bullet proof vests. Toyobo is named as a defendant because it manufactures Zylon and did nothing beyond warning Second Chance to prevent the sale of the defective body armor material, federal court records show.



This case was filed in the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia June 30, 2005 by the government to "recover damages and civil penalties under the False Claims Act " and " to recover all available damages for common law fraud, payment under mistake of fact, unjust enrichment, and breach of contract." The complaint shows that the Justice Department brought the case on behalf of the "Department of Justice ("DOJ"), the General Services Administration ("GSA"), the Department of Defense ("DOD"), Treasury Department, the Department of Homeland Security ("DHS"), and any other federal agencies or divisions who purchased, or provided funds for the purchase of, ballistic vests made, in whole or in part, with Zylon from the Defendants."



Westrick worked as the research chief for Second Chance, but was removed from managerial responsibilities after he recommended that the company inform its customers that the vests were defective three years before the allegations publicly came to light. He was terminated by Second Chance once the company learned that Westrick has provided documents to the Department of Justice documenting corporate greed over protecting the lives of police officers. Specifically, Westrick provided documentation that continued sale of the vests would result in the loss of its wearer's lives. Despite these warnings, the company continued selling the vests, Kohn said.



Armor Holdings paid $45 million in cash for the assets of Second Chance, "including substantially all intellectual property, free and clear of all liens, claims and encumbrances, and assumed certain trade liabilities," said the Sept. 2 press release. Simply speaking that means Armor Holdings acquired all Second Chances assets and contracts for a pittance and without any responsibility after Second Chance allegedly lied, cheated, and stole from the American people and then declared bankruptcy, a lawyer close to the case said.



L., So-called "SAPI" plates do not provide complete protection from sniper bullets because of gaps in coverage around the torso. Photo: Randy Bartlett



Two weeks ago the Armed Forces Network (AFN) radio in Iraq reported enemy snipers are now shooting their intended Coalition victims between the so-called hard armor SAPI (Small Arms Protection Inserts) plates attached to the Interceptor OTV body armor, reporter Michael Yon told DefenseWatch after hearing the broadcast warnings in Iraq. The Interceptor's OTV SAPI plates are intended to defeat most common rifle ammunition used by enemy soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, because they are gaps between the plates the wearer is not fully protected from a well-aimed shot.



Dragon Skin plates, called "panels" because they are flexible and cover the entire upper torso, are not susceptible to the sniper's deadly new tactics, Pinnacle Armor officials said. Despite being a better design the Defense Department in 1999 rejected Dragon Skin without comment in favor of its home-gown Interceptor OTV armor although its inferior SAPI plate arrangement then as now presents gaps in the coverage of its hard armor plates on the wearer's front, back and sides, Pinnacle Armor founder and patent holder Murray Neal said



The Interceptor body armor system has been in production since 1999. At the time Natick, who designed and approved the body armor, awarded five-year contracts to manufacture it to Second Chance and Point Blank Body Armor of Oakland Park, FL. Armor Holdings didn't get its share of the pie until later on.



In 1999, Point Blank was losing millions for its parent company DHB Industries. Things didn't get much better until the events of 9/11 sent the United States to war. In 2001 and 2002 the lucrative DOD contracts provided to the Florida-based company boosted its profits to $10.1 million and $16 million respectively on a combined $228.3 million in revenue, according to industry sources.

Soon after the company received another $9.2 million contract in 2002 to produce body armor for Army engineers charged with disposing of landmines a labor dispute revealed that company was allegedly putting profits before quality. Attorneys for the labor union involved (UNITA) in the dispute submitted 150 pages of evidence in a Florida court that alleged quality problems with Point Blank's body armor. Among the documents were Department of Defense reports from American soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. The DOD documents showed 43 percent of soldiers in Operation Enduring Freedom complained that Point Blank's body armor "hindered their mobility," the court records showed.



In 2004 the Marine Corps found "major quality assurance deficiencies within Point Blank," Marine Corps officials announced. One month later, on August 24, 2004, the military rejected two orders from Point Blank after tests revealed that the vests did not meet safety requirements. Faced with a severe shortage of body armor the Army decided that nine Point Blank orders that did not meet safety requirements would be sent to troops overseas anyway, according to the court records filed in the UNITA case showed.

On May 3, 2005 Point Blank hired retired four-star Army Gen. Larry Ellis to lead the beleaguered company. Before retiring Ellis was the commander of US Forces Command (FORSCOM). FORSCOM is the Army's largest major command, consisting of more than 760,000 active Army, U.S. Army Reserve and Army National Guard soldiers. Formerly, Ellis served as deputy chief of staff for operations and plans at the Pentagon. On May 4, 2005, the U.S. Marine Corps recalled 5,277 Interceptor vests manufactured by Point Blank Body Armor. On July 20 Point Blank received an additional $10.1 million contract from the U.S. government. Apparently it doesn't hurt to know somebody, one Pentagon wag exclaimed. As the reader will discover in Part III of this series it really doesn't hurt to know someone.



During the course of its investigation into the matter DefenseWatch spoke with several contemporary armor experts who are currently doing business with the Department of Defense supplying either expertise, technology, or both to Puzzle Palace procurement officers and officials. With the exception of Pinnacle's Murray Neal they declined to go on record and spoke only after multiple assurances of anonymity.



One of these men, who began developing and selling body armor and associated products to the DOD before the Vietnam War, said speaking publicly about the procurement procedures used by the good ol' boys in ultra-plush E Ring charged with obtaining equipment for America's war fighters is tantamount to committing professional suicide.



"Just check the last three contracts awarded for helmets - three old boys," he explained. "They didn't get them talking about it. I can only be a background source mainly because I don't want people to home in on me."



In Part III DefenseWatch will explore just who those good ol' boys are and how they control who gets what on the battlefield.



DefenseWatch Editor Nathaniel R. "Nat" Helms is a Vietnam veteran, former police officer, long-time journalist and war correspondent living in Missouri. He is the author of two books, Numba One – Numba Ten and Journey Into Madness: A Hitchhiker's Account of the Bosnian Civil War, both available at www.ebooks-online.com. He can be reached at natshouse1@charter.net. Send Feedback responses to­ dwfeedback@yahoo.com

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