 Paul Szoldra |
When it replaced the quarter-ton Jeeps, the Humvee was an amazing leap forward. But the Pentagon never expected the improvised explosive device (IED).
When I got out to Afghanistan in 2004, the Humvee was generally armorless — and guys were welding on any piece of steel they could find to the body to keep from getting blown up and killed.
When the official "Up Armor" program went into full swing in 2005, the final irony proved that the vehicle wasn't able to carry all that additional weight.
One Marine told us, "Our Humvees constantly blow out tires, shocks, tie rods, and ball joints. Last week, we even saw a Humvee whose upper and lower A-Arms were quite literally rolled upward due to the weight."
It's what we had. We made the best of it. And here's what it was like to live with it.