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After being informed by a law student and Army reservist serving in Iraq that soldiers were being given Vietnam-era body armor, professor Jonathan Turley wrote articles in major newspapers last year urging the Pentagon to distribute new flak jackets.
Law student Rich Murphy, a military police officer at the Baghdad Central Correctional Facility, informed Turley in September that his unit was given armor designed to protect soldiers from shrapnel, instead of Interceptor Kevlar vests, flak jackets that defend against weapons such as AK-47s.
Murphy's parents, who said their son needed a bulletproof vest, bought him ceramic plates to protect him from high-powered weapons a month and a half before the Army issued similar protections to his entire unit.
"I thought the issue was too important for me to be silent," Murphy wrote last month in an e-mail, referring to his decision to tell Turley. "Why should I be protected while other troops are out there naked? Soldiers take care of each other; that's what I was doing."
Murphy's mother, Suzanne Werfelman, said she was outraged that all soldiers serving in Iraq were not given the latest armor at the war's outset.
"The people in charge must think we have some people who are dispensable," she said.
Concerned about U.S. troops' safety, Turley spoke with some of their families, who said they were individually purchasing body armor.
He said manufacturers and retailers said they received many requests from families for vests and that there were long waiting lists.
Turley wrote opinion pieces in The Los Angeles Times, The Hill (Washington) and USA Today last year to raise awareness about the issue.
Pentagon officials initially told him that since the Interceptor vests were considered "non-priority" items, the military planned to exchange the old flak jackets for new ones over the next 10 years.
"We have known for over 10 years that Interceptor vests represent a quantum leap in protection," Turley said. "What is particularly baffling is ... the low priority didn't change while we debated a second Iraqi war."
