Wearing a flight jacket with his "weenie" 1st Lt wings on it (hey, how come he never got past beginner and 1st Lt? Could it have been...piss-poor performance as an Officer?) But I digress here...Preznit No Armored HumVees for Our Troops went to Ft Campbell, KY to look all macho in a flight jacket and talk about how much he supports the "Troops". The one's he could not be bothered with in the TANG.

There are "currently more than 12,000 Humvees in Iraq and Afghanistan. More than 10,000 of them are without adequate armor protection to withstand small arms fire, grenades and roadside bombs." Instead, many merely have canvas roofs and doors. "We're kind of sitting ducks in the vehicles we have," one lieutenant colonel told Newsday. However, writes Salon, "the White House doesn't appear to be helping."

According to the 3/14/04 New London Daily, some National Guard troops remain underequipped. For example, "most of the active duty army forces in Iraq last year were equipped with radios that allowed them to communicate voice and data clearly and securely over long distances. National Guard members, however, didn't have the Single Channel Ground-Air Radio System." Meanwhile, the Administration has taken "nearly a year to supply troops in Iraq and Afghanistan with ceramic-plated Interceptor body armor, capable of stopping rifle rounds and shrapnel."

The suicide rate among soldiers has risen 20% higher than normal, but the military has done little about it. Steve Robinson, executive director of the National Gulf War Resource Center, an advocacy group for veterans, "said at least 23 service members committed suicide in Iraq since the war started and six killed themselves after returning stateside." Despite this, soldiers returning home from war have "little if any access to mental health help." Unlike tanks and planes, which are serviced or refurbished, Robinson said, what the White House is "doing for the human being is telling them, 'Thanks for your service. Now go home and cope.' "

Cheney received four 2-S draft deferments -- granted to students -- from 1963 through 1965 while he was a student at the University of Wyoming. He married Lynne in 1964, and was thus banned from the draft.

But in October 1965, the Selective Service announced that married men without children could then be drafted. Exactly nine months and two days later -- on July 28, 1966 -- his first child was born. Cheney hadn't waited until her birth before he sought a 3-A deferment classification -- given to those with dependents. He did so when Lynne was only 10 weeks pregnant.