Mom's love & body armor

"When other mothers were starting their Christmas shopping, Elaine Brower was online buying $3,000 worth of body armor for the son who will be heading for Iraq with the Marines next month.
"I said to him, 'I don't understand why they don't give you this stuff,'" Elaine Brower recalled yesterday.

James Brower had been among the first Marines into Afghanistan after 9/11. His mother thought her nightmare was over when he returned home intact and left the Corps for the NYPD.

But her son is nothing if not patriotic, and he remained in the reserves. The day came this summer when he announced he would be heading back into combat.

Since his last hitch, individual Marines in Iraq had learned at a terrible cost the shortcomings of their government-issued body armor. James Brower presented his mother with a list of items his comrades recommended he obtain online from Diamondback Tactical of Arizona.

Elaine Brower is considerably less supportive of the war than her son, and at first she balked at purchasing what was surely the government's responsibility to provide to everyone headed into harm's way. James countered with an argument no mother could contest.

"I said, 'No way,'" Elaine Brower recalled. "He said, 'Well, I'll just be dead.'"

So Elaine Brower sat down at her computer and went to diamondbacktactical.com. The company's Web site featured a testimonial from a satisfied customer.

"Shot 7 times by insurgents in Iraq, this U.S. Marine is still alive thanks to his Battlelab Predator vest," the site says.

Elaine Brower clicked "Armor, Ballistic Plates and Helmets" and then "Ballistic Plates." She selected an Ultra Concealable L3 Plate, and clicked "Add to cart" as if it were just some mundane online purchase. She continued with a list that also included a Predator ballistic collar.

"That's for his neck," she noted.

When she was done, she clicked "Check out" and saw the total came to $2,200. She was able to put it on a debit card.

"There are people who can't afford it," she would remember thinking. "What do they do?"

She considered what her son would have done were it not for the advice from those who had been to Iraq.

"If he didn't know that, he would go and just wear what they gave him," she said.

She did not hesitate to get back online after her son returned home from the New York City Marathon, where he had assisted Marines and soldiers who had lost limbs in Iraq. They had counseled him to buy additional armor for his legs, in particular to protect the femoral artery.

"That was another $800," she recalled. "I still can't believe I'm buying body armor on my debit card."

She was at her job with the city controller's office when her son telephoned from their house on Staten Island to say that UPS had made the delivery.

"He called me, 'Oh, I got it! It's beautiful! Oh, look at this stuff!'" she recalled. "He wanted to try it on. I said, 'This is your Christmas present.' He said, 'Okay!'"

She arrived home to see him appear in full armor.

"He comes all dressed up like he's going to the prom," she said. "He's standing there all straight and proud. He said, 'It's comfortable. It fits me good.' He's spinning around, saying, 'Do you see any holes?' He said, 'Look, I can carry my hand grenades.'"

The mother felt the need of a chair.

"I'm sitting in my chair thinking, 'I can't believe this is happening,'" she recalled.

Yesterday, James Brower was off completing his final training before heading to Iraq. Mom's debit card has ensured he will be clad in the sort of body armor a recent Pentagon report determined could have saved as many as 80% of the 93 Marines who have died in Iraq solely from torso wounds. That translates into 74 undead Marines.

Mom was at home, assembling receipts so she could file a Form 2902, "Claim for Reimbursement and Payment Voucher for Privately Purchased Protective, Safety or Health Equipment Used in Combat." She is eligible to get back up to $1,100 (shipping included), thanks to a program the military instituted in recent weeks under heavy and prolonged pressure from Congress.

The good news is that the startling Pentagon report has prompted the Marines to order improved body armor. The bad news is that the Army is still studying the matter. The remarkable news is that young Americans such as James Brower refuse to allow their government's betrayals and blunders to shake their love for their nation.

"They're so patriotic," his mother marvels almost despite herself. "They just want to serve and protect their country." "
New York Daily News

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