Pentagon Knowingly Issued Defective Body Armor To Marines In Combat ... then issued a Corpswide message recalling 5,277 Interceptor vests

GI Special 3B35: How Many Died?: "How Many Died? | Pentagon Knowingly Issued Defective Body Armor To Marines In Combat | May 09, 2005 By Christian Lowe, Army Times staff writer

Faced with the imminent publication of this story, the result of an eight-month investigation by Marine Corps Times, the Marine Corps on May 4 issued a Corpswide message recalling 5,277 Interceptor vests from 11 lots that failed government ballistic performance tests slightly more than half the total vests issued to Marines from questionable lots.

The Marine Corps issued to nearly 10,000 troops body armor that government experts urged the Corps to reject after tests revealed critical, life-threatening flaws in the vests.

In all, the Marine Corps accepted about 19,000 Interceptor outer tactical vests from Point Blank Body Armor Inc. that failed government tests due to multiple complete penetrations of 9mm pistol rounds, failing scores on other ballistic or quality-assurance tests, or a combination of the two.