By ERIC SCHMITT
Published: December 9, 2004

CAMP BUEHRING, Kuwait, Dec. 8 - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld came here Wednesday to lead a morale-lifting town hall discussion with Iraq-bound troops. Instead, he found himself on the defensive, fielding pointed questions from soldiers complaining about aging vehicles that lacked armor for protection against roadside bombs.

Rumsfeld, seemingly caught off guard by the sharp questioning, responded that the military was producing extra armor for Humvees and trucks as fast as possible, but that the soldiers would have to cope with equipment shortages. "You go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time," he said.

Specialist Thomas Wilson, a scout with a Tennessee National Guard unit set to roll into Iraq this week, was the first to step forward, saying that soldiers had had to scrounge through landfills here for pieces of rusty scrap metal and bulletproof glass - what they called "hillbilly armor" - to bolt to their trucks.

"Why don't we have those resources readily available to us?" Specialist Wilson asked Mr. Rumsfeld, drawing cheers and applause from many of the 2,300 soldiers assembled in a cavernous hangar here to meet the secretary.

A few minutes later, a soldier from the Idaho National Guard's 116th Armored Cavalry Brigade asked Mr. Rumsfeld what he and the Army were doing "to address shortages and antiquated equipment" that will affect National Guard soldiers heading to Iraq.

Mr. Rumsfeld seemed taken aback by the question and a murmur began spreading through the ranks before he silenced it. "Now, settle down, settle down," he said. "Hell, I'm an old man, it's early in the morning and I'm gathering my thoughts here."

Mr. Rumsfeld, 72, said all organizations had equipment, materials and spare parts of different vintages, but he expressed confidence that Army leaders were assigning the newest and best equipment to the troops headed for combat who needed it most. He said adding more armor to trucks and battle equipment did not make them impervious to enemy attack. "You can have all the armor in the world on a tank and a tank can be blown up," he said. "And you can have an up-armored Humvee and it can be blown up."

The Pentagon spokesman, Lawrence Di Rita, speaking Wednesday in Washington after the Kuwait session, said that the military was now producing 450 armored Humvees a month, compared with just 15 a month in the fall of 2003, when the threat of roadside bombs began to emerge. He also said that three out of four Humvees in the war zones were armored, and that unarmored vehicles were used in back-up operations. It was hard to gauge the scope and seriousness of the equipment problems cited by the two soldiers and by several others in interviews later. A senior officer in Specialist Wilson's unit, Col. John Zimmerman, said that 95 percent of the unit's more than 300 trucks had insufficient armor.

Senior Army generals here said they were not aware of widespread shortages and insisted that all vehicles heading north from this staging area 12 miles south of the Iraqi border would have adequate armor. "It's not a matter of money or desire," Lt. Gen. R. Steven Whitcomb, the commander of Army forces in the Persian Gulf, told the troops after Mr. Rumsfeld asked him to address Specialist Wilson's question. "It's a matter of the logistics of being able to produce it."

But the complaints by the soldiers here are likely to revive accusations that the Bush administration did not anticipate the kind of tenacious insurgency confronting troops in Iraq, and that the Pentagon is still struggling to provide enough basic supplies, such as body armor, and fortified Humvees and other vehicles.

In October, an Army Reserve unit disobeyed orders to deliver fuel to a base in Iraq, complaining that its vehicles had not been properly outfitted. This month, the Army raised its goal for replacing regular Humvee utility vehicles in Iraq with armored versions, to 8,000 vehicles from 4,000. The soldiers' concerns may also rekindle suspicions among many National Guard and Reserve troops that they are receiving equipment that is inferior to what their active-duty counterparts get, despite assurances from senior Army officials that all Army troops are treated equitably.

Some 10,000 soldiers, many of whom are reservists from Oregon, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina, are here on their way to one-year tours in Iraq or on their way home afterward.

It was highly unusual for soldiers to dare to confront Mr. Rumsfeld directly on the readiness and equipment issue in such a public setting. In his town hall meetings with troops, Mr. Rumsfeld usually gets general policy questions or specific complaints about pay or benefits.

But in interviews afterward, the equipment issue resonated with many soldiers and commanders here. Specialist Blaze Crook, 24, from Cleveland, Tenn., said he and other members of his Tennessee National Guard unit felt shorthanded. "I don't think we have enough troops going in to do the job," Specialist Crook, a truck driver, said.

In an interview, Specialist Wilson said the question he had asked Mr. Rumsfeld was one that had been on the minds of many men in his unit, the First Squadron, 278th Regimental Combat Team. "I'm a soldier, and I'll do this on a bicycle if I have to, but we need help," said Specialist Wilson, 31, who served on active duty in the Air Force for six years, including in the 1991 Persian Gulf war, before leaving the military, then re-enlisting in the National Guard after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Col. John Zimmerman, the staff judge advocate, or legal adviser, for the 278th combat team, said that the unit's Humvees were sufficiently armored, but that most of its heavy trucks were not. He said Army supply officials had given the unit 70 tons of steel plates to attach to vehicles, but that it was not enough.

Colonel Zimmerman suggested that the Army would not have let this happen to an active-duty unit about to deploy into Iraq. "We've got two Armies," he said. "We've got the active-duty and we've got the National Guard. We're proud to serve. We just want what everyone else has. We're not asking for anything more."

When asked about the soldiers' complaints, General Whitcomb's deputy, Maj. Gen. Gary D. Speer, acknowledged that many vehicles would head north into Iraq without the bulletproof windshields or the Kevlar flooring that protect against bombs. General Speer, echoing Mr. Di Rita, said many vehicles were not armored because they would be assigned duties in headquarters compounds where there is virtually no threat of roadside bombs.

General Speer said a special unit here removes the extra armor from vehicles that have left Iraq and attaches it to vehicles going into the country. "There's a lot of people working around the clock to meet the concerns those soldiers raised."

Colonel Zimmerman said he appreciated the efforts by Army supply officials here, but he and his troops said they could not help fuming at the sight of the fully "up-armored" Humvees and heavy trucks put on display here for Mr. Rumsfeld's visit.

"What you see out here isn't what we've got going north with us," he said.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld answered pointed questions from soldiers.

Specialist Thomas Wilson told Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld that United States troops lacked proper armor to protect their trucks.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 8 (AP) - A soldier who challenged an Army policy requiring him to serve past the date of his enlistment contract must return to duty in Iraq while his lawsuit is under review, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth declined to issue a temporary restraining order allowing the soldier, Specialist David W. Qualls, 35, to remain in the United States, where he is home on leave. He is scheduled to fly to Iraq on Friday.

"It appears to me the extension was legally proper," the judge said.

Story Copyright to New York Times