As we’ve said before, DefenseWatch does not normally post Press Releases of private companies, but in the case of Pinnacle Armor we are doing so because of the seriousness of this life-or-death issue to America’s Grunts. The continued corruption in the Army acquisition system shows no sign of being corrected, so here’s “the other side of the story.” (And dear readers, please stay tuned — the story is just getting interesting!!)

During the period of 17-19 May 2006, the Army’s Project Manager Soldier Equipment (PM SEQ) conducted First Article Testing of Pinnacle Armor’s Dragon Skin® Full Torso Wrap coverage level 4 body armor system at HP White Laboratory as requested by Brigadier General Moran (he has since been forced to retire). After the first round was fired on the 17th the test director Karl Masters and technical liaison James Zheng argued openly and loudly about the placement of the shots and what constituted an edge for flexible armor systems. At this point Karl Masters threw down his paperwork and stormed off as he told James Zheng “You represent the government you select the shots and you will be responsible”! Next, Karl and James threw x-rays of our body armor at us and claimed that we didn’t know how to design a flexible armor system. When we asked how James Zheng came to that conclusion James said “look at the spacing of the discs, they are not evenly spaced”? We showed him that when he picked up the vest to place it on the x-ray table he changed the spacing of some of the rows of discs and that this is what is supposed to happen in flexible systems! You could see the light come on over his head, no wonder they can’t seem to design anything better than what they have. Again, deviation from the ESAPI test protocols and procedures took place by the selection of shot placements of APM2 rounds around the ceramics in non-rifle defeating areas (where there was an adhesive anomaly. James Zheng attempted to induce failure with selective placement of shots at the center and edge of individually isolated discs on the system and the system did not fail. This set James Zheng off on a tirade saying “it’s not supposed to do that” and throwing his arms in the air and yelling. This does not sound like fair and unbiased testing to us.

The testing was stopped by the Army at 12:37 pm on the 19th, Karl Masters and James Zheng had just shot one of our Medium sized vest with 12 rounds of APM2 (level 4) with complete stops on all rounds with a back face trauma average of 22.5mm for this vest and 23mm for all the vests tested, which is a 50% reduction in trauma over the current system. Imagine how many more lives could have been saved if the Dragon Skin® body armor system was available to our troops today. When was the last time the Army dared to shot 12 rounds of M2AP (level 4) into any Interceptor IBA with ESAPI plates? The reason Karl Masters, Col. John Norwood (being forced to retire early) and James Zheng gave for stopping the testing early on the 19th was as quoted by Karl Masters: “I’m completely baffled by this flexible technology and I’m not going to send another round down range until I can understand how a flexible system works”! This is the same group that falsely claimed to have paid Pinnacle Armor nearly a million dollars to develop our Dragon Skin® system as Major General Sorenson said on CNN, 31 March 2006!

All of the Government agencies that use our Dragon Skin® body armor have all tested the system and found it to be far superior to the current Army system. We are still looking forward to working with the Department of Defense to conduct fair and unbiased testing to prove that our Dragon Skin® system is far superior to any other system.

UPDATED 06-21-2007 – Roger Charles

President’s Plea — To Our Wonderful Medical Personnel

(And Any Others That Can Provide The Requested Information)

Editor’s Note: This past February 28, DefenseWatch posted the following appeal to our great medical services personnel for input — their first-hand observations of how well, or not, various body armor systems had performed. I am “deeply embarrassed and greatly humiliated” to report that I have lost/deleted the superb report from a military surgeon who’d had two tours in Iraq. So, with no valid excuse to present, I am asking this officer to please send his email again, or send a new one with the info from the earlier one. In return, I promise to print it off immediately so this time, if my fat thumb once more sends his comm into some cyber void, I’ll have hard copy. To any and all other medical services folks — or anyone else with time in the Big Sand Box: If you have some personal experience with the performance of any variety of body armor, please feel free to respond. s/f,

I recently watched a superb testimonial to the medical treatment afforded our wounded and injured warriors. It was an HBO DVD, “Baghdad ER.” The last casualty treated was a strapping Marine with a “chest wound.” Unfortunately, in spite of every effort to save his life, this gallant young American died shortly after the initial surgery. As I watched the DVD, I knew many of our great fighters could have survived, or not even been injured if they had been wearing the ‘best-available’ body armor, instead of the inferior government-issued Interceptor with its rigid (read that “brittle”) plates and severely limited protection. And then the obvious hit me — you folks in the initial treatment centers know exactly who was shot through a SAPI plate, or even an ESAPI plate. So — to anyone out there, who has first-hand, eye-witness information on casualties shot through their Interceptor plates, please contact me at sfttpres@aol.com. This includes cases where the plates may have stopped the first round, but failed to stop subsequent shots. (If you know of SAPI or ESAPI plates stopping multiple rounds, we’d like to hear from you, too.) All respondents will be granted full confidentiality, but must be willing to provide enough identifying information to establish bona fides. Anonymous responses will be ignored. Please, those of you with this information, think about the consequences of your continued silence. More young Americans will bleed and die while wearing inferior body armor until we gather a mountain of incontrovertible evidence that proves this inferiority, and proves it to the satisfaction of the US Congress and our fellow citizens. There are hundreds of witnesses who can provide this life-saving information. Will just a few of you help? s/f,

Roger Charles

Editor’s Note: This past February 28, DefenseWatch posted the following appeal to our great medical services personnel for input — their first-hand observations of how well, or not, various body armor systems had performed. I am “deeply embarrassed and greatly humiliated” to report that I have lost/deleted the superb report from a military surgeon who’d had two tours in Iraq. So, with no valid excuse to present, I am asking this officer to please send his email again, or send a new one with the info from the earlier one. In return, I promise to print it off immediately so this time, if my fat thumb once more sends his comm into some cyber void, I’ll have hard copy. To any and all other medical services folks — or anyone else with time in the Big Sand Box: If you have some personal experience with the performance of any variety of body armor, please feel free to respond. s/f,

Rog