thewalkingman
2nd May 2001, 05:03 PM
Wednesday, 2 May 2001 12:48 (ET)
Army recalling Chinese-made black berets
By PAMELA HESS
WASHINGTON, May 2 (UPI) -- The Army is collecting and disposing of all
Chinese-made black berets, according to the Pentagon, ending a four-month
firestorm over the new headgear, selected to represent the Army's
transformation to a lighter, more deployable force.
"The Army Chief of Staff has determined that U.S. troops shall not wear
berets made in China or berets made with Chinese content. Therefore, I
direct the Army and the Defense Logistics Agency to take appropriate action
to recall previously distributed berets and dispose of the stock," said
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz Wednesday.
It was unclear whether "dispose of the stock" meant throwing the hats into
the trash or reselling them.
The Defense Logistics Agency could not immediately say how many of the
caps had been distributed. A British-owned company with a plant in China had
a contract to produce 618,000 berets.
The Defense Logistics Agency on Monday cancelled three contracts, covering
1.6 million berets, with U.S.-owned companies for production and quality
problems, according to DLA spokeswoman Gerda Parr.
Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki, who made the decision to give black
berets to all Army service members, both active and reserve, by June 14 --
the Army's anniversary -- told the House Small Business Committee it was not
his decision to make the berets in China and he was unaware that they would
not be produced domestically until February when the Defense
Department-funded newspaper Stars and Stripes broke the story. If he had
known, Shinseki said he "would have phased it over a longer period of time,"
thus allowing U.S. manufacturers to fulfill the contract.
Shinseki directed the hat change in October, but American suppliers could
not provide all of them -- 3.8 million at a cost of $23.8 million -- in time
to meet his deadline. Army contractors turned overseas to buy the hats, in
apparent contravention to "Buy American" requirements. Companies awarded
contracts to produce the Army's new headgear have their products
manufactured in China, Sri Lanka, Romania, South Africa and India, according
to Stars and Stripes.
Government agencies cannot buy from other than American sources unless
they can show the items are not available, and not getting them would cause
serious harm.
Shinseki is attempting to engineer a wholesale transformation of the Army,
a large and sometime lumbering war fighting organization criticized for the
lengthy time it takes to deploy its troops to battle. Given the anticipated
change in war fighting toward smaller conflicts in urban or heavily
populated areas, the Army must change or risk being left behind by the more
deployable Marine Corps and more mobile Air Force and Navy.
The Army is training two lighter brigades at Fort Lewis, Wash., where it
is also experimenting with new equipment. But Shinseki said the rest of the
Army needs to know it is also a vital part of the "transformation."
"We needed the army to understand that our requirement to change was much
larger than two brigades ... and everyone needed to be a part of it,"
Shinseki said. "Each of those communities (in the Army) tended to see
themselves a little more clearly than the larger Army. The black beret is
about building cohesiveness amongst these communities because we will need
all of them to win a war."
The most passionate outcry against the black berets came from the Army's
Ranger unit and its alumni, who have worn similar hats for the last 25 years
and view it as an earned badge of honor.
The Army terminated contracts with Bernard Cap Co. of Hialeah Gardens,
Fla., which had a plant in South Africa scheduled to make 750,000 berets;
Denmark Military Equipment of Astoria, N.Y., which had a plant in Romania
scheduled to make 482,000 berets; and Northwest Woolen Mills of Woonsocket,
R.I., which had a plant in India slated to make 392,000 berets.
--
Copyright 2001 by United Press International.
All rights reserved.
http://www.vny.com/cf/News/upidetail.cfm?QID=182394
Army recalling Chinese-made black berets
By PAMELA HESS
WASHINGTON, May 2 (UPI) -- The Army is collecting and disposing of all
Chinese-made black berets, according to the Pentagon, ending a four-month
firestorm over the new headgear, selected to represent the Army's
transformation to a lighter, more deployable force.
"The Army Chief of Staff has determined that U.S. troops shall not wear
berets made in China or berets made with Chinese content. Therefore, I
direct the Army and the Defense Logistics Agency to take appropriate action
to recall previously distributed berets and dispose of the stock," said
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz Wednesday.
It was unclear whether "dispose of the stock" meant throwing the hats into
the trash or reselling them.
The Defense Logistics Agency could not immediately say how many of the
caps had been distributed. A British-owned company with a plant in China had
a contract to produce 618,000 berets.
The Defense Logistics Agency on Monday cancelled three contracts, covering
1.6 million berets, with U.S.-owned companies for production and quality
problems, according to DLA spokeswoman Gerda Parr.
Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki, who made the decision to give black
berets to all Army service members, both active and reserve, by June 14 --
the Army's anniversary -- told the House Small Business Committee it was not
his decision to make the berets in China and he was unaware that they would
not be produced domestically until February when the Defense
Department-funded newspaper Stars and Stripes broke the story. If he had
known, Shinseki said he "would have phased it over a longer period of time,"
thus allowing U.S. manufacturers to fulfill the contract.
Shinseki directed the hat change in October, but American suppliers could
not provide all of them -- 3.8 million at a cost of $23.8 million -- in time
to meet his deadline. Army contractors turned overseas to buy the hats, in
apparent contravention to "Buy American" requirements. Companies awarded
contracts to produce the Army's new headgear have their products
manufactured in China, Sri Lanka, Romania, South Africa and India, according
to Stars and Stripes.
Government agencies cannot buy from other than American sources unless
they can show the items are not available, and not getting them would cause
serious harm.
Shinseki is attempting to engineer a wholesale transformation of the Army,
a large and sometime lumbering war fighting organization criticized for the
lengthy time it takes to deploy its troops to battle. Given the anticipated
change in war fighting toward smaller conflicts in urban or heavily
populated areas, the Army must change or risk being left behind by the more
deployable Marine Corps and more mobile Air Force and Navy.
The Army is training two lighter brigades at Fort Lewis, Wash., where it
is also experimenting with new equipment. But Shinseki said the rest of the
Army needs to know it is also a vital part of the "transformation."
"We needed the army to understand that our requirement to change was much
larger than two brigades ... and everyone needed to be a part of it,"
Shinseki said. "Each of those communities (in the Army) tended to see
themselves a little more clearly than the larger Army. The black beret is
about building cohesiveness amongst these communities because we will need
all of them to win a war."
The most passionate outcry against the black berets came from the Army's
Ranger unit and its alumni, who have worn similar hats for the last 25 years
and view it as an earned badge of honor.
The Army terminated contracts with Bernard Cap Co. of Hialeah Gardens,
Fla., which had a plant in South Africa scheduled to make 750,000 berets;
Denmark Military Equipment of Astoria, N.Y., which had a plant in Romania
scheduled to make 482,000 berets; and Northwest Woolen Mills of Woonsocket,
R.I., which had a plant in India slated to make 392,000 berets.
--
Copyright 2001 by United Press International.
All rights reserved.
http://www.vny.com/cf/News/upidetail.cfm?QID=182394