Things they can't live without

In games like Call of Duty and other FPS's (first person shooters for those uninitiated parties out there), you have weapons to kill people with and armor to help you survive. When you run out of bullets you can't easily kill people in the game, and when you run out of armor you're gonna die pretty quickly. Sounds pretty basic, right? Right.

Funny thing is, our armed forces are largely the same way. The difference is they're not playing a video game right now. Bullets and armor aren't generally laying around in the streets to be picked up and used. Turns out that the enemy is a little smarter than that in real life.

Now the Army and the Navy, they get the funding. The latest and greatest goes to them, as do the vast majority of ordinance and munitions. The Marines tend to get the leftovers and hand-me-downs. One of the reasons they've survived congresional attempts to either have the Corps absorbed by another of the services or cut them entirely is because they can get the same job done for cheaper. They take what they're given and MacGuyver the crap out of it to accomplish the mission. Adapt. Overcome. Improvise. That's what they do.

So when the Marine Corps front lines say they NEED something, it's a pretty damn good bet that they're not jokin'. Apparently those needs aren't getting filled fast enough, if at all.

Now I understand supply and demand, I understand manufacturing time, and I understand budgeting. I really don't care what the root cause of the supply issues are, though, because I also understand how mines work. It pretty much boils down to this: when a mine blows up near a vehicle, either armor/cover is going to stop the shrapnel, or a Marine will.

The difference is armor doesn't die.