Marines recall body armor, report says

The Marine Corps issued to nearly 10,000 troops body armor that Army ballistic experts urged the Marines to reject after tests revealed life-threatening flaws in the vests, an eight-month probe by Marine Corps Times has found.

In all, according to the report, the Marines bought about 19,000 Interceptor outer tactical vests from Point Blank Body Armor that failed government tests due to “multiple complete penetrations” of 9 mm pistol rounds and other ballistic or quality-assurance tests. After being questioned about the safety flaws for this story, the Marines ordered the recall of 5,277 Interceptor vests on Wednesday.

Marine Corps Times is an independent newspaper owned by Gannett. The report was made available by USA Today.

The Corps has not said what it intends to do with more than 4,000 vests still in use.

Army ballistics expert James MacKiewicz, in a memorandum rejecting two lots of vests on July 19, 2004, said his office “has little confidence in the performance” of the body armor.

MacKiewicz, who works at the Army Soldier Systems Center in Natick, Mass., is responsible for verifying that the vests meets protective requirements and other quality standards.

Instead of heeding MacKiewicz’s warning, the Marine program manager for the vests, Lt. Col. Gabriel Patricio, and Point Blank’s chief operating officer, Sandra Hatfield, signed waivers that allowed the Marines to buy and distribute vests that failed to meet the standards.

The Marines questioned the accuracy of the initial tests. It pulled samples from some of the challenged lots and had them tested at a private lab.

Patricio said the second tests show that the vests meet safety standards and do not put Marines at increased risk of injury.

“I did not ignore warnings or advice from my staff. I simply looked at all the factors involved as the program manager and made the decision that I needed to make based on all the information that I had,” Patricio said in an interview the day before the recall of the vests was announced.

Patricio recently retired from the Marines.

Hatfield challenged the tests.

“We see no reason to be concerned that the quality has deteriorated or that the performance has deteriorated in any fashion,” she said in an April 20 interview.

It is not clear whether any of the questionable vests have failed to protect Marines.