March 27, 2008
Great Moments in Military Procurement History. Or Not.
I have a pistol made in 1927, and have owned battle rifles and carbines made from 1945 to the Vietnam War-era. In these firearms I've more often fired modern ammunition of recent commercial manufacture, but I've also used surplus military ammunition, decades old. For many collectors of military firearms, shooting aging surplus ammunition is a commonplace proposition, and the results are generally acceptable.
There are however, several wars on, and civilian shooters in the United States are having to compete with government contractors who scrounge up that foreign surplus ammunition in large quantities to provide to U.S. allies under contract. The result is higher prices for quality surplus ammunition, or in some instances, little serviceable ammunition at any price.
The New York Times, God bless them, actually broke an interesting story today about one of those ammunition contractors, a 22-year-old Miami man who now seems to be in a great deal of trouble for selling Chinese ammunition he scrounged up on the world market and repackaged, which is a violation of federal law and his contract.
The relevant parts of this story are how the man in question, Efraim Diveroli, slipped through the cracks of the procurement system to become a supplier, and how some scrap-worthy ammunition was shipped to our allies. I'm sure as details of that SNAFU become available, they'll work to make sure that similar unvetted characters responding to vague RFPs can't game the system again.
I would take minor issue with the Times and other news outlets, however, for suggesting that older ammunition is inherently flawed or obsolete ammunition.
Ammunition can degrade over time based upon the chemical compounds used in its construction and the environmental variables under which it is stored. Ammunition manufactured to high standards and stored in specific, controlled conditions, however, can last almost indefinitely. Ammunition manufactured in the 1960s and properly stored can certainly still be viable and reliable, while ammunition created last week using substandard components may be scrap before it leaves the assembly line.
The author of the NY Times piece who broke the story, C.J. Chivers, deserves respect for some excellent investigative journalism.
Some years ago during a drought a fire began on the West Point Military Reservation and burned out to a NY State Park. When State Rangers and others attempted to fight the fire they were driven back by explosions.
It eventually turned out that the "park" land that the Federal Government had conveyed to the state in the early 1900's had been a "range impact area" dating to the Civil War (The Parrot Gun was manufactured in Garrison - across the Hudson River during the Civil War) and "proofed" by firing it into the impact area.
The "Civil War Vintage" ammunition was still viable and deadly.
When the fire eventually burned out, it cost the Fed's a great deal of money to have contractors remove and dispose of this ordinance.
This does raise an interesting question, however. Who the hell was responsible for giving a 22-year-old Miami Beach resident responsibility for arming the Afghan military when he is clearly not up to the task?
Someone needs to explain A) why heads aren't rolling for this debacle and B) why the national obsession with outsourcing public work to private contractors is continually tolerated. How do career military personal and Pentagon bureaucrats get off hot potatoeing the people's business like this? How much did our nation drop in taxes to shower this guy with cushy government contracts he was incapable of fulfilling? When are we going to get some better guys in office? 2009 can't come soon enough.
Posted by: Zifnab at March 27, 2008 05:33 PMDon't bless the NYT. The article fits tidily with the Left's contention that the administration is unnecessarily risking American lives.
Posted by: Bleepless at March 27, 2008 07:52 PMGod bless 22 yr old Miami Beach jews.
They sure know a heck of a lot about capitalism.
What a bright, enterprising young lad doing his country a great service against the gay-rights denying drug-banning Islamonazis.
Posted by: Onward Christian Soldiers at March 28, 2008 03:39 AMI thought this was a post about con gressiona; appropriations and profiteering.
Posted by: chris lee at March 28, 2008 06:59 AMI thought this was a post about military contracts, congressional appropriations and profiteering. The don't call the Pentagon, "Versailles" on the potomac , for nothin'.
Posted by: chris lee at March 28, 2008 07:01 AMDear 'Onward xtian Soldiers,'
1) Why do you think he's Jewish? "Efraim" sounds like a Cuban or maybe a Dominican name. I suppose if his name was "Jesus" you would feel even worse? And the last name sounds more Italian than Jewish. Hispanic people often give their kids what we would call funny names. OMG, who was the last American named Ephraim? You gotta be talking Civil War stylez.
Ah, the glorious American melting pot. It's tough being a racist on the Internet when you don't know who you're trying to race-bait. He's probably either Chinese-Greek...or your brother.
2) "Jews" (and all forms thereof) is always capitalized, exactly like "Christians." Funny, I bet you never spell it "christians."
3) Why you such a troll, troll? You give Christians a bad name. We don't really care that you are a gay drug addict but it really comes across in your writing.
Ninjas indeed. Troll. Why don't you go inject yourself with a nice turkey baster full of your favorite heroin-sperm cocktail.
Posted by: nichevo at March 28, 2008 06:07 PMOMG, who was the last American named Ephraim?
I've only known one, a guy I was in the Air Force with. He's black. The name is Biblical in origin.
Posted by: Pablo at March 29, 2008 08:38 AMI love trolls. I'm serious. I'm guessing that nichevo is a liberal. I'm not sure, but where in the world would someone get the idea to inject themselves with a mixture of heroin and sperm? With the volume of a turkey-baster no less!
That is just off-the-charts weird.
I'm certainly going to bring this up later.
Dusk orbs, Che, cannibalism, slavery, and now turkey basters of heroin and semen. What are libs going to think of next?
The topic is repackaging old ammo. Can't we just bring the weird level down a notch?
Posted by: brando at March 30, 2008 01:49 PMI'm guessing that nichevo is a liberal.
brando, you are mistaken.
Just a guess.
Posted by: brando at March 31, 2008 07:36 PMWhatever you choose to call yourself, your Heroin/Semen Imperative is messed up on so many levels.
Is that a common thing with you people, or is it something you invented yourself? I'd never heard of that before. I'm shaking my head at the very concept. Ugh. That would be very counterproductive. Don't try to argue it, or mealy-mouth out of it. You're not going to convince me. I'm not mistaken. You can keep that nonsense to yourself.
Posted by: brando at March 31, 2008 08:05 PMI've got 8mm Mauser ammo and .303 British ammo made during WWII, that still works quite well. Quality components and storage make a BIG difference, as you say.
Posted by: Firehand at April 1, 2008 11:35 AMWhatever you choose to call yourself, your Heroin/Semen Imperative is messed up on so many levels.
Is that a common thing with you people, or is it something you invented yourself? I'd never heard of that before. I'm shaking my head at the very concept. Ugh. That would be very counterproductive. Don't try to argue it, or mealy-mouth out of it. You're not going to convince me. I'm not mistaken. You can keep that nonsense to yourself.
It's part of the neocon individual rights and "freedoms" we are bringing to Iraq.
Posted by: Neoconservatism is Jacobinism at April 1, 2008 11:35 PMHe admitted to it!
Now, you're literally injecting Iraqis with entire turkey basters of heroin and semen, and blaming it on neocons?!
You're wrong. You're a bad person.
Posted by: brando at April 2, 2008 11:20 AM
