Best body armor for mid east contractors

[bradvanhorn]

Having been over in Iraq recently I can add a few things for you.

Yes there are lots of civilians running around in desert cammies. I personally think that is silly, but that's just me. Yes everyone will recognize you are a foreigner, and frankly no one is safe, so being in desert cammies really doesn't make you any more or less of a target.

Yes many foreigners wear some form of body armor when they are outside known friendly areas (which is just about anywhere). No I don't think an old flak jacket or anything less than IIIA with rifle plates is going to be better than nothing at all. The types of attacks we saw daily (random mortars, rockets, rpgs, drive by shootings, IEDs or car bombs) would not be mitigated by level II ballistic panels, etc., so I think you'd just be hot and sweaty with little value added.

So in other words, if you really want to wear body armor, get an Interceptor OTV and rifle plates to put in it (or some equivalent of that combination). If you don't want to pay the premium price for brand new armor, you can often get a reasonable price for an Interceptor and rifle plates on ebay.

Also, get some Under Armour or similar style t-shirts if you plan to wear body armor frequently or continuously. Once I finally got my Under Armour t-shirts, I turned all my cotton t-shirts into rags.

 

[ktd]

bradvanhorn is, for the most part correct. If I had to redo it over again, and especially if I was carrying a lot of gear, I might even consider just going with a just plate carrier as out in the wild plain kevlar is mostly not going to cut it from a direct RPG or AK attack.

But I still think having a concealable II or IIa vest has merit, as in camp my perceived threat is mostly the callous pistol handling I often see. On a side note we had a contractor who took a hot fragment that just penetrated the skin (this was on a base), and a II vest might have stopped that.

I have no problems thus far always wearing my II armour, so I just wear it, doing so does not hurt anyone else. Previously (and I know I am not the typical case) I have been good in body armour up to about 100 degrees. (DRINK WATER!) Of course that is driving everywhere, which should usually be the case with contractors.

Like I said earlier, it's what works for me. We will see what happens when it gets to 130! I might just be running around in just the cotton carrier by then.