The Marine Corps has requested an investigation into slow delivery of MRAP armored vehicles to Iraq from 2005 to 2007, which may have increased casualties related to IEDs by 50 percent or more.
Though the Marines initially downplayed a report by civilian Marine official Franz J. Gayl, the Corps has now asked the Pentagon's Inspector General to make a thorough evaluation. Gayl is a science and technology adviser to the Marines, and in his case study of the MRAP program, completed Jan. 22, he writes that "hundreds of deaths and injuries could have been prevented" if MRAPs were purchased and sent to Iraq in starting in 2005 instead of 2007.