Joyce Cushman, of Wickford, whose son recently left for Iraq, says it "isn't right" that members of his unit must buy some of their own tools.

01:00 AM EDT on Saturday, May 1, 2004

BY MICHAEL CORKERY
Journal Staff Writer

Last week, Joyce Cushman took a wartime journey that thousands of other families have taken this year.

The Wickford woman and her husband, Dan Cushman, drove to an Army base to see their son, an Army reservist, leave for Iraq.

Maj. Jeff Cushman, 42, a father of three children, left Fort Benning, Ga., for a year-long tour in Iraq.

A full-time police officer in Livingston, N.J., Cushman will serve with a new unit, training Iraqi soldiers, his mother says. The future of the Iraqi military is vital, as the United States prepares to hand over sovereignty to the Iraqis in about two months.

Joyce Cushman is a proud, but admittedly anxious, mother. And the more she learned about her son's preparations for his departure, the more concerned she became.

Cushman said she learned that her son and other members of his unit had to buy their own Global Positioning Systems, which are vital navigating tools.

She was told that none of these reservists, including officers like her son, would be issued side arms. Some of the men were concerned that they had been given older M-16s, she said.

And if they wanted night-vision goggles, the reservists would have had to buy them for more than $2,000 apiece, she said. The men decided against it.

"I would have taken out a home equity loan to buy them those goggles," said Cushman, who is a retired secretary.

"This isn't right. If we want them to go out and do a job, they should have everything they need to do the job. We are supposedly the best army in the world. Are they disposable?"

Cushman said she decided to speak out because her son, an Army officer, and the people under his command, could not. She insists that her protest is meant to help all the troops, not just a family member.

Major Cushman is a reservist in the 78th Division, who joined a unit known as the Coalition Military Assistance Training Team, said Maj. Matthew Leonard.

Leonard, a spokesman for the 78th Division, said he did not know all the equipment issued to Cushman and the other members of the training unit, but he was confident that the reservists had adequate provisions.

"Generally speaking, no one gets on a plane without the right equipment or the right training to get them through the mission. We make sure that that happens," Leonard said.

"In fact, the Army is spending a lot of time and resources to make sure National Guardsmen and reservists are set up for success."

Military equipment is a touchy topic in the Iraq war. National Guard and reserve units complained early in the conflict that they were not receiving the same treatment as other units. Some soldiers complained of receiving obsolete flak jackets. The Pentagon had to rush-order armored Humvees to make up for a shortage.

Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, a Democratic member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has blasted the Pentagon on the issue of equipment. A member of Reed's staff met with Joyce and Dan Cushman earlier this week.

"It's entirely appropriate for these parents to come to our office to discuss the kind of equipment being issued to their son," said Reed's spokesman, Greg McCarthy. "There is no reason to suggest this [concern] is without merit."

Several active and recently retired military officers said the Army uses a system to determine which troops receive certain equipment during war.

"As a minimum, everyone has a personal weapon," said Lt. Col. Michael McNamara, a spokesman for the Rhode Island National Guard.

Any additional equipment, McNamara said, is "based on mission and depending on where you are located in the country."

In some cases, officers are given side arms, while enlisted soldiers are not. There are other considerations. For instance, a tank operator, who is used to operating in the confined spaces of a tank, will likely carry a handgun rather than an M-16, McNamara said.

"Not every soldier is going to be issued a 9 millimeter and night-vision goggles," McNamara said.

Retired Lt. Col. Scott Rutter, who took part in the initial assault on Baghdad a year ago, said the reality is that the Army does not have unlimited equipment -- even for units like his, which were the first into Iraq.

"The leadership has to figure out where the biggest threat is and who is the most susceptible," Rutter said. "Somebody has to make the hard decisions on who needs what."

As a mother, Joyce Cushman views the situation differently.

"The fact that these men are buying their own equipment and we are asking them to risk their lives -- they should have all the equipment available to them," she said.