http://www.military.com/earlybrief
U.S. Troops Still Short on Gear
Associated Press | January 31, 2007
WASHINGTON - Hundreds of U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have experienced shortages of key protective equipment including armored vehicles, roadside-bomb countermeasures and communications gear, a Pentagon survey released Tuesday shows.
The Defense Department Inspector General's Office polled roughly 1,100 service members and found they weren't always adequately equipped for their missions. The troops were interviewed in Iraq and Afghanistan last May and June.
Those surveyed reported shortcoming with vehicles outfitted with armor; "crew-served weapons," which are weapons it takes more than one person to handle, such as artillery or a large machine gun; electronic countermeasure devices, such as equipment designed to foil roadside bombs by interfering with cell-phone signals that may be used to detonate them; and communications equipment.
The survey found that those not getting needed gear include troops performing untraditional missions such as training, reconstruction, detainee operations and explosive ordnance disposal.
In some cases, they went ahead with the work anyway, used informal means to get what they needed or canceled or put off operations while waiting for equipment, the report summary said.
The report found the U.S. Central Command and the Army's internal equipment controls inadequate and recommends improvements.
Only a summary of the findings were made public; much of the report is classified.

Doing without was more often the norm in the Marines Vaughn.

I don't know if I ever told you the story about the teletype machines we had at my first duty station. I was cleaning them up one day and notice the property stickers affixed to the underside of them, The first sticker said "Property of the United States Air Force", carefully affixed to overlap the edge of that first sticker was another that said "Property of the United States Army", carefully affixed to overlap the edge of that next sticker was another that said "Property of the United States Navy", and finally carefully affixed to overlap the edge of that sticker was another that said "Property of the United States Marine Corps".

Since those two machines looked a bit older than me I figured that meant the Air Force had them first and used them until something better came along then passed it down as a hand me down to the Army, who in turn used them until they figured them obsolete then passed them down to the Navy, and then after the Navy got all the use out of them they considered them worth they passed them off to the Marines. I bet after we considered them worn out we shuffled off to the Coast Guard, eh?

I remember using Korea War vintage radios in the late 70s and rode on a few airplanes (ever seen a C-117?) which had been out of production since before I was born.

As wealthy as this country is there is no excuse why our military should have to make do with old, worn out, and broke stuff. But over the 30 years I served we did.