María Elvira Salazar: “I wish to bring up an important subject involving our soldiers in harm's way. In my State of Colorado and across the…”

“I wish to bring up an important subject involving our soldiers in harm's way. In my State of Colorado and across the country, our fighting men and women have suffered casualties while on patrol in armored vehicles. Typically, the gunner sitting on top of the vehicle is at more risk from being hit both because he or she is visible to the enemy and because he or she is not as protected as those troops inside the armored vehicle. I recently received an e-mail from a Colorado soldier serving in Iraq. This brave young man wrote me concerning the combat death of his friend. His friend was riding in the gunner's seat when his Humvee was subjected to an improvised explosive device attack. He feels that his friend might still be alive if that Humvee had a Common Remotely Operated Weapons Station--CROWS--and he wanted me to know about it and see if anyone here in Washington could do something about it. I think we can do something about it, and with the help of my colleagues from Hawaii and Alaska, we will do something about it. The CROWS can be mounted on a variety of vehicles, including Humvees. It allows the operator to acquire and engage targets while protected inside the armored vehicle from enemy fire and IED attacks. It works with a variety of machine guns. The sensor suite allows both day and night time operation. This appropriations bill, as it stands now, allocates $75 million out of the emergency supplemental for the military to purchase CROWS.…”