ARTICLE: "Two senators tell Marines to ease off whistle-blower: Letter alleges retaliation against adviser after revelation of MRAP delay in Iraq," by Tom Vanden Brook, USA Today, 21 September 2007, p. 5A.
Franz Gayl is sci adviser to the deputy commandant. He goes to Iraq for period last year (I believe) and comes back to write up letter that gets wide distro. The letter highlights the obstacles Marines in the field face back home with Quantico/Pentagon force structure offices in their quest to rapidly field needed stuff like the MRAP trucks that better protect against roadside bombs and a non-lethal laser used to blind drivers of trucks without having to shoot them up (if perceived hostile).
What happens is this: Marines in the field try to fund stuff using ops funds when they get mad at how slow their requests for new stuff are moving back in the bureaucracy. The bureaucracy then retaliates, believing the field Marines are buying stuff against the rules and usurping their authority, plus messing up their finely laid planes for long-term purchases (possibly making those funds vulnerable to the "enemy" otherwise known as other services programs).
If you speak out too much on this, like Gayl did, you get in trouble.
Kudos to senators Bond and Biden on this score: they're pushing for the rapid fielding and to protect Gayl.
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