Soldiers from the U.S. Army's 4th Battalion, 25th Field Artillery Regiment from Fort Drum, N.Y., patrol in the Jalrez Valley in Afghanistan's Wardak Province, accompanied by a Mine Resistant Armor Protected vehicle. Maya Alleruzzo/ASSOCIATED PRESS View More Images from this story Visit the Photo Place

He gave troops IED insurance

Quantico civil servant in charge of program that has saved hundreds, if not thousands, of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan

Date published: 10/22/2009

By RUSTY DENNEN

It was a challenge unprecedented in the annals of modern military acquisition: Get thousands of large, new armored vehicles built, shipped and in the hands of troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And get them rolling within a matter of months, rather than years--warp speed when it comes to military equipment procurement.

The sense of urgency was palpable because Humvees in use since the 1990 Gulf War were vulnerable to IEDs--improvised explosive devices--with deadly results.

That was the dilemma facing Paul D. Mann, manager of the mine-resistant armor-protected vehicle joint program headquartered at Quantico's Marine Corps Systems Command in 2006.

Today, there are more than 15,000 MRAPs--Mine Resistant Armor Protected--vehicles, in the war zone. These hulking steel beasts are credited with saving hundreds, if not thousands, of lives.

"When we started, the industrial capacity focused on the MRAP vehicles was nonexistent," Mann, 47, of Stafford County said in an interview this week.

Engineers and contractors were looking for a new type of armored vehicle that would address the most deadly threat to troops--roadside bombs. They wanted a bigger, heavier vehicle, higher off the the ground than a Humvee, with a V-shaped hull to help deflect the blast.

One that was, in Mann's words, "significantly more survivable."

And the military needed it yesterday.

So Mann and his team, which serves all branches of the military, figured they could speed the process by "buying any and every vehicle that met our performance requirement."

That, in turn, "enabled industry throughout the U.S. to come online to support this very high-demand product."

Under a $25 billion program, multiple manufacturers began producing MRAPs, which began pouring into the war zone by late 2007 and early 2008.

With the ramp-up came reports from the field that they were working. Fewer soldiers were being killed or maimed in IED attacks, though exact figures are unavailable.

In a speech earlier this month, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said IEDs remain the top threat as the war shifts from Iraq to Afghanistan, where the new-est generation MRAP-type vehicle, the M-ATV, is being deployed.

Position: Joint program manager of the MRAP vehicles program at Marine Corps Systems Command at Quantico. Age: 47 Family: Married, with three sons Home: Stafford County. A Navy brat, he lived in 13 locations during his father's military career. Education: Bachelor's degree in mathematics, University of La Verne in California; master's in public administration, American University; graduate of Federal Executive Institute; completed executive fellowships at Harvard and Georgetown universities. Experience: Among his civil-service duties, Mann served as a division director of the Naval Sea Systems Command, led efforts to introduce inter-operable warfare systems to the fleet and worked on air defense capability.

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Date published: 10/22/2009

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