THE COMMAND SERGEANT MAJOR CUTS TO THE CHASE

But then, he's probably in that two-thirds minority whose morale is OK...

I am from Troutdale but currently serving with the Oregon Army National Guard in Southwest Asia. My battalion is operating in both Iraq and Kuwait.

I have been following the best I can the articles on soldiers deployed for war with less-than-adequate equipment. I do not know what Army they are talking about; it is not the U.S. Army.

I am not going to say that things are perfect, but those units that went into harm's way are equipped with the good equipment. The Commentary article "Army should take flak on old vests" (Oct. 5) did not give a fair assessment of the body armor situation. No one in the Army is using Vietnam-style anything, let alone body armor.

We all have current-generation body armor.

Meanwhile, Matthew Duckworth (Letters, Oct. 12) wrote that his brother was "forced to buy size 9 desert combat boots and summer-weight uniforms . . . at the post exchange because neither was available through the army supply system when he arrived for duty."

No, he was not. There are many soldiers who, because the Army was deploying so many soldiers at once and had a backlog of supplies, are wearing standard-issue combat boots or jungle boots. No one was forced to buy anything.

People will do and say just about anything to badmouth our Army and our government. There is always, as Paul Harvey is famous for saying, "The rest of the story."

GERALD J. SCHLEINING JR. Command sergeant major 1st Battalion 162nd Infantry Oregon Army National Guard