Soldier Testimony of How Ballistic Plates Saved His Life

In WASHINGTON of April 18, 2005, Army Spc. Anthony Dowden was shot in the back with a sniper rifle. He was wearing a new high-tech SAPI or small arms protective insert ballistic plates in his ballistic vest that saved his life. He endured nothing more but just bruises.

Army Spc. Anthony Dowden is a member of 1st Battalion, 64th Armor Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division. He presented the SAPI plate that helped him elude death to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld in a hall meeting in Baghdad, Iraq last April 12.

Anthony Dowden was 22 years old and deployed from Fort Stewart as an old tank crewman. He was on a routine security patrol. He was performing “overwatch” at a checkpoint when he took a good look at a young Iraqi man but appeared to be an AK-47 rifle.

That Iraqi man posed no threat because he was only carrying a pellet gun. However, after a few minutes of observing him running around, he soon started to wonder why he is doing that. As he looked down inside the tank to look for a footing where he can hold on to go down, that was the time when he got hit.

His unit leaders thought that he was shot with a sniper rifle but Dowden said he just felt a strong force on his back that made him thrust forward.

The shot took a pivot at the lower edge of the ballistic plates which resulted to a bruise to his kidney and a more massive bruise towards the side of his back. He confirmed that the SAPI is one of the factors that saved his life. He was glad to be served with such protective equipment.

SAPI armor vest are proven to be a remarkably efficient protection to our soldiers. These plates are designed to stop 7.62mm round which is the standard for AK-47 rifle. As of February 2004, all soldiers and Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan are issued with this type of plates.