Congressional investigators say the Army made critical mistakes in tests of a new body armor design. They’re recommending an independent review of the results before the gear is issued to troops in combat.

CHARLOTTESVILLE U.Va. student Jeff O’Dell, an Army soldier who has been at war, knows the value of body armor. “You live in that armor,“ the second-year biomedicaland mechanical-engineering student said. “You wear it like a T-shirt.“ Now O’Dell, with a team of three other University of Virginia second-year engineering students, is working on a new type of body armor that could save the lives of American soldiers.