It's a problem Eyewitness News first told you about last week.

The Investigators' Jim Hoffer broke the story and joins us now with more on what is being done to fix the problem.

One lawmaker is calling for public hearings after seeing our investigation, and a U.S. senator is demanding answers from the Pentagon.

They want to know why, as we first reported, soldiers were blocked from getting a rival weapons lubricant when the Army's own reports suggest growing problems with the military-issued lube.

Since the invasion into Iraq, U.S. soldiers have struggled to keep their guns from jamming. Our investigation found part of the problem could be the military-issued lubricant.

This internal Army report claims soldiers found that, "the Army's lubricant was not a good choice for weapons' maintenance," claiming "it attracted sand to the guns."

Sgt. Jason Szustwal, Reserve Marines: "If you keep the sand out of it you're good to go."
Jim Hoffer: "And one way to keep it out is to not use the lubricant?"
Sgt. Jason Szustwal: "Correct, correct."

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York: "It's extremely troubling."

After seeing our report, New York's senior senator fired off a letter to a Pentagon general, demanding to know why it continues to issue a lubricant that may be causing soldiers' guns to jam.

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer: "The fact that it may have been this lubricant which the armed forces stubbornly clings to when there's a better product available is really troubling because it's not just pride it's life, it's loss of life.".

Our investigation revealed that just days into the war, the military cancelled over $117,000 in troop orders for a rival gun lubricant, called Militec.

Jim Hoffer: "This is dozens of orders for your product?
Russ Logan, Militec: "Orders from units in the field that were getting ready for war and felt that they needed this to do their job, and they were denied them at the last minute."

For seven months, the military blocked all orders for Militec, leaving soldiers to buy it on their own or ask their families to ship it to them. That's what this New York father had to do.

Art Couchman, Soldier's Father: "The soldiers over there are saying this is a good product and its been battle proven why not make it easier for them to get this product?"

Long Island Congressman Steve Israel, a member of the Armed Services Committee, is calling for hearings to determine whether, "An ineffective gun lubricant was given to American troops."

U.S. Rep. Steve Israel, D-New York: "We need to ask how this happened, why it happened, and more importantly, how we're going to stop it from happening ever again."

The Army says Militec is again available to troops. In a statement to Eyewitness News, the Army says that because of, "Mixed reports on the performance ... of lubricants" it plans to "rapidly evaluate ... and test" various products for possible future use.

Daniella Brian, Project on Government Oversight: "What seems to be missing here is leadership."

A watchdog group that's done its own military investigations says public pressure is the only way to get the military to change.

Daniella Brian: "They've never been able to really recognize a mistake and fix it internally, it always seem to take pressure from the outside."

Change could already be happening in response to our investigation. We've learned that the Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard Myers, has begun an investigation into the military-issued lubricant and what role it might have in the rash of weapons jammings.