Stretched US pilots may quit military

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/01/09/1073437475904.html

Another US helicopter has crashed in Iraq, killing all nine soldiers on board and fuelling Pentagon fears that some of the military's most experienced pilots might quit after prolonged deployments to dangerous hot spots like Afghanistan and Iraq.

With the first of 118,000 US troops leaving for Iraq in a rotation aimed at replacing war-weary soldiers, analysts said the US military is overstretched by deployments in Iraq and elsewhere. They said this was forcing the Pentagon to keep thousands of soldiers and reservists in uniform long beyond their release dates, with potentially dangerous effects on morale.

"There is no question that the force is stretched too thin," said David Segal, director of the Centre for Research on Military Organisation at the University of Maryland. "We have stopped treating the reserves as a force in reserve. Our volunteer army is closer to being broken today than ever before in its 30-year history."

At least 14 US helicopters have crashed in Iraq since the war supposedly ended last May, claiming some 58 lives and underscoring the vulnerability of an essential cog in US military operations there.

[Judi Lynn]

1. This would be hard to justify, considering there was no actual threat

Snippet from the article:

General E. J. Sinclair, commander of the US Army Aviation Centre at Fort Rucker, Alabama, said last week that continuous foreign assignments were "going to cause some problems".

He illustrated his concern by describing the plight of a senior US Army aviator who watched from afar while his newborn daughter grew into her toddler years. The army major has seen his daughter for 12 days in the past two years.

"I can't bring him back in my right mind and tell him after a month or two he has to go to Korea for a year-long assignment without his family. But that's what's happening," General Sinclair said.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. this is really getting Drafty

SOON we will see the consequences...

[tedoll78]

3. Whomever our nominee is..

he needs to harp on the situation. Bring-up evidence of draft boards across the country being mobilized - it's out there.

[saigon68]

4. Those 8 Million New "Immigrants" will soon fill BODY BAGS

"Bag Em and Tag Em", cried the Evil Wolfowitz---- Defense Dept Scum Bag



"Bring Em On", shouted the Lobotomized AWOL CHIMPANZEE---Dim Bulb

[ConcernedCanuk]

5. Ahem - even dis Canuk knows dere ain't no Body Bags - "Transfer tubes" !!!

.
.
. . gotta be politically sensitive here ! !

While the BFEE and it's gang take care of the insurgents, terrorists, Saddam sympathizers, etcetera, while the USA is NOT murdering innocent Iraqis !!

[saigon68]

6. Transfer Tubes

They load those (transfer tubes) on the C-117s on pallets and stack them up, on their way to Dover. They are reusable.
Body bags are not reusable, they have handles on them and they contain the shredded remains which are hand carried to the initial morgue, where the body is embalmed and placed into a metal box (transfer tube) for the final trip to Dover. All of this is now done in great secrecy.

Don't want to upset the sheeple. Seen a body bag lately. I only sawa picture of one,--- that was in a long distance shot of the Chinook shoot down in November.

[0007]

7. Is junior thinking of borrowing Mexico's army...

or has he got other plans for the Hispanic working coming to American?

[Mairead]

8. Dennis Kucinich is the one who'll stop all this.

His 'UN in, US out' plan will immediately take the pressure off by revealing a light at the end of the tunnel that is NOT a missile-guidance laser!