Vt. soldiers can’t get home from Iraq

[unhappycamper]

Vt. soldiers can’t get home from Iraq
By Erin Kelly - Gannett News Service
Posted : Thursday Apr 24, 2008 6:02:43 EDT

WASHINGTON — Vermont soldiers who have completed their tours of duty in Iraq cannot get home because of flight delays caused in part by the recent bankruptcy of ATA Airlines, the Vermont congressional delegation said Wednesday.

Sens. Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders and Rep. Peter Welch wrote to the Pentagon this week to try to help two Vermont soldiers whose parents contacted the lawmakers about their sons’ plight. The soldiers, whose names the lawmakers did not disclose for privacy reasons, are stuck in Baghdad.

“After completing their service to our country overseas, our men and women deserve a safe return home without delays,” the delegation wrote Tuesday in a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

The delays are partly the result of ATA Airlines’ announcement early this month that it was discontinuing service and filing for bankruptcy. The military had hired ATA Airlines to ferry troops between the U.S. and overseas bases. The Indianapolis-based airline had been contracted to fly 70 military charters through September, which Air Force Times reported earlier this month.

Still, the Vermont lawmakers said the Pentagon should be doing more to help service men and women find alternative flights home despite ATA’s woes and other bankruptcies and maintenance problems that have hit the airline industry in recent weeks. The transportation mess reportedly has delayed scores of U.S. soldiers from returning home from Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/04/ap_vermontsoldiers_ata_042308/



uhc observation: I doubt there was a problem getting the soldiers there. If your private airline has problems, you can't get them home? Gimmeafuckinbreak.

[hobbit709]

1. They don't seem to have any problems

getting all the visiting congresscritters, etc. in and out of there

[annabanana]

2. This is beyond disgraceful.

When nowhere in Iraq is "safe", leaving these guys there is inexcusable. When "privatization" brings us to this situation the American people HAVE to call a halt.

I fear that this is the kind of planning that will beset any kind of withdrawal from that Country. ...... no plans and a wink & a promise from some near-bankrupt private contractor.
:grr: :nuke:


put this up in GD, It needs more eyes...

[orangerevolution]

3. They are probably stuck in Kuwait

Doesn't everyone cycle thru Kuwait entering or leaving the Iraq theater?

Tone down the outrage, Kuwait is the safest place in the Mid-East.

Just stinks they are stranded and the military has not figured out how to get these TWO people home.

[tinymontgomery]

4. Send Air Force 1 and 2

to get them.

[Plucketeer]

5. INSANE!

I just read an article in Air & Space magazine where it's told that the US Air Force recently flew an aging elephant from Alaska to California because it (the elephant) was having a hard time coping with the cold clime of Alaska. They employed a C-17 to do this mercy mission.
Some Animal Activists group paid the USAF some $200K to do this, but I had to ask myslef - if the USAF can pull off "feel-good" gestures like this during a time of war - why THE HELL can't they give our troops a ride home after they've served their time in Chimpy's Russian Roulette Routine???? :crazy:

[unhappycamper]

6. The elephant article was posted in this forum 10.26.2007.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=259&topic_id=5847

[rakeeb]

7. I've read several versions of this story...

any idea how long they've been delayed?
For the last 15 years, every deployment and redeployment flight I have ever been on has been delayed anywhere fro 2 days up to 6 weeks. I just always assumed that it was a combination of maint. problems, shifting priority to other units and flat-out incompetence in squadron or wing operations.
It never once occurred to me that I could have written an email to my senator to pass the time instead of just reading a book.