Air Force, Navy seeing growing duty in Iraq

[babylonsister]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/21/MNGI3R4EI01.DTL

Air Force, Navy seeing growing duty in Iraq
Personnel filling roles normally performed by strapped Army

Stewart M. Powell, Hearst Newspapers

Saturday, July 21, 2007


(07-21) 04:00 PDT Washington -- The Pentagon, scrambling to maintain 160,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, has ordered growing numbers of Air Force and Navy personnel into combat-related assignments with front-line Army and Marine Corps units.

The decision to send thousands of airmen and sailors into nontraditional assignments such as convoy duty reflects growing personnel shortages as the armed forces try to sustain the highest troop levels of the war.

The Air Force has steadily increased the number of personnel in Iraq in place of soldiers or Marines -- from 1,905 in 2004 to about 5,000 this year and 6,000 next year.

The Navy is sending roughly 2,200 of what the service calls "individual augmentees" this year to handle combat-related duties with Army and Marine units.

"The good news and bad news about this is that we are out doing things that our people weren't originally trained for," said Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley in a speech.

more...

[TomInTib]

1. And they are training fighter pilots in the IRR to drive convoy trucks.

Can you imagine?

They spend $20 mil to train F-16 pilots and put them behind the wheel of an 18-wheeler.

[earthboundmisfit]

2. Oh, no. My nephew just enlisted in the Navy.

Into Emergency, Fire & Rescue. His stepbrother (Air Force, flying C-130s in Iraq) advised him if he was going to enlist in the Armed Forces, that he'd be least likely to have to see combat in Iraq or Afghanistan if he signed up for Navy Emergency, Fire & Rescue. At first he wanted to be a Navy medic, but his step-bro told him definitely NOT to do that, as they're yanking the medics for Iraq combat fields. I was afraid of this - dammit, dammit, dammit. He's such a great kid - wants to do the right thing and help his divorced mom (my sister), but he hasn't found a decent job quite yet, and of course couldn't afford college, so --- same story as thousands of other kids' reasons for signing up...