Three US airmen killed in Iraq

[ProSense]

Three US airmen killed in Iraq

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Three US airmen have been killed during combat operations near an air base north of Baghdad, US Central Command said on Friday.

The three were killed on Thursday near Balad air base, it said, adding they were "assigned to the Air Force Office of Special Investigations at Balad".

Three US soldiers killed in Iraq

[TwilightGardener]

1. Unusual--and sad. RIP, airmen, from this Air Force wife.

[Warren Stupidity]

2. Uh, hmm.. er, why are airforce units involved in ground combat?

Aren't they supposed to be flying, servicing, protecting aircraft?

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Internal affairs

they were investigating something... I suspect

[Warren Stupidity]

4. Well I was going to accept that too except that the phrase

"killed during combat operations" would appear to be something other than "out conducting an investigation". Sounds more like 'a combat operation' to me, which continues to leave me wondering if we are putting airforce ground protection units into army/marine combat roles to fill out for missing recruits, as we have been doing for quite some time with non-marine naval units.

[happyslug]

5. No, protection of Air Force bases and supply line is an Air Force Function

Given that Air Bases tend to take up the most space of any military base, they get hit hard by Mortars and other devices. Thus the insurgents, like the Viet Cong in Vietnam, are hitting air base hard, and will continued to do so.