Air Force Fills Out Army Ranks in Iraq (AP)

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Air Force Fills Out Army Ranks in Iraq
With Ranks Stretched Thin, Army Gets Air Force to Fill Some
Iraq Duties Such As Convoys

By MICHELLE ROBERTS

CAMP BULLIS, Texas Apr 15, 2007 (AP)— A row of rumbling flatbed
trucks and Humvees outfitted with gun turrets lurches toward a
mock village of cinderblock buildings where instructors posing as
insurgents wait to test the trainees' convoy protection skills.

The training range is Army, as is the duty itself one of the most
dangerous in Iraq these days. But the young men and women clad
in camouflage and helmets training to run and protect convoys
are not Army; they're Air Force.

They are part of a small but steady stream of airmen being trained
to do Army duty under the Army chain of command, a tangible sign
the Pentagon was scouring the military to aid an Iraq force that
was stretched long before President Bush ordered 21,500 additional
U.S. troops there.

-snip-

No plans to expand the Air Force's role in convoy operations have
been announced since Bush ordered the troop surge in Iraq, but
Ryan said the Army and other branches of service have been looking
at every possible job that can be shifted from the Air Force
performing convoy duty to the Navy setting up medical facilities
far from waterfronts.

-snip-

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=3043334

[Captain Hilts]

1. A submarine officer was killed in Iraq last week. A submariner!!!! nt

[GreenPartyVoter]

11. My cuz is a sub guy

[Captain Hilts]

15. Tell him to stay away from the desert. It's no place for a bubblehead. nt

[Tesha]

18. Lemme guess: He died of "the bends", right? {NT)

[bahrbearian]

2. Now where is a Neocon to hide and seem patriotic?

[Captain Angry]

3. Congress.

[bahrbearian]

5. good one!

[sakabatou]

4. If it's stretched this much

It's bound to snap if it hasn't done so already.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. It already has

this is scratching under the bottom of the barrel

next, recall of all reserve components due to retirements

And I don't write this in jest, every time I open my mail box I am almost expecting that for my hubby

[sakabatou]

16. And i'm getting letters/calls from the army

Even though they KNOW I can't (meds). They let he injured fight so...

[JohnnyLib2]

6. Bush's arrogant use of his own military time

was a clear warning; lip service masking total disdain. We-the-people are paying the price, perhaps the military most of all.

He should forevermore be used as an example of "dereliction of duty."

[DU9598]

7. Same use of Air Force in Afghanistan

I have not seen it formally reported anywhere, but air force members are being used in Afghanistan as well.

[grytpype]

9. Send in the Texas Air National Guard, Champagne Wing!

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. For the record that squadron of the TANG

has deployed to Iraq... sans a certain LT, but you get the picture

[bahrbearian]

13. Ironic isn't it

[Hardrada]

12. In WWII Goering had to turn over Luftwaffe personnel

to form infantry divisions to augment the Whermacht and Waffen SS. The more things change the more the stay the same etc...!

[poiuytsister]

14. How soon before the Air Force and Navy have extended deployment?

My son is in the AF in Iraq as I write, should come in Aug or Sept. Everytime I hear from him I am afraid he is going to tell my he won't get out then.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

17. Cannon-fodder and more good news for the morticians.