Air Force to triple number of airmen in Iraq

[unhappycamper]

Air Force Staff Sgt. Travis Griffin from the 732nd Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron's Detachment 3 scans the perimeter of Baghdad's main bus station with the scope of his M-4 rifle on Thursday. While most airmen serving in Iraq rarely venture outside the base, members of Detachment 3 go almost every day as part of the service's effort to fill jobs that have typically been done by the Army in Iraq. The Air Force calls them "in lieu of" taskings.


Air Force to triple number of airmen in Iraq
By Scott Schonauer, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Wednesday, November 14, 2007

BAGHDAD — More airmen will be doing soldier-type jobs in Iraq, and those that already are can expect to be deployed longer and more often than most in the Air Force.

The Air Force next year will triple the number of airmen working under and helping the Army and the Marine Corps as part of its own “surge” in troops to Iraq, an Air Force commander said earlier this month.

The boost comes as the service continues to try and draw down the number of airmen in the ranks and many commands are struggling with smaller staffs.

There are about 1,500 airmen working in Army and Marine units throughout Iraq, performing duties from providing explosive forensic analysis to police work in the capital. That number will rise in the coming months as the military shifts from fighting an insurgency to nation building, said Col. Karl Bosworth, commander of the 732nd Air Expeditionary Group at Balad Air Base.

“The expectation is that it’s not going to go down,” Bosworth said. “In fact, we anticipate the requirements will grow somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 over the next year. And that is related to the transition on the battlefield.”

While President Bush earlier this year ordered 30,000 more troops to Iraq as part of the so-called “surge,” the Air Force has steadily increased the number of airmen serving in combat support roles for its sister services. The Air Force calls such missions “in lieu of” taskings, or ILO for short.


Rest of article at: http://stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=50250

[TomInTib]

1. There's yer "Volunteer Force".

I will guaranfuckingtee you those Airmen didn't volunteer with the notion of becoming infantrymen.

KnR

[rakeeb]

2. Volunteer.....says as much in the article

from the article:

Many airmen volunteered to go, despite the stress of working outside their usual duties. They raised their hands for different reasons. Some are doing it because they think it will help their careers, airmen said. Some are doing it because it’s not often an airman gets a chance to do anything close to this.

“It’s just something I wanted to do,” said Tech. Sgt. Ernest Revell, 33, a married father of three girls assigned to the 732nd Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron in Baghdad. “It’s the experience I wanted to have.”

However you want to interpret the story, I guarantee you they are not taking jobs from the infantry.
from the article:

Since March 2004, the Air Force has provided airmen to serve combat support roles. The airmen include civil engineers, security forces officers and intelligence analysts serving six-month tours or longer. Many doing six-month tours can expect to return home for a year and then return to Iraq, Bosworth said.