Vt. soldiers can’t get home from Iraq

[annabanana]

Source: armytimes.com

Vt. soldiers can’t get home from Iraq

By Erin Kelly - Gannett News Service
Posted : Thursday Apr 24, 2008 8:19:43 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.



Read more: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/04/ap_vermontsoldiers_ata_042308/

---

great...

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.

[MaineDem]

1. How pathetic is our administration?

We should have military planes flying these people home. Pronto!

[Tight_rope]

39. Now you know this BUSH* and the gang don't give a damn!

[Thothmes]

47. All you have to do is buy them. Using charters for routine

personnel transportation saves the Govt millions in aircraft ownership and crew costs. The Govt has been doing this for decades.

[boobooday]

2. Absolutely outrageous

The Army can damn well figure out how to get them home NOW.

And I think you're right -- this is more of the mess Bush made in contracting out our national defense (or offense, in his case).

[SpiralHawk]

13. "But on the bright side, oil & munitions profits are way up." - Commander AWOL

"We can all rejoice in the fact that republicon cronies are making mucho megabucks off this crusade. Smirk."

- Commander AWOL

[Doctor_J]

18. Not to mention Yellow Ribbon Magnets - the true sign of patriotism

Filthy cowardly losers. God, I can't wait for the revolution

[Thothmes]

48. Actually it is not the Army's problem

World wide transportation of goods, materialsand personnel is the responsibility of the Trans Com.

[boobooday]

53. That's nice -- they can just tell the soldiers that

Sorry, we signed a contract with you and brought you here, but seeing that you get home is "not our problem." Hold on, while I transfer your call . . .

[Karenina]

3. This is beyond ridiculous.

[OwnedByFerrets]

4. Send Air Force One to get them......

they've done a million times more for their country than monkeyboy EVER did.

[Pacifist Patriot]

7. Even better

[Ilsa]

16. I love that idea. Or Cheney's plane. nt

[democrank]

5. How freaking inept are we?

If these were Republican senators stranded, a fleet of rescue planes would be en route.

BRING THESE SOLDIERS HOME!

[Pacifist Patriot]

8. No question. This is just bullshit.

[Pacifist Patriot]

6. What the fuck? Put them on a MAC flight and get these soldiers home!

No excuses.

[Thothmes]

49. Its MAC thats scheduling the Charter carriers

[Frustratedlady]

9. I hope Leahy makes a splash in the MSM with this...

Makes one proud to know how our administration is taking care of our young men and women who serve us well.

Hopefully, Bush won't figure that, "Hey! since they are over there, they might as well serve another stint."

[greiner3]

10. You would think;

That one of the major airlines who have had terrible PR lately (I know, that means about every one!) would volunteer one of their 747s to pick the troops up. But money speaks and that's the good ole merikan way.

[tanyev]

11. Wasn't Condi just over there?

We might be able to actually accomplish something with all these worthless PR trips if they'd bring a few soldiers home with them.

[loveable liberal]

12. My boss's son in the same situation.

He's waiting to come home from Falluja but cant get out. Not only affecting Vermont soldiers, he's from Minnesota.

[Broadslidin]

14. Hey, the U.S. military can surely sure fire up one of their D.C. 3 cargo planes.....

Doin' it on the cheap for the "enlisted", No Problem.

Give um' an ammo box to sit on, in the back.... :nuke:

[eringer]

15. Now Lets Hear ATA's Side of the Story...

Army Times should take a less biased approach to its reporting. Based on this screwed up "report," I am convinced that it is sending its articles through the White House (or a White House stooge "working" at the Pentagon) for scrubbing before it publishes anything nowadays.

Take a look at this CNN April 3, 2008, article (http://money.cnn.com/2008/04/03/news/companies/ata_bankruptcy/). ATA says that the Army terminated its contract which, in turn, forced the airlines out of business (never would have happened if they were an affiliate of one of Cheney's companies). Looks like the "Army of One" has found one dandy way of keeping the troops in Iraq at little or no cost and shifting the blame to a company that it forced out of business. Maybe General Betrayus came up with this one as his final act in Iraq (nah--he is not that smart). You can bet your a$$ that he wont be waiting for a flight out of that hell-hole.

Here is the tell-tale line from the enlightening CNN article:

The low-cost, charter airline based in Indianapolis, Indiana, filed for Chapter 11 status on Wednesday as a result of financial problems "following the loss of a key contract for our military charter business," ATA said.

[Cal Carpenter]

20. Oooh, very interesting...!

Thanks for the info

[bonito]

25. the Army terminated its contract which, in turn, forced the airlines out of business

To be outsourced?

[BrklynLib at work]

45. So it cannot be only soldiers from VT that are stuck in this situation..

Sneaky back-door draft!!!!!!!!!!
and as was said upthread..it will be contracted out to a BushCO chum.

[Ilsa]

17. http://www.armytimes.com/ is the front page, and the only page

you can link to from another site.

http://www.armytimes.com/

[havocmom]

19. Does ANYBODY not think troops are being held hostage for ransom?

Pay through the nose, and MAYBE some corporation will get food and water to them. Pay more, and they MIGHT keep the ammo coming. Keep paying and PERHAPS some will get to come home. Now this.

cheney is grinding up our fine people in the military and turning them into gold for his corporate masters. He doesn't give a shit about the human beings, only the fucking money.

It really looks like cheney and the corporations do not want any veteran survivors of this manufactured war. Veterans cost money and when money is spent on services to human beings, corporations can't steal as much.

In a just world, we would gather the 'leaders' who got us into this mess so their patrons could do obscene profiteering and we would drop them all into the center of the fighting with a toothbrush and badly made body armor.

[peaches2003]

21. Why isn't this front page news in

the NYTimes, WashPost, Boston papers, etc. etc. And...even more important, where is Faux News with this. It should be Breaking News with a fanfare every 5 minutes 24/7. Aren't they all for 'supporting the troops' and wearing flag pins??!!!! Actually Fox could give a rat's ass about the troops.

[saigon68]

22. They don't give a Fuck about the troops

Its all a bunch of "Boat Smoke"

[jtrockville]

23. Chalk up another failure for PRIVITAZATION

If the military flew its own planes, they'd NEVER leave soldiers stranded. NEVER.

[baldguy]

35. Bingo

Some Bush buddy somewhere can't make a buck off of them, so our soldiers are stranded.

[Thothmes]

50. Sounds fine. Lets go out and buy 15 or 20 Boeing 747s

and Provied the crews to fly them, the ground crews to maintain them and the air based space to park them. Or we could go and charter a civilian a/c to do the same job, and when its done cut them loose. What is your option on april the 15th.

[jtrockville]

51. Whatever is best for the TROOPS is the ONLY option.

Leaving them stranded should be OFF THE TABLE.

[Thothmes]

52. They are not stranded

I bet by the time you read this, they are on their way home. MAC will arrange for another charter lift or sched military assents to move them.

[emald]

24. this is incredible, absofuckinglutely incredible.

good thing we have serious reporters in this country. Surely they will pick this ineptness up and run a story so all americans can see how....oh. never mind.
Being a disabled vet of the vietnam era all I can say is welcome to the real world of GOP soldier support. How the hell can they not even have a ride home? So the contract was stopped, anyone think to plan for all those the canceled contract would leave behind? No? Why the hell not? Stupidity? Rotten management? Intentional?
damn, what a mess this country has become. Greed over people. Jesus was right, the root of all evil is the love of money. Now we won't even bring spent soldiers home because it's to costly. Our country has taken on the character of GWBushit. Ugly.

[Ganja Ninja]

26. Just one more problem with privatizing everything.

Stupid Reaganomics!
"Put everything in the hands of the private sector." he said.
"They're more efficient and government is just wasteful." he said.
"Run everything like a business." he said.
"If only we had a President with an MBA." he said.
"Take down the trade barriers and let the free market solve our problems." he said.

This is what you get for listening to a man who's brain had the consistency of a very porous sponge.

Let's just say it once and for all. Ronald Reagan was a terrible President with a diseased brain. The man didn't know what he was talking about. If we keep following his advice on economics we will end up worse off than the poorest nations in Africa.

[hisownpetard]

27. Maybe Blackwater can make the airline a loan...

[orleans]

28. link doesn't work

That page has gone AWOL!

404 Error: File not found
It appears that the page you requested cannot be located at this time.

Please check to make sure that everything in the URL was spelled correctly. Otherwise, use the site search above to find the information you need.

[unhappycamper]

32. Try this one:

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/04/ap_vermontsoldiers_ata_042308/

These guys use something called dynamic addressing which sometimes causes funky things to happen

[orleans]

46. thanks--it doesn't work either. i'm getting the same message

about the page going awol.

it's okay.

[sasquatch]

29. Nice economy George

:eyes:

[dixiegrrrrl]

30. So did AA pay back the gov't contract when it filed for bankruptcy??

betcha not.

[Love Bug]

31. To everyone screaming about privitization

In 80-81 my then husband was stationed in W Germany and I followed him there on a chartered flight. The military has been doing this for a long time, probably because it's cheaper for them to charter passenger jets than equip and maintain them in the numbers needed to ferry personnel and dependents. What happened to ATA stinks, but the Army should have contracted with another carrier first. This is not the airlines or Reagan's fault (not that there isn't plenty of other things to blame Reagan for).

[unapatriciated]

43. I'm not sure if your experience should be compared to combat zones.

My ex was in the military during Vietnam and I remember the Navy transporting combat troops, I don't remember the military using private planes to ferry personnel in and out of combat zones. During our many moves the Military did contract with private companies to move dependents to duty stations but we never followed him into combat zones. :shrug: I could be wrong, but I think you are comparing to very different things.

[Vinca]

33. Remember the brouhaha over Pelosi's plane?

She should send it to Iraq to pick them up. Amazing - stranded soldiers with no way home . . . but as long as we wear our fucking flag lapel pins, all is well.

[Karenina]

44. Are these guys continuing to go out with their units

while they're stranded? Enquiring minds want to know.

[Phred42]

34. ARMY TIMES HAS KILLED THIS STORY!!!!!!

Link no longer works!

[MaineDem]

36. No, it's still there

That link never worked. Go to the main page and the story's there.

http://www.armytimes.com/

[baldguy]

37. Put a "/" at the end of the link

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/04/ap_vermontsoldiers_ata_042308/

[Phred42]

38. You Are Correct - Thanks

[tsdraegeth]

40. .

This is so awful. Imagine, they invaded this country, and then when their designated time period of occupation was over, they couldn't get back to the comforts of home right away! That is, like, SO unfair! They shouldn't have to live in that stupid ruined backwards dangerous hovel that they helped liberate with their guns and tanks and bombs. God, I pray that those loathsome people with the planes take them home SO fast!

[Sabriel]

41. I don't get it. Aren't there daily/bi-weekly flights in & out?

Why can't they hitch a ride back on one of those?

Are they telling me every military plane out of Baghdad is full up? It's hard to believe.

How much more pathetic can this current government get?

[tsdraegeth]

42. hitchin' a ride

They should definitely be able to hitch a ride. It's unacceptable that they should have to STAY in Iraq after they already went to all the work of helping the people get past Saddam's tyranny.

The whole purpose of this thing was to help make Iraq a better place for the Iraqis. That doesn't mean our troops should have to stay there and deal with the results. I am frankly disgusted by this. That plane contractor should so get fined and spanked. Also, this is a great opportunity for us all to see how bad privatization and Bush are.

[LynnTheDem]

54. You're a wee bit confused.

If you think we illegally invaded Iraq to make it a better place for the Iraqis.

Which it's a good thing wasn't our reason for illegally invading, coz in fact we've made Iraq very much worse for the Iraqis.

[magellan]

55. Enjoy your stay

:eyes: