Air Force Prepares Members for Ground Combat

[babylonsister]

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/22806

Air Force Prepares Members for Ground Combat
Submitted by davidswanson on Wed, 2007-05-23 12:55. Media

By Guy Raz, NPR

“The fact that we can aid the Army and Marines -- I see that personally
as a good thing.”
Maj. Gen. Scott Gray, commander of the Expeditionary Center


snip//

At Fort Dix in New Jersey, members of the Air Force are training to
fight on the ground. In one combat-training exercise, Airman Travis
Neeley's sergeant is down, bleeding to death and straining to stay
alive. The convoy they were riding in has been hit and, though he's only
20 years old with just two stripes on his sleeve, Airman Neely is
suddenly the squad leader.

And his squad is under heavy enemy fire.

Travis Neely signed up for the Air Force fresh out of high school in his
hometown of Greenback, Tenn. He's an air transporter by training, which
means he moves cargo and passengers, and rigs air drops.

Or as he whimsically describes it, "I tie knots and string all day long
and make parachutes."

But within 10 days, Neeley and 200 other airmen at the Air Force
Expeditionary Center at Fort Dix will become expert marksmen on the M-4
rifle. In short, they'll become urban warriors.

more...

[Monkeyman]

1. The News Gets Better And Better

:mad:

[lazer47]

16. Do you remember when we had to train cooks and clerks and

supply people to guard perimeters and do patrols, that was a cluster f***, and too many got hit because of training,,, giving me flashbacks,,,later

[papau]

2. And who said we had too few combat "trained" to get 300,000 into Iraq n/t

n/t

[Marrah_G]

3. Navy also

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (NNS) -- Navy Customs Battalion Sierra wrapped up its first week of predeployment training March 9 in Williamsburg, Va.

The 450 Navy Reservists will complete four weeks of training before deploying to Kuwait and Iraq to fulfill the Department of Defense’s customs inspection mission in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Training is coordinated by the Navy Expeditionary Logistics Support Group (NAVELSG) and includes weapons familiarization and qualification; Humvee driving; chemical, biological and radiological defense; combat skills and customs inspection training.

In addition, about 20 percent of the battalion participated in a combat life saver course. Course instructors prefer to have students who want to take the course. Damage Controlman 3rd Class Michael J. Smith said he’s had courses like this as a civilian emergency medical technician.

[MethuenProgressive]

9. 76 Navy and Naval Reserve fatalities in Iraq so far.

According to http://www.icasualties.org/oif/Service.aspx

[Marrah_G]

13. I know

My brother commands that battillion I posted about. Some days it's hard to breathe.

[sanskritwarrior]

14. Yes but the Navy Corpsmen attached to Marine rifle platoons are counted as Navy casualties,

and the Naval reserve some of them were Navy Seabees killed on a bad day in May 2004 in ramadi by a 120mm mortar strike...........

[sanskritwarrior]

15. To answer my own post

it's still wrong.

[MethuenProgressive]

4. 31 Air Force fatalies so far in Iraq.

34 counting two Dept of the Air Force and one Air Force National Guard member.
http://www.icasualties.org/oif/Service.aspx

[Dr.Phool]

5. The Navy is probably next.

go from being a cook on a destroyer to an infantryman overnight.

Sea and sand. The full beach experience.

[Marrah_G]

7. Already happening

[Captain Hilts]

6. Submariners are being killed in the desert. It's WRONG. Shows what a screw up this is. nt

[kenny blankenship]

8. We could also send the Boy Scouts

[Rosa Luxemburg]

12. LOL!

[Donnachaidh]

10. Running out of "feet on the ground"?

So when exactly will they be forced to fire up the draft again?

[BlackVelvet04]

11. My nephew gets out of the air force

in less than two weeks. He was offered a huge bonus to re-up but in order to get that bonus he had to re-up into a different branch of the service. He said no thanks.