BoarSpear

Sailors, airmen land new role

By Tom Vanden Brook, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — The Navy and Air Force are training their sailors and airmen for war duty far from the seas or skies: jobs typically performed by a strained Army in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Navy and Air Force personnel are replacing Army soldiers to carry out such duties as guarding convoys, patrolling bases and watching for homemade bombs, the top killer of U.S. troops in Iraq.

The Navy also is running a prison in Iraq, patrolling rivers and helping to clear and search buildings.

About 8,000 sailors are on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Rear Adm. David Gove, head of the Navy Personnel Command. By the end of the year, that number is expected to grow to as many as 12,000, he says.

Gove says it makes sense to tap into a broader pool of talent. "There is a realization of capability in other parts of the services that we need to leverage," he says.

The Air Force has not said how many airmen are doing Army jobs.

Army spokesman Lt. Col. Carl Ey says the training gives commanders more flexibility and doesn't signal a shortage of soldiers.

Andrew Krepinevich, a military analyst with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, counters: "If the Army wasn't having recruiting challenges and exceeding rotation rates, we wouldn't be having this discussion."

Krepinevich authored a Pentagon-sponsored report earlier this year that found extended deployments were straining the military.

Frederick Kagan, a military historian at the American Enterprise Institute, says training sailors and airmen to do the jobs of seasoned soldiers is "what you do only when you're desperate."

The Navy's crash course on combat at the Army's Fort Jackson in South Carolina is staffed by Army instructors and trains about 200 sailors every two weeks. It stresses rifle skills, troop movements, first aid, convoy security and identifying roadside bombs.

Master Chief Doug Boswell, 46, who recently completed the course, says he'll rely on the skills to keep him and his sailors safe during their one-year tour in Iraq. "They're trying to get sailors ready for rigors of shore duty in potentially hostile overseas ports," he says.

The Air Force this year extended its basic training course to eight weeks from six. "I see our future as an expeditionary force in this long war on terrorism," Air Force chief of staff Michael Moseley says


http://www.usatoday.com/news/washing...training_x.htm
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hmmm recruiting is down for the Army so we will siphon off Government issue people to whatever service we need....

Tom Yum

Would they be able to deploy the Coastguard overseas?

BoarSpear

Coast guard rule, they dont go in water deeper than 6 feet, that way if the boat sinks they can all walk ashore

I do believe the message is G.I. means just that, you are government issue, you signed the line you took the oath, now shut the f up and follow orders. Pretty soon people in the salvation army will be gettin' transfer notices

BoarSpear

no doubt they are the baddest dudes on the water, so long as it's 6 feet of water or less


counter piracy?? WHAAAA NOW we endorse pre-piracy piracy?

Tom Yum

Gentlemen, fleets of our 16-wheeler, tactical-mobile storage units will be shipped by air cargo to bases in Tikrit, Mosul.....yeah, we'll be establishing checkpoints for the Iraqis to deposit their old and unwanted furniture

Oh yeah, we'll be participating in house raids too with the army, marines, navy and airforce...