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."
Good grief. Have these men heard of jointness?
I credit the military for taking people who can do the jobs regardless of uniform. Are Army and Marine medical, police, and other support personnel the only ones who can operate, provide security, defuse IEDs, and type on computers? Are we to pull Navy corpsmen out of Iraq? Is it wrong to have Navy personnel operate patrol boats in the brown waters with the new naval infantry unit they have created instead of having Army troops operate boats on the rivers and conduct landing operations? This is the biggest source of the planned increase noted in the article, I imagine. Why can't Air Force base security units defend Army bases to help out? Can't Air Force and Navy truck drivers drive trucks in Army convoys?
I mean, when you complain about the strain on the Army how can you possibly complain about measures designed to lessen that strain?!
Indeed, Strategypage noted (I'll look for the link later) that many in the Air Force and Navy are eager to get into the war. After training and wondering if they can hack it, personnel in these services have had few opportunities in the Army and Marine-dominated fighting to show their skills. [UPDATE: See here and here for more on Navy and Air Force efforts without the fear factor.]
Next plastic turkey issue, please.
