Posted on 06/21/2008 4:59:25 PM PDT by The_Republican
WASHINGTON — Ever since the Army lost its warplanes to a newly independent Air Force after World War II, soldiers have depended on the sister service for help from the sky, from bombing and strafing to transport and surveillance.
But the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have frayed the relationship, with Army officers making increasingly vocal complaints that the Air Force is not pulling its weight.
In Afghanistan, Army officers have complained about bombing missions gone awry that have killed innocent civilians. In Iraq, Army officers say the Air Force has often been out of touch, fulfilling only half of their requests for the sophisticated surveillance aircraft that ground commanders say are needed to find roadside bombs and track down insurgents.
The Air Force responds that it has only a limited number of those remotely piloted Predators and other advanced surveillance aircraft, so priorities for assigning them must be set by senior commanders at the headquarters in Baghdad working with counterparts at the Air Force’s regional command in Qatar. There are more than 14,000 airmen performing tasks on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, including Air Force civil engineers replacing Army construction engineers.
But now in Iraq, the Army has quietly decided to try going it alone for the important surveillance mission, organizing an all-Army surveillance unit that represents a new move by the service toward self-sufficiency, and away from joint operations.
Senior aides to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates say that he has shown keen interest in the Army initiative — much to the frustration of embattled Air Force leaders — as a potential way to improve battlefield surveillance.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
<ARMY>We've apparently reached the "Bowling Alley" phase of reconstruction.</ARMY>
= )
Give the Army the A-10’s and their drivers, the Air Force doesn’t want them anyway.
LOL! Now that’s funny!
The Air Farce is doing everything the can to make themselves irrelevant in the 21st century.
Good point. That must be why the USAF has just upgraded the A-10s to the A-10C...
I think you would also be hard pressed to find any A-10 drivers who want to go to the Army. And frankly, I’ve worked enough CAS to know the Army has limited understanding of how to employ air assets!
They sure aren't scoring any points in this household. My 18 year old scored 95 percent averages on all his aptitude tests. They subsequently permanently disqualified him - that's right, permanently disqualified him because of his nearsightedness.
And no, he was going nowhere near an airplane or a battlefield. He was hoping to do geospatial intelligence, satellite tracking, techie stuff.
“In contrast to Predators, which are assigned by the top headquarters for missions all across Iraq, Task Force Odin is on call for commanders at the level of brigade and below...”
What they fail to point out is that the air is apportioned out IAW the direction of ARMY COMMANDERS! I worked for a BDE/CC who was upset that I wasn’t ‘giving him air’. He was even more upset when I told him he wasn’t getting it because he was on the bottom of the totem pole - IAW his DIV/CC.
I think he was even more upset when the General told him the same thing I said - that he was only going to get left overs because the priority was elsewhere.
That’s OK. The Army wouldn’t take my son because his hearing wasn’t good enough - even for field artillery.
The Army Guard tested him and said he had ‘perfect hearing’ - he’s been working in the CA Army Guard ever since. Half deaf, but it doesn’t affect his performance on a bulldozer...
No. Give them to the Marine Corp.
Could you put it in English?
There’s plenty of blame to spread around amongst the services. The air force finds themselves in the middle of a war in which 90% of its pre-war TTPs were counterproductive to COIN warfare. The US Army is just now learning lessons it SHOULD have learned in Vietnam or sooner. The Navy finds themselves mostly out of the fight but are gearing up for the strongest navy in the Middle East in Iran. The Marines really seem to be the shinning jewel in the crown. They’re an organization that does extremely well at institutional learning, have a bottom-up initiative flow and do well in small groups.
Reading through the new Army/Marine Corps COIN Field Manual, co-authored by General Petraeus, an unbelievably brilliant man, gives me hope that we may just get this insurgency thing right one day, as each day in Iraq shows we’re starting to get the hang of it.
With all due respect, there are plenty of people who score 95% who don’t have nearsightedness. Being angry about them holding their standards high is a little petty, isn’t it?
Tick-Tock-Tick-Tock,,,;0) 
And the reason why the AF does not have enough UAVs is because they prefer to spend their budget money on other things
I understood it.
Ouch. As an exAirman I resent that. As an exAirman I also laugh because I know it has an element of truth. Ouch.
BDE/CC - Brigade commander
DIV/CC - Division commander
Brigades are subordinate to Divisions.
(IAW - in accordance with)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.