Rotation puts airmen in action
When he first joined the Air Force, “we didn’t go anywhere,” Tech Sgt. Carl McCoy said.
Times have changed for McCoy, a member of the 437th Security Forces Squadron at Charleston Air Force Base.
“Wherever I walk in and lay my head down is home now,” said McCoy, who has been deployed 13 times in his 17-year career.
Since Desert Storm in 1990, the Air Force has dispatched airmen to Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and several other bases in the Persian Gulf. Since the Iraq war started in March 2003, the frequency of those deployments has increased to what military observers call a “never-ending surge.”
On any given day hundreds of airmen at South Carolina’s two Air Force bases — Charleston and Shaw — are deployed. Overall, 32,600 of 529,000 U.S. airmen — including Air National Guard members and reservists called up for active duty — are deployed around the world. That number doesn’t include nearly 7,000 airmen who permanently are stationed overseas.
The wear and tear of frequent deployments is a concern.
Knowing that 70 percent of its service members are married, Air Force leaders recognized years ago they needed to make deployments predictable and efficient to give airmen and their families some stability.
So the Air Force began scheduling rotations. Also, about three years ago, the service settled on a four-month deployment every 20 months for most airmen.
Read the rest at the Herald Today
Times have changed for McCoy, a member of the 437th Security Forces Squadron at Charleston Air Force Base.
“Wherever I walk in and lay my head down is home now,” said McCoy, who has been deployed 13 times in his 17-year career.
Since Desert Storm in 1990, the Air Force has dispatched airmen to Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and several other bases in the Persian Gulf. Since the Iraq war started in March 2003, the frequency of those deployments has increased to what military observers call a “never-ending surge.”
On any given day hundreds of airmen at South Carolina’s two Air Force bases — Charleston and Shaw — are deployed. Overall, 32,600 of 529,000 U.S. airmen — including Air National Guard members and reservists called up for active duty — are deployed around the world. That number doesn’t include nearly 7,000 airmen who permanently are stationed overseas.
The wear and tear of frequent deployments is a concern.
Knowing that 70 percent of its service members are married, Air Force leaders recognized years ago they needed to make deployments predictable and efficient to give airmen and their families some stability.
So the Air Force began scheduling rotations. Also, about three years ago, the service settled on a four-month deployment every 20 months for most airmen.
Read the rest at the Herald Today
posted by iraqnam at 11:09 AM
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