SITREP

This week, with the Holidays here, I want to give a quick SITuation REPort via a few articles I read recently:

1. Count this as my first victory. The barracks featured at the top of this article were finally finished last week, 6 months behind schedule, and our Soldiers are moving in to their temporary home. Yes, it is still crowded with six Soldiers per room but they have the luxury of indoor bathrooms (as opposed to the outhouses almost everyone else has to use.) The article itself also highlights many of the current projects I am involved in around the base. Unfortunately the future soccer field is not going to happen :-(
   
2. This article gave me a guilt trip. As Aviators we demand the best and usually get it. After all, do you want your pilots or maintainers sleeping in a hole in the ground? Then again maybe the Marines like it that way, though I highly doubt their Commandant lives like that. Most of these and other surge forces will go to southern Afghanistan. If it is estimated to cost $1 Million/year for every Soldier in Afghanistan you would think that figure would include some sort of tent or basic shelter. 
3. Now, on to the big stuff. An Air Force Colonel explains how their service has largely failed to support the fight in Afghanistan. Maybe they thought the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter were the answer? Impressive aircraft, but the Taliban could care less how fast a fighter flies or if it is stealth.
   
4. Lastly, this is a long one, how and why helicopters are the most important strategic air asset throughout the last three decades of conflicts and even more so today in a modernized counterinsurgency. 
   

Next time I'll write more about what Christmas is like so far from home. Hope all is well with you and yours.