About
20 airmen are working with the Iraqi Army at remote Camp Habbaniyah. Where “everything is a challenge [and] nothing comes easy,” says TSgt. James Lovelace, senior enlisted advisor for the camp’s USAF unit. The Red Tail Flyer reports that the airmen’s job is to teach Iraqi soldiers how to operate a military organization, ranging from such basics as providing food, water, electricity, fuel, and waste management. Lt. Col. Sharyn McWhorter, officer in charge of USAF’s regional support unit Habbinayah, says there wasn’t even a “scheme for picking up trash.” Some 50 years ago, the camp was a functional base; now living quarters may not have running water or electricity and supplies are scarce. The airmen subsist on local food and care packages from home.
The emphasis on speed in the Pentagon’s newly unveiled slate of acquisition reforms may come with increased near-term cost increases, analysts say. But according to U.S. defense officials, the new weapons-buying construct provides the military with enough flexibility to prevent runaway budget overruns in major programs.
