USAF has a group of three specialists on a petroleum and oil infrastructure team, or POInT, whose mission is to check Iraqi pipelines for leaks and work with Iraqis to secure the pipes. They also check electrical infrastructure to try to ferret out whether a problem is insurgent-related or simply Mother Nature. The airmen from the 732nd Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron at Kirkuk, ride with a US Army convoy of the 555th Combat Support Battalion for protection throughout the region around Kirkuk Air Base, where about 40 percent of Iraq’s oil resource resides.
Airmen eligible for selective retention bonuses (SRBs) have until May 20 to apply as the Air Force reaches the end of funding provided by Congress.