Army and Marine Corps divisions ought to be joint commands, “and the number two guy” in each should be an Air Force one-star general,” Barry McCaffrey, ex Army general and national drug czar, said at a Capitol Hill seminar March 12 (see above). “Because, if you look at an Army division, 600 [to] … 900 Air Force guys operate in support of a division—inside, never mind flying ‘in support of.’ We gotta have one person run that airspace.” The Army and Marine Corps have to get past their “huge sense of mistrust” that the Air Force won’t be there when called for. McCaffrey said such a notion is foolish, given that in today’s war, a single Army platoon “can have a B-1 bomber overhead in 20 minutes” to do its close air support.
As the Air Force readied for its June 21-22 strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, the service was also putting its Agile Combat Employment strategy into action, dispersing combat aircraft and Airmen from Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar in preparation for a possible Iranian retaliatory attack. Some defense experts say…
