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- WASHINGTON (CNN) - Senior Air Force leaders are pressing the Pentagon brass
for an unprecedented "time out," or in military terms a "reconstitution,"
to allow heavily used squadrons to recuperate from the stress -- both human
and mechanical -- of carrying the bulk of the load of NATO's Operation
Allied Force, CNN learned Thursday.
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- The Air Force has played an increasingly
important role in conflict after conflict and that branch of the U.S. military
is now feeling the pinch.
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- "What is showing is the strain,"
said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Tom McInerney. "We've put the horse,
if you will, back in the barn still wet. And now the Air Force must reconstitute."
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- Flew majority of 36,000 sorties against
Serbs
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- Air Force planes and personnel worked
up that sweat during the 2 1/2 month intensive bombing campaign against
Yugoslavia. The United States contributed 731 aircraft and flew the majority
of the 36,000 sorties from March 24 to June 20.
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- At the same time, the Air Force was carrying
out the ongoing enforcement of "no-fly" zones in both northern
and southern Iraq and in Bosnia.
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- Doing more with less resources
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- The problem is that while the Air Force
is 40 percent smaller than a decade ago it has up to four times as many
obligations worldwide, according to senior Defense Department officials.
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- Defense Secretary William Cohen warned
a Senate panel that all the services are feeling the crunch.
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- "That's the real danger that we
face -- that we've got to find a way to either increase the size of our
forces or decrease the number of our missions," Cohen testified on
May 11.
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- Particularly hard hit are the Air Force's
AWACS, U-2s and other intelligence-gathering planes.
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- The pace, said Air Force officials, has
"pilots leaving in droves", as well as jet mechanics and others.
But the pace is not the only factor.
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- "We have a booming economy. And
we have very high pace of operations in the military today," noted
Stephen Aubin of the Air Force Association. "So that combination has
been forcing people to look at their options, and a lot of people say,
'Hey I want to be home with my family more.'"
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- The administration and Congress are trying
to address the problem with proposals to increase pay and bonuses.
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- The Air Force -- now short more than
1,400 pilots -- said that while it's not yet in a crisis, it's headed there
soon if something doesn't give.
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- http://cnn.com/US/9906/24/air.force.break/
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