U.S. troops stranded in Mideast...................

[nhboy]

Airline's bankruptcy leaves U.S. troops stranded in Mideast

"WASHINGTON - The abrupt collapse of ATA Airlines has left an untold number of U.S. soldiers, sailors and Marines stuck in Iraqi and Afghan airports while they await a ride home. Some face travel delays of up to a week, military officials acknowledge.

"It's hard to believe that when this bankruptcy happened, the Department of Defense didn't have a backup plan," Bret Rumbeck, press secretary for Rep. Jim Costa, D-Calif., said Tuesday. "It seems they dropped the ball a little bit."

Costa is one of several lawmakers who have been drawn into the homecoming headache. The mother of a Marine reconnaissance sergeant from Fresno, Calif., who was stranded in Iraq contacted Costa's office late last week to complain about her son's treatment.

The mother, who so far has declined to be identified publicly, told Costa's congressional staff that her son, a sergeant in the North Carolina-based Marine 2nd Reconnaissance Battalion, was scheduled to depart from Iraq for Camp Lejeune on Thursday. On Wednesday, the Marines learned they couldn't leave. As of Sunday, new travel plans hadn't been set."

Airline's backruptcy leaves U.S. troops stranded in Mideast -- chicagotribune.com

 

[Lenny]

The mother of a Marine reconnaissance sergeant from Fresno, Calif., who was stranded in Iraq contacted Costa's office late last week to complain about her son's treatment.

The mother, who so far has declined to be identified publicly, told Costa's congressional staff that her son, a sergeant in the North Carolina-based Marine 2nd Reconnaissance Battalion, was scheduled to depart from Iraq for Camp Lejeune on Thursday.

Another Cindy Sheehan in the making here. From California already so she'll not have to move when she decides "reluctantly" to run for Congress.

 

[keepsmiling]

I'm sorry but if I'm reading this right (and you may correct me if I am not) this is just another screw up that leads to treating our soldiers like sh*t after all they do for this Country. There is no excuse for this. Can you imagine, you finally get to the airport to leave that hell hole only to be told "Gee, I'm sorry the airline went bankrupt!!"

 

[TWL]

Whats wrong with c-141's, c-5's, or c-17's? Doesn't the Air Force still have MAC or AMC or whatever it's called? Back in the 80's I flew alot on c-141's and c-5's going overseas. I even deployed to Saudia Arabia on a c-141 and Bosnia on a c-130 in the mid 90's.

 

[Mateo]

I agree...if our "esteemed"law makers can junket on military craft, why can't the space be found for the more deserving ?

 

[ImnoMensa]

I think the point that is being missed here is that the government had no forewarning that this airline was going belly-up.

Certainly I feel as badly as anyone that these patriots and military had to wait in an airport to get home, but how many civilians had to do the same thing and where was their back-up plan.?

When you get caught by surprise you do the best you can, and I sure thats what the military is doing.

As for "Leaky" Leahy getting his nose into this , you can bet his interest isnt in the best interest of the military ,but just another shot at the administration. He is our own Al Sadr. POS.

 

[AndyMarquisLIVE]

I think the point that is being missed here is that the government had no forewarning that this airline was going belly-up.

Certainly I feel as badly as anyone that these patriots and military had to wait in an airport to get home, but how many civilians had to do the same thing and where was their back-up plan.?

When you get caught by surprise you do the best you can, and I sure thats what the military is doing.

As for "Leaky" Leahy getting his nose into this , you can bet his interest isnt in the best interest of the military ,but just another shot at the administration. He is our own Al Sadr. POS.

Oh no?

It only took us 2-3 days to get aid into Indonesia after the tsunami. I'm sure the government, with everything else they spend money on, can fly something out there and bring them home. I don't care what the circumstances are, this is unacceptable treatment of our nation's bravest.

 

[AndyMarquisLIVE]

Another Cindy Sheehan in the making here. From California already so she'll not have to move when she decides "reluctantly" to run for Congress.

 

[cwo_ghwebb]

I think the point that is being missed here is that the government had no forewarning that this airline was going belly-up.

Certainly I feel as badly as anyone that these patriots and military had to wait in an airport to get home, but how many civilians had to do the same thing and where was their back-up plan.?

When you get caught by surprise you do the best you can, and I sure thats what the military is doing.

As for "Leaky" Leahy getting his nose into this , you can bet his interest isnt in the best interest of the military ,but just another shot at the administration. He is our own Al Sadr. POS.

I love it when "Leaky" and company want to pound the administration for every screwup around.

These are the same folks that advocate bigger nanny government.

No matter who is in power the bureaucracy stays their same, useless selves.

 

[Bruzilla]

I'm sorry but if I'm reading this right (and you may correct me if I am not) this is just another screw up that leads to treating our soldiers like sh*t after all they do for this Country. There is no excuse for this. Can you imagine, you finally get to the airport to leave that hell hole only to be told "Gee, I'm sorry the airline went bankrupt!!"

Yes... I can imagine that. I was on my way home from a deployment to the poophole of Sigonella, Italy and was all packed up, checked out of the barrack, and ready to go... and the plane went hard-down for three days. Funny though... I don't remember our being stuck in Sig as a news-worthy event or that the military was treating us like sh*t.

Of course... those were the days before the media and Liberals decided that the military must operate with 100% efficiency despite funding delays, arduous duties, combat conditions, and the elements in less-than-ideal locations, and anything less is unacceptable.

 

[Bruzilla]

I love it when "Leaky" and company want to pound the administration for every screwup around.

These are the same folks that advocate bigger nanny government.

No matter who is in power the bureaucracy stays their same, useless selves.

I had to fly an ATA DC-8 from Singapore to Diego Garcia. The plane had no air conditioning, the galley was trashed and the flight attendent was using a Mr. Coffee held in place with bungee cords to make coffee, and then the plane tried to land at the opposite end of a runway that a C-5 was trying to land on coming the other way and we barely missed a mid-air (and by barely missed I mean it was close enough that when we landed and pulled up next to the C-5, most of the USAF flightcrew was still on their knees after throwing up.)

So maybe if Liberals weren't so demanding that everything the military does has to be done by the lowest bidder, a real airline would have back-up resources or negotiated contracts with other carriers to pick up the load.

 

[HouseCat]

Yes... I can imagine that. I was on my way home from a deployment to the poophole of Sigonella, Italy and was all packed up, checked out of the barrack, and ready to go... and the plane went hard-down for three days. Funny though... I don't remember our being stuck in Sig as a news-worthy event or that the military was treating us like sh*t.

Of course... those were the days before the media and Liberals decided that the military must operate with 100% efficiency despite funding delays, arduous duties, combat conditions, and the elements in less-than-ideal locations, and anything less is unacceptable.

You hit the nail on the head. This is the media making mountains out of molehills. Were they on their way to the desert, I'm sure this would've been rectified within hours... .however, they're going home.. no hurry/no urgency. Unfortunately, that's how it is. We deal with it. Media/Civilians need to quit freaking out about crap they don't understand.

 

[Bruzilla]

Oh no?

It only took us 2-3 days to get aid into Indonesia after the tsunami. I'm sure the government, with everything else they spend money on, can fly something out there and bring them home. I don't care what the circumstances are, this is unacceptable treatment of our nation's bravest.

You would think that, but here's where thinking like a Democrat gets you in trouble. There isn't a surplus of aircraft awaiting some inconvienent situation to arise so they can be rushed into service. Planes are either tasked, broken, or being serviced. Everything runs on a schedule, and it's hard to just up and say "take all those planes on the ramp and get them in the air to pick those guys up!" All of those planes are usually already tasked to do something, so you need to do a lot of operational shuffling so you won't have some mom of a troop in Okinawa calling her congressman to complain that her son's base didn't get it's regualar delivery of diapers this week and we're treating our troops like sh*t!

Same deal with commerical carriers. They schedule the use of those planes down to the hour, and do it months in advance. You pull a bunch of UAL 777s out of rotation and send them to get these guys, how do you deal with the thousands of passengers who are now stranded because their planes were used elsewhere?

One thing everyone in uniform has to get used to is the occasional inconvience that's going to happen from time to time.

 

[Pete]

I had to fly an ATA DC-8 from Singapore to Diego Garcia. The plane had no air conditioning, the galley was trashed and the flight attendent was using a Mr. Coffee held in place with bungee cords to make coffee, and then the plane tried to land at the opposite end of a runway that a C-5 was trying to land on coming the other way and we barely missed a mid-air (and by barely missed I mean it was close enough that when we landed and pulled up next to the C-5, most of the USAF flightcrew was still on their knees after throwing up.)

So maybe if Liberals weren't so demanding that everything the military does has to be done by the lowest bidder, a real airline would have back-up resources or negotiated contracts with other carriers to pick up the load.

I flew on that same plane from Moffet to Misawa via Anchorage and Atsugi. 14 agonizing hours in Dress Blues with the ugliest and meanest flight attendents in the world.

The cherry on top was landing in Misawa the guy over sped the flaps and ripped the jackscrew cover out of its track and when he raised the flaps after landing it got caught and busted off and it fell on the runway.

 

[Larry Gude]

So what's next?

Certainly I feel as badly as anyone that these patriots and military had to wait in an airport to get home, but how many civilians had to do the same thing and where was their back-up plan.?

"Sorry boy's. The ammo contractor went belly up. Throw some rocks for awhile until we get this figured out. Didn't see this coming."

"Oops. We don't have any food for a few days. Provider went out of business. Who knew?"

Getting home from Iraq for 2 weeks or a finished tour is not quite the same as you or I getting stranded in Chicago overnight or missing a meeting.

 

[Bruzilla]

I flew on that same plane from Moffet to Misawa via Anchorage and Atsugi. 14 agonizing hours in Dress Blues with the ugliest and meanest flight attendents in the world.

The cherry on top was landing in Misawa the guy over sped the flaps and ripped the jackscrew cover out of its track and when he raised the flaps after landing it got caught and busted off and it fell on the runway.

We had a pretty decent flight attendent and I had to give her credit as about half the folks on the plane got airsick because of the high temperature in the cabin, and of course... being the low-bidder carrier... there were no puke bags. I flew into Misawa many times, but always aboard a ANA flight, which were always nice.

 

[Pete]

"Sorry boy's. The ammo contractor went belly up. Throw some rocks for awhile until we get this figured out. Didn't see this coming."

"Oops. We don't have any food for a few days. Provider went out of business. Who knew?"

Getting home from Iraq for 2 weeks or a finished tour is not quite the same as you or I getting stranded in Chicago overnight or missing a meeting.

You are right, after 6 months or a year deployed even being delayed a week is an anger you can't begin to describe.

 

[Bruzilla]

You are right, after 6 months or a year deployed even being delayed a week is an anger you can't begin to describe.

It makes you angry, but you deal with it. How many times were you extended on a det or deployment after you were all set to go home? That happened to us all the time, but hey... that's the military. You want stability, go sell hardware at Sears.

 

[Pete]

We had a pretty decent flight attendent and I had to give her credit as about half the folks on the plane got airsick because of the high temperature in the cabin, and of course... being the low-bidder carrier... there were no puke bags.

I was on a flight once when we picked up the NAS Agana womens softball team and took them to Yokuska. It got bumpy and as usual one EDC crapped out. The first chick ralphed about 2 hours into the flight into a clear plastic trash bag. The rest blew within minutes I managed to hold back but the smell was pretty bad.

 

[MMDad]

One thing everyone in uniform has to get used to is the occasional inconvience that's going to happen from time to time.

Very true.

Waiting a few extra days to fly home sure beats getting stuck on a boat for the slow cruise home.

We could mobilize a lot of airlift capability and move those troops, but this is not an emergency situation that would justify that. The troops are housed and fed. We aren't talking about getting thousands of troops into battle.

The Sgt. who had his mommy call the congressman should be ashamed. If she did it on her own, she needs a good

He's a grown man. This is not a case of a kindergarten kid not having a ride home.