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Riflemen should be trained by, serve in Army, Corps

Every Marine, first and foremost, is a rifleman. Any Marine will tell you that, and I respect it.

The fundamental purpose of the Army and Marine Corps demands that all their personnel should be able to do that basic military function. U.S. citizens wouldn’t be satisfied with an Army or a Marine Corps that was any other way.

The Air Force has assigned thousands of airmen to serve as riflemen in Iraq and Afghanistan, where they help the Army, which is short of personnel, by driving trucks, protecting convoys and providing base security, among other tasks. Any leader with a modicum of vision knows that if you’re going to demand that soldiers, Marines or airmen do something outside their specialty, then you have an obligation to train them.

So now the Air Force has a five-day combat training course for airmen at Camp Anderson-Peters, an Air Force facility at the Army’s Camp Bullis in Texas. The training facility was named for two airmen killed in Iraq while doing convoy security. This is how most airmen are killed in Iraq, not as aviators doing one of the functions of the Air Force — but as riflemen in ground combat.

The House Armed Services Committee recommends that the Air Force (and the Navy) use existing schools for their combat training.

The Marine Corps has the School of Infantry, a 52-day course that turns Marines into infantrymen “who can fight, survive and win in a combat situation,” and a 22-day course, Marine Combat Training, to train “noninfantry Marines in essential skills to operate in a combat environment.” The Army Infantry School teaches 30 different courses of different lengths and focus.

The Marine Corps and Army have a proud record of training riflemen. Some may ask why the Air Force wants to establish its own ground combat schools. The real question, however, should be: Why is the Air Force assigning its airmen to be riflemen?

The answer to that question is, “Somebody made a bad decision.” If the Air Force can provide airmen to fill thousands of Army riflemen positions, the Air Force must have more personnel than it needs to do its job.

Wouldn’t it be smarter to provide those 5,000 or more manning slots to the Army so it can recruit and train riflemen to do the job the Army way? Then people who want to be riflemen could join the Army or the Marine Corps and people who want to be airmen could join the Air Force. It just makes sense.

The writer, an Air Force veteran of 32 years, lives in Bossier City, La. His e-mail address is chucksutherland@suddenlink.net.