LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va. –
As military leadership from the highest levels announce the upcoming drawdown of troops in Iraq, the implications have the potential to be misunderstood by Airmen if they aren't listening closely. In January of 2009, there were 145,000 troops in Iraq. Now there are roughly 70,000, and the military is on schedule to meet President Barack Obama's September 1 drawdown goal of 50,000. However, that doesn't mean that Langley personnel can look forward to a drawdown in deployments.
According to Michael Pascucci, 633d Logistics Readiness Squadron installation deployment officer, he hasn't seen a reduction in the numbers of personnel being deployed, or in the taskings coming down from Air Combat Command.
"Our numbers are staying the same at this point; they are just shifting from Iraq to Afghanistan. All those people still need to be there; they will just be performing another mission," said Mr. Pascucci.
There are nearly 600 Airmen from a broad spectrum of career fields currently deployed to from Langley. The 633 LRS processes an average of 250 taskings a month, sending Airmen to various locations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guam, and all over the Pacific.
Staff Sgt. Nathan Grafton, 10th Intelligence Squadron network infrastructure supervisor, recently returned from Iraq and said the drawdown is causing some difficulties for Airmen overseas in certain combat-related career fields.
"I was supposed to be there for 140 days, but because of the drawdown, I was only there for a month and a few days," said Sergeant Grafton, who volunteered for a short-notice tasking to assist Security Forces with installation protection. He said because his wife is also on active-duty but away at school, he had to make all the necessary family arrangements in only a few days. "I had to fly my wife home so we could figure out child-care for my son, and I had to put all of my stuff in storage. I also had to do all of my deployment processing in two days; chem warfare, the firing range, all that."
When Sergeant Grafton was called in on his day off work at Sather Air Base in Baghdad, he was shocked to hear that he and many more were going home - almost immediately.
"I had a lot of things in storage, and no time to plan to my return," said Sergeant Grafton. "I ended up sleeping on the floor of my apartment for four days waiting on my household goods to be delivered."
While some airmen are returning home, 1st Lt. Larry Ingersoll, 633 LRS alternate IDO, said that in the foreseeable future, he expects the number of taskings to grow for Langley.
"We will probably see an increase in deployed numbers because of the logistic requirements for moving our people around," said Lieutenant Ingersoll, adding that Airmen in logistics and civil engineering can expect a slight increase in deployment tempo because they are the primary personnel who will help make the transition from Iraq to Afghanistan.
For more information about deployments, log onto the Air Force Portal, and click on the AEF Online link under the Air Force Information tab.