The 732nd Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron—made up of airmen from around the Air Force—at Forward Operating Base Speicher are serving as escorts for truck convoys through the dangerous corridors around Tikrit, Iraq. These escort airmen trained at an intensive Basic Combat Convoy Course at the Army’s Camp Anderson-Peters, Tex., learning ground combat skills and Army small-unit tactics. They qualified with M-4 carbines and M-249 machine guns. Three airmen—a truck commander, driver, and gunner—crew each escort gun truck.
Congress passed a continuing resolution to fund the federal government through Dec. 16, avoiding a shutdown but ensuring that the Pentagon and other federal agencies will yet again start the fiscal year without a new budget. The continuing resolution will mostly keep spending levels frozen at the previous fiscal year’s…