After a yr in Iraq, Soldiers face 18-hr bus ride home

[katty]

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/08/28/after_year_in_iraq_soldiers_face_18_hour_bus_ride_home/

After year in Iraq, soldiers face 18-hour bus ride home
By Lisa Wangsness, Globe Staff | August 28, 2006

For at least a year, the soldiers had survived one of the most dangerous jobs in the world: driving trucks on the violent roads of Iraq for the US Army. Half the company had been at it nearly two years.


when the 150 soldiers in the Massachusetts-based 220th Transportation Company , 94th Regional Readiness Command , arrived at Camp Atterbury in Indiana just after midnight Friday for demobilization, they were told they would have to take the bus home -- an 18- to 20-hour ride.

Furious families of the soldiers called the office of Senator Edward M. Kennedy , a Massachusetts Democrat and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

``I was absolutely outraged," Kennedy said in a phone interview yesterday. ``These are men and women who have worn our uniform that bears the flag of the United States of America. They deserve a hero's welcome."

[MikeyJones]

1. That's because the Pentagon would rather.....

spend the money on Halliburton's executives and their bonuses than pay a few extra hundred per soldier to fly them home. Cheap fuckers.

[katty]

5. exactly!

[babylonsister]

2. I do believe Kennedy cut through the red tape and got these

soldiers home on planes. Ludicrous, and everyone's outrage was justified.

[Kajsa]

3. This is deplorable!

This is how they treat out servicemen and women
when they return home?!?

:nuke:

[Anakin Skywalker]

4. Hey! The CEOs and Corporate Bigwigs

are the REAL HEROES of America, OK? They are what's keeping America's economy strong.
:sarcasm:

[TheMadMonk]

8. They served their pupose and outlived their usefulness. n/t

[mcscajun]

6. This is OUTRAGEOUS! (K&R)

Yesterday, aides to Kennedy said, the Army notified Kennedy's office that it would charter a flight to bring the soldiers home. The flight time was still being worked out last night, an aide to Kennedy said, but a welcome-home celebration for the unit is planned for tomorrow afternoon in Boxborough.

Kennedy said he plans to bring the matter to the attention of Senate Armed Services Committee chairman John W. Warner , Republican of Virginia . Kennedy said there is a role for bus transportation in the military, but no American soldier returning from an extended stay overseas should have to take the bus home after demobilization when a plane would be more comfortable and convenient.

(snip)

"This is a demobilization," he said. "They're on their way home, they served in Iraq and to be told... there are not enough resources in the Defense Department budget to treat people first-class is indefensible, unwarranted, and outrageous."

Army officials said they could not confirm plans for a flight.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/08/28/after_year_in_iraq_soldiers_face_18_hour_bus_ride_home/

"...could not confirm plans..."
:wtf:
Let's see what happens in the next day or so.

[Historic NY]

7. There just a bunch of pawns in Rummy's & * 's .....

scheme to make the world democratic. I believe they have no sense of just what our troops have to go through.....for them they are like little toys soldiers, you buy new ones when they break.