Las Vegas Weekly

March 9, 2009 · 5:36 PM

Obama’s Iraq end date is no cause for celebration at Nellis

By Sarah Feldberg

Airman 1st Class Daniel Rodgers, an HH-60 avionics specialist assigned to the 763rd Maintenance Squadron, embraces his wife Airman 1st Class Stephanie Rubi, a still photographic apprentice assigned to the 99th Air Base Wing at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., after the 763rd MXS returned home after 3 1/2 months in Southwest Asia.

Photo: Senior Airman Larry E. Reid Jr. / U.S. Air Force Photo

On February 27 thousands of Marines at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina listened as President Obama made an announcement that undoubtedly caused an emotional reaction in everyone who heard it.

“Let me say this as plainly as I can,” he said. “By August 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end.”

It was, as intended, a very plain statement of intent, but those simple words presented more questions than answers. In the ensuing media frenzy big names and small offered forecasts tackling the question of what August 31, 2010 would actually mean to the country and the men and women of the U.S. military. It all boiled down to this: No one really knows.

The basics, at least, are clear: Of the 142,000 troops currently in Iraq, all but 35,000 to 50,000 will withdraw by Obama’s heralded date. The remaining personnel will leave by 2011, as was negotiated by George W. Bush prior to his leaving office.

But what the date of August 31, 2010 means -- what it will mean to the individuals both on site in Iraq and stationed on bases in the United States –- is still open to debate.

Of course, the answer depends entirely on whom you ask.

I decided to ask Amanda Ferrell, a Captain in the United States Air Force based just outside of Las Vegas at Nellis Air Force Base.

Two days before shipping out to South Korea, Ferrell thought over the president’s words and what they mean to her fellow Nellis airmen. Calmly, with none of the exaltation or enthusiasm you might expect, she came to a surprising conclusion: For Nellis, they mean very little.

While in my head imaginary marching bands where already donning gold tassels and shining their tubas in preparation for Obama’s declared homecoming date, Ferrell said her vision of that late summer day at Nellis involves little in the way of wild celebration or breathless relief.

“The mass exodus and fluctuation of personnel is more prevalent in the Army and Marine Corps,” Ferrell explained. “In the Air Force, we deploy a little differently.”

Unlike the Army, in which large battalions can deploy thousands simultaneously into a theater of war, Ferrell explained that airmen like her are deployed into the arena of responsibility (AOR) on an as needed basis within determined time frames.

“We don’t anticipate fewer people being deployed, just to different locations,” Ferrell said.

Iraq’s troop loss won’t mean a Nellis gain, at least not in terms of the base being flooded with flower-bearing families and joyfully teary children as Air Force personnel land in droves. Rather, the same airmen on assignment in Iraq will likely be sent to a new area of concentration, Afghanistan, for instance.

“Regardless of how the pullout happens it’s a very arduous process.” Ferrell added. “It’s tapered. (It’s) not a huge homecoming where 50,000 troops come home all at once.”

Tapered. No golden tassels, no shiny tubas, no parade down Main Street.

However, there is an upside.

“As my six-month term expires I may not be replaced,” Ferrell offered, hypothetically, “but I wouldn’t be sent home early.”

On the ground at Nellis on the day of the Obama’s Camp Lejeune speech, Ferrell said the mood was business as usual. With most people working on the flight line or otherwise occupied, few folks had the opportunity to tune into the news during the day.

In addition, the decisions regarding the Middle East deployment levels only affect a select group. Many local airmen are sent to the Horn of Africa, on humanitarian missions in Honduras, to South Korea (like Ferrell) or on U.S. air assignments. And being deployed isn’t necessarily the dreaded sentence that many imagine it to be.

“There’s always a sense of duty when it comes to deploying,” Ferrell said. “My experience is that most people seek out those opportunities.”

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