You're in the Army now

What's that, homey? You say you needed to join the military for financial reasons, but you figured you could make sure you would make it home to use that scholarship money they promised yuou by joining the Air Force instead of the Army? In the immortal words of a famous pseudo-Marine, "Surprise, surprise, surprise!"

U.S. airmen are increasingly on the ground in Iraq, driving in convoys and even working with detainees — a shift in the Air Force's historic mission that military officials call necessary to bolster the strapped Army.

The main aerial hub for the war in Iraq has 1,500 airmen doing convoy operations in Iraq and 1,000 working with detainees, training Iraqis and performing other activities not usually associated with the Air Force, said Col. Tim Hale, commander of the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing.

"Every one of us has learned that we are in a nontraditional state in our armed forces," he said, standing outside an auditorium at an air base in Kuwait.

The dangers of the new roles were highlighted when the expeditionary wing lost its first female member in the line of duty in Iraq. Airman 1st Class Elizabeth Jacobson, 21, was killed in a roadside bombing while providing convoy security in September near the U.S. detention center at Camp Bucca in southern Iraq.

"More and more Air Force are doing Army jobs," said Senior Master Sgt. Matt Rossoni, 46, of San Francisco. "It's nothing bad about the Army. They're just tapped out."
...
The Navy is seeing the same trend, using its fighter aircraft to escort convoys and protect oil infrastructure and sending sailors in boats to contact fishermen from Saudi Arabia and even Iran for tips on terror suspects.

Welcome to Rummyworld, where it just doesn't matter if you are a Private, an Airman or a Midshipman. You're all fungible fodder units, and once the folks who signed up for Army jobs get used up, well you just have to suck it up and get up close and personal with the world of IEDs, your expectations (and the recruiting promises that created them) be damned.