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I forgot to post this article from last week related to the Stryker Brigades.
[Link to Full Article]
By Gregg K. Kakesako
Maj. C.J. Pindat Kahele and 1st Lt. Kai Kahele are the only husband-and-wife pilot team in the Hawaii Air National Guard.
By early 2006 they hope to be in the cockpit of a brand-new Globemaster jet transport as the only C-17 husband-and-wife pilot team for the Hawaii Air Guard.
Yesterday, they attended the groundbreaking ceremony of a $30 million complex that will be the home of the operations, training and maintenance sections of the Air Force's 535th Tactical Airlift Squadron and the Hawaii Air Guard's 204th Airlift Squadron. [...]
The Globemasters are the transportation element of the Pentagon's new mobile fighting force. The combat element will be the 2nd Brigade of the 25th Infantry Division, which by 2007 will have 3,600 soldiers using 310 eight-wheeled Stryker combat vehicles.
A C-17 jet transport can carry at least two fully equipped Strykers as far as 4,500 miles, Torres said. "But that range can be easily extended since a C-17 can be refueled midair by KC-135 jet tankers flown by the Hawaii Air Guard," Torres added.
U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, a key congressional supporter of the C-17 and Stryker projects, said the groundbreaking "demonstrates to our nation and the world that our active force -- the Air Force and the Guard -- can work together. This is proof positive here."
He added the new C-17 Air Force and Hawaii Air National Guard unit is a recognition by military and civilian policy-makers that "the area of concern and the area of importance" is the Pacific area.
"This aircraft is a demonstration of that," Inouye added. "The Stryker brigade is a demonstration of that."