[ThunderStruck94]

I do have mixed feelings about this. I am a 39 year old Navy Pilot (Will be a CDR within a year) and I just got back from a ground job in Fallujah this past Feb. I was deployed for most of 2006 in a flying capacity in the Med. I came back from deployment late Dec and was sent to Iraq duty the following April as an IA. I am highly capable and well trained in aviation and naval tactics. I was put into a job in Iraq that had little to do with anything I am trained to do and could have easily been covered by a mid-level NCO. Keep in mind that you the taxpayer pay me a $25,000 a year aviation bonus and $840 extra a month for aviation career incentive pay in addition to my base pay (trust me, I am not hurting). Plus, I am income tax free for last year and probably this year with all of the tax benefits I received. I am glad that I got to go to Iraq and I had a blast, but I am mature enough to question the use of resources. Seems like we are hurting for force expansion in the Army and the Marine Corps when a guy like me has to be involuntarily placed into a ground job that could be covered by a more cost effective method. Maybe we have too many people in the Navy? Didn't seem like the Navy missed me at all. Anyway, the Iraq experience was very positive for me.

[Dr. Scarpetta]

"Sabrina M. Weiner, 27, near her home in Everett on Friday. Weiner was a Navy reserve officer until she refused to go to Iraq in January."

[meandog]

Well, I’m a retired Navy Reservist who went in during Vietnam. I do not think many Navy folks thought that DaNang was “good duty” but we all swore the same oath given to every armed forces member (Navy, USMC, Army, Air Force and Coast Guard) and that oath states that 1. we will obey the orders of the Commander in Chief and the officers appointed over us; and 2. that we will defend our Constitution against all enemies, foreign or domestic.