Pacific Air Forces sent some 6,000 airmen to locations around the world this past year and expects to see its rate of deployments increase by about five to 10 percent next year, reports Stars and Stripes. A PACAF spokesman attributed part of the increase to in-lieu-of taskings. About half of those airmen PACAF sends on deployments go to Iraq.
The U.S. military is carrying out intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions along the southern border and off the coast of Mexico using U.S. Air Force RC-135 Rivet Joint and U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon aircraft as part of the Pentagon’s effort to secure the southern border at the direction of President…