Six Air National Guardsmen who arrived in Iraq last fall from the Minnesota-based 148th Fighter Wing returned from their deployment to reveal they were among US security forces personnel that helped secure the courthouse where Saddam Hussein has been standing trial and to describe their work within the Baghdad international zone. Among insights they provided the Duluth News Tribune, one of the airmen, SSgt. Derek Bertram, said he recalled sitting and talking with Iraqi officials as informally as he would friends. He told the Tribune, “That tells e we are doing a positive job over there, all out of the 148th.”
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall doesn’t see great value in trying to break the Sentinel ICBM program off as a separate budget item the way the Navy has with its ballistic-missile submarine program, saying such a move wouldn’t create any new money for the Air Force to spend on other…