Troops flying into Southwest Asia are met with calls for volunteers to assist the scarce aerial porters of the 8th Expeditionary Air Mobility Squadron in unloading baggage. The 8th EAMS calls it a simple necessity to handle the flow of some 35,000 troops in and out of SWA each month. The squadron only needs 30 volunteers to offload the baggage, placing it on waiting trucks. However, the other military passengers don’t get away clean; they have to help take the bags off the trucks. Said SSgt. Vickie Sennet, a personnel specialist on her third SWA deployment, “Having done this before, I pretty much knew what to expect.”
President Donald Trump’s nominee for Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff touted his highly unusual background for the job as an asset and reaffirmed his commitment to stay apolitical during a confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on April 1.