Senator offers planes to help stranded troops

[CommunityEditor]

WASHINGTON — Vermont soldiers who have completed their tours of duty in Iraq cannot get home because of flight delays caused in part by the recent bankruptcy of ATA Airlines, the Vermont congressional delegation said Wednesday.

Sens. Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders and Rep. Peter Welch wrote to the Pentagon this week to try to help two Vermont soldiers whose parents contacted the lawmakers about their sons’ plight. The soldiers, whose names the lawmakers did not disclose for privacy reasons, are stuck in Baghdad.

“After completing their service to our country overseas, our men and women deserve a safe return home without delays,” the delegation wrote Tuesday in a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

The delays are partly the result of ATA Airlines’ announcement early this month that it was discontinuing service and filing for bankruptcy. The military had hired ATA Airlines to ferry troops between the U.S. and overseas bases. The Indianapolis-based airline had been contracted to fly 70 military charters through September, which Air Force Times reported earlier this month.

Still, the Vermont lawmakers said the Pentagon should be doing more to help service men and women find alternative flights home despite ATA’s woes and other bankruptcies and maintenance problems that have hit the airline industry in recent weeks. The transportation mess reportedly has delayed scores of U.S. soldiers from returning home from Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait.

“First and foremost, (the Vermont soldiers’ parents) wish to know when their loved ones will be returning home, and second, they want answers about how this delay was allowed to happen,” the Vermont delegation wrote to Gates.

The delegation asked Gates to provide details about how many service members’ return flights have been delayed, for how long and what steps the Pentagon is taking to ensure that the soldiers get home as soon as possible. As of Wednesday afternoon, the Vermonters had not received an official response from the Pentagon, said Welch spokesman Andrew Savage.

“As a result of the troop surge, many of the service members participating in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom have had their deployments extended from 12 to 15 months,” the delegation wrote in the letter to Gates.

“Ask any of these men and women when they are going home and most can give you a precise day and time. The same is true of their families who have been eagerly anticipating the return of their loved one. To be told within days of shipping out that your trip home has been delayed until a date uncertain is demoralizing,” the letter said.


Article: http://www.militarytimes.com/news/2008/04/ap_vermontsoldiers_ata_042308/

[Stabby]

I cannot believe that nothing has been done about this problem. ATA shut its ops down a few weeks ago and AMC is STILL sitting on their hands. I'm sure the excuses would be plentiful as to why this is taking so long to correct. I know Northwest airlines had agreed to take over some of the flights that ATA dropped when they went out of business. We have troops all over the world needing rides, whether it be from the desert or from the west coast to Japan on a PCS. Northwest, for instance, has decided NOT to fly some of the west coast missions. Who knows the real reason but I would be willing to bet it has to do with...wait for it....MONEY. Now we have people stranded all over the place and it's going to end up costing more to get them where they need to go. I love the lowest bidder mindset. Forget qualtiy and longevity, lets get the shottiest airplanes, the most underpaid aircrew, and hire them and just cross our fingers everything goes good.

[CommunityEditor]

The shutdown of ATA Airlines is creating problems for service members after all.

Despite promises to the contrary, troops are waiting in Kuwait longer than necessary before they can come home from the war zone.

ATA was under contract to provide 70 military charter flights through September when it abruptly shut down April 3, a day after its second bankruptcy filing in about three years. The airline provided the flights as part of the FedEx Teaming Arrangement, an eight-airline group, but FedEx had informed ATA that it would be ousted from the group in October, the start of fiscal year 2009.

In an April 10 interview, FedEx spokeswoman Sandra Munoz said all of ATA’s flights would be honored by the FedEx team, but, The State newspaper of South Carolina reported April 17 that the Army National Guard’s 218th Brigade Combat Team’s flight home from Kuwait was being delayed in connection with logistical problems stemming from the ATA shutdown.

Army Lt. Col. Frederick Rice, a spokesman for U.S. Transportation Command, which overseas military charter flights, confirmed that redeployment flights from Kuwait are expected to be delayed two to six days for the next several weeks. “The impact on the system [of the ATA shutdown] is being felt throughout the system,” Rice said, including deployment and other flights.

Munoz declined to discuss FedEx’s efforts to alleviate delays, citing company policy of not discussing dealings with customers; in this case, the military.

“We’re doing everything we can to bring our service members home,” Rice said. TransCom is coordinating with the FedEx team and Central Command, and also “working with other air carriers to see if they can sort of step up, increase their own busy operations even just a little bit further to fill some of those gaps.”

Rice was unable to identify by press time which units are affected by the flight delays.

According to Sgt. Douglas DeMaio, an Army Central Command spokesman, the entertainment offerings on base in Kuwait keep most troops happy while they wait for flights.

“There was talk of [the ATA shutdown] on post here,” DeMaio said. “Obviously it had a little effect, but nothing significant.”

But some soldiers’ stateside family members disagree.

One woman contacted by Air Force Times said her son is a member of the Army’s 1st Battalion, 143rd Field Artillery Regiment, and had been scheduled to come home around April 19, but was delayed until April 26 at the earliest. She and at least one other parent from Vermont contacted federal lawmakers about the issue.

Vermont Sens. Bernard Sanders and Patrick Leahy and Rep. Peter Welch responded by sending a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates on April 22, asking which units had been delayed, for how long, and what was being done to bring those troops home.

“To be told within days of shipping out that your trip home has been delayed until a date uncertain is demoralizing,” the letter said. “Unnecessary delays also result in additional troops remaining in a war zone beyond when their presence serves any constructive purpose for the war-fighting effort.”


Article: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/04/army_transcom_ata_042408w/

[Unregistered]

I think this is Bull! How can they do this to our troops out there, My son was expected home the beginning of May and now it looks like the middle of May he will be home, But you bet your arse when my husband leaves to go to Iraq in June he won't be delayed! My son has been out there going on 15 months, he does'nt want to be out there any longer. how could an airline go bankrupt? does the military pay for these flights, time for a new airline and now!

[Unregistered]

This is crap....I agree! Our unit won't even tell us how long our troops will be delayed. We have soldiers sitting in Kuwait right now waiting for flights. I mean, come on! Can we not use our Air Force to get these boys and girls home? I am not a soldier, but don't we have aircraft capable of transporting hundreds of soldiers at one time?! Then what is the problem? We have waited almost 15 months to have our families back together. Now, we don't even know how long they will be delayed. This is what I call piss-poor planning.

[Unregistered]

This is not uncommon. Troops really never get a confirmed date to redeploy. Sandstorms and backlog have a minute effect, but this is the life of a soldier. Hurry up and wait is a daily routine.

[Unregistered]

If DOD knew that ATA was not up to standards and was going to "fire" them- wasn't the Air Force or somebody aware of the problems it would cause and why didn't they try to be proactive and find another carrier first, then fire ATA. My son's unit is just starting to redeploy and the advance party got stuck at BIAP for a week- no showers, sleeping on the terminal floor. Heck of a way to treat our heroes!!!

[technomage1]

In reality, this whole mess can be squarely laid on Fedex's shoulders. FedEx was the prime contractor for this transportation contract, and they subcontracted out some of the work to ATA. FedEx unexpectedly cancelled out of this arrangement 2 years into a 3 year deal. Some good information can be found at http://www.smartmoney.com/news/ON/index.cfm?story=ON-20080403-000990-1324&cid=948 and http://www.ibj.com/html/detail_page.asp?content=13346. This cancellation, along with rising fuel prices, sent ATA into it's fatal tailspin.

The real question is why FedEx cancelled the contract, and, most importantly, why they have been unable to fulfill it. As prime contractor, they are responsible for the completion of the contract, period. If their sub contractor fails, whatever the reason, they're still responsible. I'd be willing to bet both USTRANSCOM and ATA are looking very closely at their legal options for recourse against FedEx right now.

None of this gets the troops home any faster, of course. I speak from personal experience when I say how much it stinks to not know when you're going home or to have your arrangements screwed up at the last minute by something or other.

[Shrike]

In reality, this whole mess can be squarely laid on Fedex's shoulders. FedEx was the prime contractor for this transportation contract, and they subcontracted out some of the work to ATA. FedEx unexpectedly cancelled out of this arrangement 2 years into a 3 year deal. Some good information can be found at http://www.smartmoney.com/news/ON/index.cfm?story=ON-20080403-000990-1324&cid=948 and http://www.ibj.com/html/detail_page.asp?content=13346. This cancellation, along with rising fuel prices, sent ATA into it's fatal tailspin.

The real question is why FedEx cancelled the contract, and, most importantly, why they have been unable to fulfill it. As prime contractor, they are responsible for the completion of the contract, period. If their sub contractor fails, whatever the reason, they're still responsible. I'd be willing to bet boith USTRANSCOM and ATA are looking very closely at their legal options for recourse against FedEx right now.

None of this gets the troops home any faster, of course. I speak from personal experience when I say how much it stinks to not know when you're going home or to have your arrangements screwed up at the last minute by something or other.

Why are you trying to confuse this issue using logic and facts?




:D

[technomage1]

Why are you trying to confuse this issue using logic and facts?




:D

Yeah, I'm funny that way. :)

[Unregistered]

"Vermont soldiers who have completed their tours of duty in Iraq cannot get home because of flight delays caused in part by the recent bankruptcy of ATA Airlines."

Ha, sucks to be you. Might was well extend your tour and get your butt back to the sandbox.

SecDef Gates...no comments. HA!

[CommunityEditor]

Maine’s senior senator has offered up her state’s Air National Guard assets to bring home troops whose flights from the war zone have been delayed.

Military charter flights worldwide have been hit with delays of two to six days since the abrupt April 3 shutdown of ATA Airlines, which had been under contract to provide 70 such flights through September. Delays, which were forecast in early April to last “several weeks,” are especially frustrating to service members awaiting flights home following combat deployments.

Sen. Olympia Snowe, a Republican, sent a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Wednesday offering to send the 101st Air Refueling Wing to the rescue of service members waiting for rides home.

The wing has eight aircraft, which can accommodate 57 passengers each.

“After serving on the brutal front lines of Iraq and Afghanistan, the men and women of our armed forces deserve quick and safe passage back to home to their families,” the letter said. “With its strategic location and readily available aircraft, the 101st Air Refueling Wing of the Maine Air National Guard stands ready to expedite their return.”

Three congressional representatives from Vermont also contacted Gates in recent weeks expressing concern about the flight delays after some troops’ family members voiced their frustrations.

Phone calls to the 101st ARW were not returned. A spokesman for Snowe’s office said that as of press time, Gates had not responded to the letter.


Article: http://www.militarytimes.com/news/2008/05/airforce_maine_delays_050608w/