A former Republican congressman with deep ties to the military warned that a Pentagon decision will inflict lasting damage on U.S. forces.
Appearing in a Thursday episode of "The Bulwark Daily" with host Tim Miller, former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) said one of his sources told him that Air National Guard pilots deployed to the Middle East have now been extended until April, keeping them away from home for 15 months.
Kinzinger, an Air Force veteran who flew for the Air National Guard, said many of those pilots are part-timers who fly for commercial airlines like United and put in five or six days a month in uniform. He said they were called up with almost no warning.
"They were activated with a 72-hour notice, which is unheard of," Kinzinger said. "With the exception of the day after 9/11, most of us when we were deployed, we knew a month in advance, two weeks in advance, whatever."
He described one pilot who lived in Hawaii, traveled to California for Guard duty and was told on the spot that she was deploying, leaving her no chance to go home first.
"They are there still to this day without a plan for rotation," he said. "One of my sources, I will say, just told me that they got extended now till April. So they are going to be in the Middle East as pilots for 15 months."
Kinzinger said only the Army deployed troops that long during the Iraq War, and the toll on families was severe. "Marriages were destroyed," he said. "You think about it if you're away from your spouse for 15 months. You come home, you both have lived a life separate from each other."
The bigger problem, he argued, is what the extension does to the military's ability to keep its pilots.
"The damage that is being done to retention in the military is massive, particularly the Guard and Reserve," Kinzinger said, noting that pilots owe 10 years of service after earning their wings. "Who is going to sign for that second 10 years when this has just happened to them? They can go to United, work for $350,000 a year, or the U.S. military as a pilot, make 180 as a major and be gone from your family. I mean, that's a no-brainer."