YOU CAN'T GET THERE FROM HERE

Soldiers find out flying from Iraq directly to Germany is just about impossible.

What the story doesn't tell you is that we've had trouble finding seats for soldiers in Germany needing to get to Iraq as well. And that translates into the units downrange being shorthanded.

Another 1st AD soldier on emergency leave, who asked his name not be used, said he’d been waiting a full week for a seat to either Ramstein Air Base in south-central Germany, or Rhein-Main Air Base in Frankfurt. “I don’t care which one. If I can just get to Germany, I’ll walk home,” he said.