Last week, Donald Trump signed a new executive order that’s being widely interpreted as allowing the Air Force to pull in pilots to fill between 75 and 100 critical open seats. However, the number actually called up could be far larger.
President Trump signed an executive order Friday allowing the Air Force to recall as many as 1,000 retired pilots to active duty to address a shortage in combat fliers, the White House and Pentagon announced.
By law, only 25 retired officers can be brought back to serve in any one branch. Trump's order removes those caps by expanding a state of national emergency declared by President George W. Bush after 9/11, signaling what could be a significant escalation in the 16-year-old global war on terror.
1,000 additional pilots may seem like quite an increase, but there are plans in the works that could make even that number far from enough.
The U.S. Air Force is preparing to put nuclear-armed bombers back on 24-hour ready alert, a status not seen since the Cold War ended in 1991.
That means putting the B-52s on runways, bombs on board, in a constant, round-the-clock rotation. Returning these planes to a constant alert status means refreshing barracks to hold the 100-man crews needed for each set of planes waiting for possible take-off, and that refresh comes with some retro artwork.
One painting — a symbol of the Cold War — depicts a silhouette of a B-52 with the words “Peace The Old Fashioned Way,” written underneath.
And while Trump’s executive order might be used by the Air Force, it’s good for calling up retirees across the entire military.
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Putting the B-52s back into an alert rotation goes beyond more pilots and more costs. It also raises
global tension levels and will almost certainly generate a response from not just North Korea, but Russia. It will, correctly, be seen as a provocative act that rolls back decades of progress toward limiting the possibility of nuclear conflict. It also opens up the possibility of additional incidents such as the time a B-52 disaster dropped nuclear bombs on North Carolina.
Meanwhile, on the ground ...
While many Americans were surprised to find out that the United States has forces in Niger, and Donald Trump certainly didn’t remember their names, the executive order makes it easier to expand that deployment and others.
Counter-terrorism rules under President Obama had been too restrictive and ineffective, Graham said.
“The war is morphing," Graham said. "You’re going to see more actions in Africa, not less. You’re going to see more aggression by the United States toward our enemies, not less. You’re going to have decisions made not in the White House but out in the field. And I support that entire construct.”
In other words, under President Obama we only managed to continue the two endless wars started by his predecessor, and missed out on the highly profitable business of starting new ones.