WASHINGTON - The Air Force will send some heavy bombers to Guam this month to make up for lost firepower in the Pacific as thousands of troops from the region are sent to Iraq and Afghanistan.
A spokeswoman at Minot Air Force Base, N.D., said Tuesday that "approximately six" B-52H Stratofortress bombers from the base would deploy to Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, sometime in February. About three hundred airmen from the base will go with them, Maj. Dani Johnson said.
Johnson said she did not know the duration of the deployment but said they typically last three months. Defense officials at the Pentagon said other bombers could be sent to the Pacific in the future.
"We will stay there as long as they need us," Johnson said.
Military officials have said the chief purpose of the move is to give commanders in the Pacific access to some additional fighting forces should a war begin with North Korea.
The United States has about 37,000 troops stationed permanently in South Korea as a deterrent against an invasion by the communist North. No significant number among those are going to Iraq or Afghanistan. In all, the United States has about 100,000 troops based in Asia.
But on order to relieve the approximately 125,000 U.S. troops who have been in Iraq nearly a year, the Pentagon has been forced to draw not only on other Army units worldwide, but also the Marine Corps, which helped fight the initial phase of the Iraq war and then left last summer.
Included in the rotation for Iraq are three battalions of Marines, or roughly 2,000 troops, who normally are stationed on Okinawa as part of the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force.
Also going is the 2nd Brigade of the Army's 25th Infantry Division, based in Hawaii. An additional 5,000-plus soldiers of the 25th Infantry are to deploy to Afghanistan this spring and stay for one year.
Bombers from Minot took part in the second Gulf War, launching from bases in Great Britain. During the war, the military dispatched bombers to Guam and stealth fighters to South Korea as a deterrent against any North Korean aggression.
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