USAF defangs the 82nd Airborne...closes its co-located Airlift Wing...

via Free Beacon.

Lt. Gen. Joseph Anderson, commander of Fort Bragg and the 18th Airborne Corps, publicly expressed his opposition in February to closing the 440th. “Of all places in the world, why would we take that capability away from Fort Bragg?” he said at the time.
Tillis wrote a letter last month to Sens. Thad Cochran (R., Miss.) and Dick Durbin (D., Ill.), the leaders of the defense appropriations subcommittee, requesting a provision in next year’s defense bill that would halt the deactivation of the 440th. He noted that, “Pope AAF is the busiest airfield in the world for the performance of training requiring tactical airlift” and that the Air Force will incur additional costs by flying in planes from distant bases to train airborne units. The retiring of the 440th also comes during a period of global instability that could require the rapid deployment of airborne forces.
“This is not a parochial issue, deactivating the 440th is a tactical and strategic mistake that will impact the readiness of America’s rapid reaction and Special Forces,” Tillis said. “It essentially takes the ‘air’ out of ‘airborne.’”

Wow.

The USAF is obviously suffering from an interservice social disorder!