Air Force Sending Heavy Bombers to Guam, By JOHN J. LUMPKIN

Air Force Sending Heavy Bombers to Guam, By JOHN J. LUMPKIN

(EXCERPT) Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP)--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,
bas...

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