Charles W. Stenholm: “I appreciate that. I hope that the chairman and ranking member understand the concern here. As I said before, I have…”

“I appreciate that. I hope that the chairman and ranking member understand the concern here. As I said before, I have always followed the recommendations of the Air Force. We have some concerns, we are standing down the 13th bomb squadron today at Dyess at the same time we got agreement that the fleet will receive seven extra planes. That takes operational money. That takes manpower. There are some recommendations that are going forward that caused this concern, but I do appreciate the reassurances of the chairman and the ranking member, and we look forward to working with my colleagues to see that the full 67 plane force is, in fact, fully funded and operational to do the job that they have been called on to do in Iraq and Afghanistan and, hopefully, if called upon again, will be able to do as good or a better job.”