<p>zachogden,</p>
<p>I think I understand what you’re trying to say. To answer your question: yes, this does happen. How often depends on the career field your in. As 07PETKO said, the ground forces (particularly the Army) currently have a tremendous need to fill combat support slots, such as intel. </p>
<p>This kind of thing started happening in 2003, and really raised some eyebrows in the AF. But when this first started out, it was exclusively aligned to the AEF cycle, so tours down-range were for 4 months at a time. Now, how can we complain when we’re only there for a third of the time our Army counter-parts were there (believe me, they complained about this enough for both services). This changed in 2006; now our intel folks are the for 180 days+, and some of our support folks are there even longer. </p>
<p>Like others have said, it comes now with the territory. We’re part of a joint team, and are expected to pull our weight. (I even ended up at Camp Victory, Baghdad in 2004 for the summer, wearing my body armor and strappin’ my 9. With a puzzled look on my face, asking “what the heck am I doing here?” 
) Kind of stink? Yep. But am I proud of my time there? You betcha, and I even bet that the Intel Lt. you mentioned is just as excited and proud to be doing something there as well. A little different than her job in a fighter wing? Yes again, but ever Intel Officer I’ve talked to find it exciting, as the Army Intel job is very in tune to the tactical fight as it happens. She’ll come back with some great stories from her time there.</p>