Special delivery from Md. Guard

Soldiers practice cargo drops crucial to Afghan war effort

But with at least 17,000 additional troops headed to remote Afghan bases, many without even rudimentary landing strips, resupply will get more difficult. McNabb said he has had extensive discussions about resupply with Gen. David Petraeus, chief counterinsurgency adviser to President Barack Obama and the overall U.S. military commander for the region.

Supplying the total force will require the equivalent of 120 20-foot cargo containers a day, McNabb said. And much of it will have to go by air.

Although deployment plans are incomplete, it seems likely that the 135th Airlift Group will be assigned a rotation to Afghanistan next year, perhaps joining the Maryland Air Guard's A-10 attack jets slated to deploy in about a year.

"Insurgencies are about protecting the human terrain, but as you get people out there to protect or work with the population, it becomes harder and harder to resupply them," said David Isby, a counterinsurgency expert and author of three books on Afghanistan.

In that environment, he said, "every airlift takes a whole bunch of trucks off the road - and saves lives."