Desperate for soldiers to perform crucial missions in Iraq, the U.S. military has deployed men and women who lack the training they need to stay alive in a complex and ever-shifting battle with insurgents.

According to a report in the Boston Globe on Tuesday, at least 3,000 Navy and Air Force personnel, trained in noncombat specialties, are serving on the front lines in Iraq. The military defines their job in support roles, but it’s a clear misnomer in a war where driving a truck is one of the most hazardous assignments a soldier can perform.

Some of the airmen and sailors have received as little as five days of training on such essential infantry skills as weapons proficiency, how to spot an improvised explosive device and how to coordinate in combat as part of a small unit. These men and women are being asked to operate, with only minimum training, large, highly technical weapons designed to support entire units.

Other sailors and airmen completed three-week training courses before being assigned to convoy or force-protection duty. Compare that to typical infantry school, which lasts a minimum of eight weeks for basic combat skills and usually includes many more months of specialized training.

The Globe report identified 13 sailors and airmen who have been killed in Iraq while performing duties outside their specific training. It’s impossible to know if any of these men would still be alive if they had undergone more rigorous training. No level of training can eliminate the risk of combat.

But it can mitigate the danger.

The Navy and Air Force recognize the problem and have stepped up efforts to improve training for their men and women serving in Iraq. But the training still lags behind and there aren’t many resources available from the Marines and Army, which normally train ground soldiers. Their facilities are already near capacity.

The U.S. military and its civilian leadership at the Pentagon and in Washington have sent men and women into combat without adequate armor and support. Now we learn that they put people in Humvees fighting off ambushes and guarding oil platforms without the basic skills they need to survive.

As Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld once quipped, “As you know, you have to go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you want.”

On average, one American service member is killed every day in Iraq, according to the Globe report. Most of those are in the Army or Marines, but 31 Air Force and 37 Navy personnel have died, and hundreds have been wounded. They all deserve the training and equipment that could save their lives. Anything else is a crime against the country’s fighting forces.