Your U.S. Air Force has now been engaged directly in combat for the past 16 years. Lest we forget, the Air Force “went downtown Baghdad” on the evening of 16 January (U.S. time) 1991. As most recall, that was the start of Desert Storm, a rather short war which expelled Saddam Hussein’s forces from their neighbor Kuwait.

Sixteen years later, and with the most highly combat experienced Air Force ever to take to the skies, the U.S. Air Force is still engaged in direct combat with an enemy of the United States. Many readers might question what kind of combat was experienced between Desert Storm and the more immediate and current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The arrangements agreed to following Desert Storm provided for the U.S. and coalition forces to patrol specific “no-fly zones” over both north and south Iraq. Ostensibly, this was to prevent Saddam Hussein from using any type of air assets from attacking either the Kurds in the north or the Shiites in the southern provinces of Iraq. For the next 12 years, your Air Force flew combat patrols and aerial reconnaissance missions to enforce the no-fly zone provisions. Throughout these years, Iraqi radar and surface-to-air missile sites locked onto these combat patrols. While actual missile firings against our airmen during this period were isolated, the actual threat was there 24/7.

During the early and mid-90s, your Air Force was engaged in aerial combat over Bosnia and Kosovo. And they experienced combat losses during these engagements. By the way, America still has troops engaged in Kosovo, although President Clinton had remarked that they would be out of there by Christmas 1995.

And then, of course, we all sadly experienced 9/11, when we were attacked on U.S. soil. Immediately, your Air Force, active duty, National Guard and Air Reserve forces started a combat patrol (code named Noble Eagle) over some of America’s larger metro areas. While these patrols may seem immune to any imminent airborne enemy threat, they are briefed, flown and debriefed as actual combat patrols. To demonstrate the seriousness of these patrols, please note that since 9/11 we have flown over 46,000 Noble Eagle sorties. This is an ongoing and resource constraining mission.

Shortly after 9/11, America and its coalition partners initiated attacks against the Taliban and al-Qaeda forces in Afghanistan. This combat was initiated on 7 October 2001 and was in direct response to the al-Qaeda attacks on America nearly one month earlier. In March 2003, America, aligned with its coalition partners, and after providing Saddam Hussein with adequate opportunity to acquiesce, initiated the first round of attacks against Saddam Hussein and his Iraqi armed forces. Your Air Force has now been heavily engaged in aerial combat in Afghanistan and Iraq since Day One in both areas of operations.

While we don’t see or hear much about this Air Force activity, let me provide a summary of a typical day’s aerial activity. Your deployed Air Force members fly and support about 400 combat sorties each day. About one-third of these are strike and reconnaissance sorties providing close air support to our ground forces. Roughly two-thirds of these sorties are airlift and aerial refueling missions. In order to get the fighters, bombers and reconnaissance missions to their designated mission areas and then to remain there in a strike or an on-call position, they must hook up with a tanker and refuel. By the way, most of these tankers are 1950s technology Boeing 707 aircraft. They are 40-plus years old and deteriorating rapidly. Your Air Force’s top acquisition priority is a new tanker aircraft. Nothing of any value really happens without aerial refueling support to our fighter, bomber, reconnaissance and airlift aircraft.

I mentioned that airlift was also in that two-thirds mix of 400 daily sorties. In addition to the normal long-range resupply missions originating in the United States or Europe, there are the typical tactical airlift sorties hauling people and things within Iraq and Afghanistan. And, oh yes, for a few years now, C-130s have been replacing truck convoys to eliminate much of the threat from roadside bombs. Essentially, this has taken over 3,500 trucks and 8,600 personnel off the dangerous roads.

Most readers will have heard of the deployed Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), such as the Predator, that are providing real time recon and strike capability to our ground forces. These small, inexpensive UAVs can provide long loiter time over specific target areas without exposing any of our airmen to hostile fire. In fact, they are being controlled by Air Force pilots sitting in front of a video screen and operating a joy stick from thousands of miles away. They are bringing intelligence to our field commanders and kinetic kill to our enemy from Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas. Technology is marvelous.

And much of that technology comes from our Air Force space assets. As I write this column, the Air Force is in command of over 60 satellites and supporting 140 other satellites each day. It is absolutely essential to our nation’s survival that we maintain space superiority. Reflect for a moment the Chinese action earlier this month where it “shot down” one of its own no-longer-useful satellites in space. Think of the possibilities!

There is much more I could write about your U.S. Air Force at war. But I will close by simply noting that today we have nearly 130,000 airmen of all ranks engaged in this nation’s business around the world. There are 61,000 troops forward deployed in Europe, the Pacific and other locations, with another 27,000 forward deployed from their home stations in the United States. Many of these airmen have been deployed numerous times to Iraq and Afghanistan and have developed into this nation’s most combat-experienced Air Force. These marvelous young men and women are engaged daily in our Global War on Terror. They need our continuing understanding and support.