I was just thinking. I think the US Air Force often gets a bum rap among the US citizens. A family friend in the AF in a helicopter group got shipped off right before the bombings on Afghanistan started. His family isn't even allowed to know where he is, but you can bet he's in the Afg./Pakistan region.

A lot of people dismiss the Air Force; they fly up above the action, and aren't in the "real" fighting, like the Army or Marines. But in these days of limited engagements, the AF are always the first to go into battle. In pretty much all of the recent engagements in Kosovo and the Middle East, the AF are ONLY fighters that go into combat.

And so far, the only pictures I've seen of US fighters on the ground, (where I can see insignia) are in the AF (look at picture 10). I think the wars the US is involved in have changed a lot since the days of WWII/Korea/Vietnam.

The AF might not do the bulk of the dirty work in a full-scale war, but they are always the first to get shot at, and are now apparently among the first to get their boots on the ground.