While each military branch promotes individual service pride, the days of fierce rivalries between the services have seemingly fallen by the wayside to concentrate on the war effort. A cavalryman here knows this.

Army ground liaison officer Capt. Phil Messer monitors the interaction between the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing’s air support and ground troops on a daily basis.

Located in an office plastered with maps and charts of the region, the Soldier recalled an e-mail he recently received from a ground troop.

“(The ground troop) said, ‘We sure do appreciate seeing (the planes) overhead. We were a long, long way from reinforcements and it was comforting to know that we could get on the radio and have jets screaming overhead in minutes,” Captain Messer said.

Soon after receiving the e-mail, Captain Messer shared it with the fighter squadron which had been tasked for that particular mission.

“When you’re out in a remote location, and you run out of ammunition or your vehicle breaks, the 379th (AEW) can provide a real confidence boost,” Captain Messer said. “Whether it’s a jet in the event of an attack or a helicopter for an accident, it’s a remarkable capability of the 379th (AEW) to reinforce units that really need it.”

The GLO officer, deployed from Travis Air Force Base, Calif., also said fighter aircraft aren’t the only effective operations in the war effort.

“Every soda a Soldier drinks, every Band-Aid or bullet that’s used comes to them, most likely, from one of our C-17s or C-130s,” the captain said. “Yes, there are a lot of trucks making deliveries, but there’s a huge amount of airflow that comes through us.”

The team effort for the warfighters is the true “success” story for the Airmen here.

“Rest assured our efforts in the 379th AEW will be written in the history books,” said Chief Master Sgt. Dwayne Hopkins, wing command chief. “Our children and grandchildren will ask what we did for Iraq or Afghanistan. We can answer by saying, ‘Our Airmen in the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing have mastered putting boots on the ground, delivering cargo, providing (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance), air refueling and bombs on target. Every single person in each specialty here is part of this critical mission in fighting this war. Airmen, Soldiers, Sailors and Marines can be proud of their efforts against terrorism around the world.’”

Captain Messer who has witnessed many of the joint operations over the past six months agreed -- there’s no room for argument.

“Every capability that comes out of this wing is 100 percent critical to the war effort,” he said.