Our Airmen are warriors. We come from a proud heritage of warriors, and today we continue our combat tradition by fighting missions in air, space and cyberspace. We also fight on the ground. Our special operations forces, joint tactical air controllers, security forces and explosive ordnance disposal technicians employ their special skills on the ground, yet there are many other Airmen in joint missions who are helping to win today's fight "outside the wire" and from stand off locations within the U.S. and around the globe.

When combatant commanders have requirements, they reach out to the Services who can best meet the tasking. The commanders don't task another Service and then that Service tasks our Air Force. These are our taskings! The Global War on Terror is a joint fight and we are all sworn to defend our nation, its interests and ideals. The most efficient and effective way for us to do this is to partner fully with our joint and the coalition teammates. As Chief of Staff of the Air Force, General Norton A. Schwartz, says, "We are all in, send me!"

We are also not the only Service manning what are often called "in-lieu of" taskings. We do not favor that characterization of the meaningful mission our people are performing, and are developing a new name that is more appropriate. The Army conducts approximately 11,000, the Navy 5,400; while our Air Force is filling 6,200 of these type taskings. We are committed to completing every one of those jobs with skill and precision, so we properly train and equip Airmen before they deploy; no Airman goes forward without the right training. Our Airmen are incredible warriors and their battlefield contributions on the ground are just as important to the joint fight as those made in air, space and cyberspace.

Equally important to the fight are our Airmen who are not on conventional deployments. Airmen in unmanned aerial surveillance operations, space and deterrence missions, the intelligence community and other career fields are tasked and completing combatant commander requirements from or near their current duty stations. These warriors experience an operations tempo and encounter battlefield images even as they provide direct support to Airmen, Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and coalition partners while "deployed in place."

Airmen working outside the wire are excited and motivated to perform their mission. Many of them are volunteers and many more wait impatiently for the opportunity to fill these critical roles. They are doing an incredible job and we must celebrate their accomplishments rather than minimize the significance of their contributions. Many of these Airmen will become our future leaders, chief master sergeants and senior enlisted leaders. When they do, they will look back with pride on this time - a time when they answered our nation's call - and will be far more compelling Air Force leaders as well.

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