Team Travis continues to play important role overseas Published Feb. 5, 2008 By Col. Steve Arquiette 60th Air Mobility Wing commander TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- Greetings from 8,000 miles away! As you read this, the last seven days until I'm able to rejoin the team at Travis will be counting down. It's been a busy yet rewarding tour here, of which I'll speak to shortly. First and foremost, I want to thank Col. GI Tuck and Chief Mike Williams for their leadership in keeping our important mission moving smoothly while guiding the wing through well-deserved triumphs as well as some very difficult times associated with the losses of Team Travis members. Our distance apart, while great, has not diminished my thoughts, prayers and the sincere appreciation I have for everyone at Team Travis -- Active, Reserve, Civilian and Retired who have been reaching out and helping each other in one form or fashion. That same reaching out is making a big difference here as we engage the enemy in Iraq and Afghanistan from our base in the Persian Gulf. Every day, there are hundreds of fighter, bomber, tanker, airlift, air drop, air evac, electronic warfare and surveillance missions flying in and over both theaters; on average, 70 percent of those hundreds of sorties flown are performed by air mobility assets. You can begin to imagine the maintenance and support aspects involved in executing this large volume of air power, and it's being done with the utmost of pride and professionalism. Travis plays a key role over here, and I've had the pleasure of meeting many great Americans from all three of our wings doing a variety of duties. Friends and families fueled the fight from back home with an incredible outpouring of holiday care packages ... thank you all for reaching out to those of us who were away for the holidays! The team I work with here in the command and control center are reaching out to many people they'll most likely never meet in person. Right now there are thousands of U.S. and coalition troops hunkered down in the snow-covered mountains of Afghanistan hunting down the Taliban fighters. They're often hundreds of miles from any open roads or supply lines, so their ability to relentlessly pursue the enemy is enabled by the supplies airdropped from C-17 Globemasters and C-130 Hercules'. Fuel, food, ammunition, water, construction material -- you name it -- we deliver what they need. When someone gets hurt and needs medical care, the robust air evac system whisks these troops quickly to field medical facilities, and then onto the larger facilities in Germany. On a daily basis, our tankers are busy off-loading hundreds of thousands of gallons of fuel enabling close air support that often provides the decisive edge to our forces. One story that comes to mind occurred a few months back, when a team of 30 U.S. forces who were about to be extracted via helicopter, were surrounded and pinned down by large number of Taliban insurgents. For 19 hours, a battle raged on, but the close air support, enabled by our air refueling tankers overhead, kept the enemy forces at bay and eventually defeated them. These 30 soldiers all made it out safely, with only a minor wound to one of them. That's Airpower at work! There's been a marked improvement in the news coming out of Iraq since I arrived here last September - we're making a difference every day. And no matter whether you're close to the front lines or working hard at Travis, we all are reaching out to help others by doing our jobs the very best we can. If you step back and think of the magnitude of the team your on, you'll quickly realize that your efforts impact thousands of lives on a daily basis. We have to win this war against extremism; otherwise our children will have to continue the fight during their lifetimes. Be proud of the work you do and continue to reach out and help each other ... it is making a profound difference. I'm excited and proud to be rejoining Team Travis once again -- see you next week!