...Pilots now take their cues for missions not from Air Force strategists but from Army and Marine commanders who daily submit requests for where they think aircraft can help most in support of ground operations. Instead of taking to the air with a clear idea of what they will strike and when, the pilots now largely wait for something to happen -- an attack on U.S. forces, for instance, or the discovery of militants ensconced somewhere -- and then fly into action.
With the exception of large offensive ground operations, such as the assault on Fallujah last month, days can pass without a bomb being dropped. This has led to the use of U.S. combat aircraft in nontraditional ways.
Fighters, for instance, now often are employed as surveillance and reconnaissance platforms. Using video and infrared cameras on their airframes, they cruise above oil pipelines and power plants, scouting for evidence of attack damage or suspicious activity....
During the invasion of Iraq, the U.S. military ran air operations from more than a dozen bases in the Persian Gulf region. In the past year, it has stopped using more than half of those and sought to consolidate at what Buchanan called several "enduring" bases, including Al Dhafra in the United Arab Emirates, Ali Al Salem in Kuwait and Al Udeid here.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10783-2004Dec18.html