Back to the past?
Back to the past? The Air Force was separated from the Army because Army commanders always wanted first priority use of airpower in their own geographical area.
Any strategic use of airpower, such as bombing Iraq and Afghanistan from bases in the CONUS, requires that it be a separate service with its own chain of command. The same is true of long-range airlift and air refueling and air rescue.
And it is essential to establish air superiority before the use of any ground forces other than special ops, or they will be chewed to pieces by enemy airpower. That takes fighters, with massive coordination through their own chain of command, as we saw before the invasion of Iraq.