Interesting stuff and thanks for the ping. What comes through loud and clear to me is; there must be some monumental battles going on inside and outside the Pentagon.
I'll bet there some monumental battles going on in the puzzel palace. Some how we always fall into the trap of believing that air support can replace artillery support. Where it falls down is weather. If you look a major battle losses starting with WW II, and you'll see that over optimistic reliance on air support was a contributing factor.
And yes no one provides close air support like the Marines.