Air Mobility Command tankers have flown more than 1,000 missions in support of airstrikes against the Islamic State, AMC commander Gen. Darren McDew said Tuesday.

That quiet support of a far more visible military campaign against the terrorist group that has swallowed up swaths of Iraq and Syria reminded McDew of an old acronym: NKAWTG.

"Nobody kicks ass without tanker gas," McDew said at the annual Air Force Association conference outside Washington, D.C.

The commander's remarks came as Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Staff, testified before Congress Tuesday that the fight against the Islamic State could require U.S. "boots on the ground."

Meanwhile, U.S. military forces this week expanded its bombing mission against the militants also referred to as the Islamic State and the Levant, or ISIL, destroying six of the group's vehicles and an ISIL fighting position outside Baghdad that was firing on Iraqi security forces, U.S. Central Command announced in a news release.

To date, CENTCOM has carried out 162 airstrikes across Iraq since Aug. 8. In addition to AMC's more than 1,000 sorties, C-17s and C-130s have dropped over 800,000 pounds of humanitarian assistance, including 121,000 meals and 45,500 gallons of water in the vicinity of Sinjar and Amirli, Air Force spokesman Mark Voorhis said in an email.

That aid was packaged, prepared and flown by air mobility airmen, McDew said.

A day earlier, in her remarks to kick off the conference, Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James described the service's role in the fight against ISIL, as outlined by President Obama in a Sept. 10 speech. Airmen, working with sailors, have carried out the bulk of the airstrikes over northern Iraq, she said.

"First, systematic airstrikes will help roll back ISIL advances on the ground and create space for Iraqi and Kurdish forces to go on the offense," James said.

Obama will also draw on the Air Force's counterterrorism capability and continue those humanitarian missions, the secretary said.

On Tuesday, James told reporters she did not believe airmen are interested in getting credit. "They are interested in getting the job done," she said.

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