If this real-life scenario sounds eerily similar to the “Desert One” operation of 25 years ago, it’s no accident. That 1979 event involving helicopters in need of refueling at a remote location did more than just give birth to the jointness of U.S. Special Operations forces. It also made jointness a linchpin of new military programs.

One of these development programs was the C-X aircraft, as it was known at the time. Twenty-five years later, with nearly 130 aircraft in service and more than 750,000 hours of operation, it’s now called the C-17 Globemaster III.

In the late 1970s, the U.S. Army was mostly interested in the tactical aspects of this new airlifter while the U.S. Air Force concentrated on the strategic aspects. Together they developed an aircraft focused on both destination and distance.

To the Army, this meant landing in their backyard, expressed as landing “in the dirt.” For the Air Force, conscious of the cost of these aircraft and the overriding mission of strategic deployment, there was initial reluctance to expose such a valuable resource on potentially high risk operations, particularly if it meant nighttime blackout landings.

Ironically, it was the U.S. Marine Corps that first benefited from this inherent capability of the C-17. During a 2002 operation into a dirt airstrip called Camp Rhino in southern Afghanistan, it was necessary to bring in heavy engineer construction equipment for airfield repairs. This was a C-17 mission only the special operations air crews were prepared to undertake, but it soon became the new Air Mobility Command standard for C-17s.

A key requirement the Army sought to preserve for a new airlifter was the Strategic Brigade Airdrop. At a time when the Sheridan light tank was being retired the Army was faced with the prospect of executing a forcible entry without the cover and punch of a tank. The solution was to airland, on paved or unpaved surfaces, the M1 Abrams tank as soon as possible after an airborne assault and an airfield could be seized. The concept could only be possible with the capabilities both services had steadfastly insisted be inherent with their new airlifter.

When a ground offensive into northern Iraq in 2003 appeared politically impossible, C-17s proved it militarily possible. The 173rd Airborne Brigade, reinforced with tanks, departed from Italy, surprising the enemy by dropping in at night and demonstrating a capability many thought no longer relevant in the 21st century. The following nights C-17s airlanded M-1 tanks. More recently, during a test at Edwards Air Force Base using a Stryker Mobile Gun System, the C-17 demonstrated it can successfully airdrop the armored vehicle.

The newest batch of C-17s are even more multi-service capable. Ground commanders will be able to communicate with higher headquarters and with their personnel aboard other C-17s while en route to their objective. And, taking a step toward being a platform of use across all services, the C-17 is now testing its network-centric operations capabilities.

More than a century ago the United States formed a group of tough, resourceful soldiers who could deploy to a foreign country and do the nation’s business on tough reliable horses. These Rough Riders, as they were known, came from the mountains and plains and from every state to charge up San Juan Hill on the ponies and mustangs of America’s western lands.

Today’s Rough Riders pursue a similar mission with similar success on aluminum workhorses with four jet engines – called C-17s.