The military remains broadly popular with the American public, a recent Gallup poll found, and the Air Force is viewed most highly of all branches.



Gallup conducted a telephone poll April 24 through May 2 on American's attitudes about the military and found people had similar levels of confidence in each service.



Overall, Americans like all five branches of the military. However, the Air Force is the most important branch among 27 percent of Americans, while 21 percent say the Army is most important, according to the Gallup poll. The Air Force was also found to be the most important in both 2001 and 2002, four months before 9/11 and shortly after the war in Afghanistan began.



In recent years, the Air Force has been at the forefront of the fight against the Islamic State, leading an air campaign that includes airstrikes, reconnaissance flights, resupply missions and electronic jamming operations.



Confidence however, in each branch is separated by only a few points; 59 percent of Americans selected "very favorable" on the poll for Marines, while Air Force fell closely behind at 57 percent.



Despite the number of Americans serving in the military and the number of supporters for the war in Afghanistan shrinking, the confidence Americans have in the military have not been swayed.



Gallup said out of everyone polled who knew something about each of the branches, three out of four had overall favorable views and more than half had a strong favorable opinion on each branch — Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and the Coast Guard.

