56. Air Medal

Written: June 12, 2003

Thursday, June 12th
Spent most of the day working in planning Chris Montiero’s Pilot in Command evaluation flight. Chris assigned duties for each pilot to perform. My duty is IIMC plan and to do the final check of the packets.

We started at 1pm, but it was so hot that the computers were not working. We postponed our planning until 7pm.

Heard that 2 - C-130’s had to evade surface to air missiles in Baghdad yesterday. Also heard that some Syrian militant group was training in Iraq to the west. They were going to attack US targets. We found out about this and sent in a preemptive strike on them! We used ATACMs missiles which are huge artillery rounds that can go an extreme distance (100+ miles) and can decimate a location on the ground of 800 meters or ¼ mile in diameter (with only 1 round). They killed 68 enemy personnel and then later that morning sent in aircraft and ground personnel to “mop” up. A US Apache was shot down by an RPG and small arms fire. The crash site was secured by US forces and everyone was ok.

Things are still going on here. That is only one small highlight of the days activities. Everyday I read about many incidents of our people getting killed or injured; of our checkpoints getting attacked; our base being fired upon; etc. It doesn’t end and I think it is escalating because the enemy is trying to get reorganized into smaller groups. Life goes on. We will just have to be extra safe.

At 2pm, the 1SG and I drove to Finance to work on getting our paperwork for the Career Status Bonus. We got the paperwork and were surprised because the personnel people were actually helpful.

We walked across the street from Finance to the MWR tents. They have 4 large Bedouin tents set up (like those we slept in in Udairi). The tents housed: Recreation room, Gym, Theater, and Sports Club. They were pretty nice. They were air conditioned and gave the soldiers a small break to feel like they were home again…well, not really, but almost!

Returned and went to dinner. Had hamburgers! They were pretty good. We also enjoyed watermelon and baked beans!

Today, Mark Baranowsky was awarded an Air Medal by the V Corps Commander—General Wallace. Mark and the crew he was flying with were all awarded the medal for their participation in the saving of 2 soldiers after their truck was overturned in Iraq. Their crew (and one other crew who was not yet presented their medals) flew the soldiers to a medical site in extremely low visibility. Great story!

As a follow up, all the pilots and crew chiefs that have flown here will be awarded Air Medals as well. Some will be awarded for specific missions/incidents and others will be awarded based on their flight time here in Combat. Not sure when that will happen.

Finished eating and returned to the planning cell. We worked until 1am to get the plan right.

We will fly tomorrow under all modes of flight—Day, Night, NVG and Instrument. It will be a good night and I know Chris will do well.

Went to bed at 2am.