One airman from the New York Nationwide Guard’s one hundred and fifth Airlift Wing was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, whereas 5 others acquired Air Medals with a “V” machine for valor to honor efforts in 2021′s humanitarian evacuation from Afghanistan.
The most recent ceremony, held at Stewart Air Nationwide Guard Base in Newburgh, New York, emphasised the airmen’s bravery onboard a C-17 Globemaster III transport jet — nicknamed “Attain 824″ — as a part of Operation Allies Refuge in August 2021.
“The Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal with Valor have been awarded to different nice Individuals corresponding to ‘Hap’ Arnold, Jimmy Doolittle, and Benjamin O. Davis Jr.,” Air Power Lt. Gen. Michael Loh, director of the Air Nationwide Guard, mentioned on the June 4 ceremony. “At the moment, the Air Power provides to this distinguished record of American airmen heroes the crew of Attain 824.”
Capt. Matthew McChesney, Attain 824′s aircrew commander, was the only recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross, the very best honor for heroism throughout air operations.
C-17 pilots Lt. Col. Andrew Townsend and Capt. Jonathan Guagenti, and loadmasters Tech. Sgt. Joseph Caponi, Workers Sgt. Evan Imbriglio and Workers Sgt. Corey Berke every acquired an Air Medal.
Tech. Sgt. Byron Catu, a flight mechanic, earned the Meritorious Service Medal in Might.
Regardless of realizing that Taliban forces had reached the outskirts of Kabul — a lot nearer than current intelligence reviews had indicated — the crew of Attain 824 was slated to fly a MH-47 Chinook helicopter and 22 troopers from the Army’s a hundred and sixtieth Particular Operations Aviation Regiment from the United Arab Emirates to Hamid Karzai Worldwide Airport on Aug. 15, 2021.
As soon as there, rescuers had been supposed to search out Individuals on the bottom and put together them for quick evacuation. However the crew didn’t make it to the airport.
The crew couldn’t securely talk with air site visitors management, whereas one other C-17 was on the bottom, reporting heavy small-arms fireplace, panicked civilians overrunning the airfield and each civilian and army plane flying in each path. One crew member described the state of affairs as flying right into a “hornet’s nest.”
Attain 824 was pressured to abort its mission and divert to Al Dhafra Air Base within the United Arab Emirates.
“After we rotated that first evening, the entire crew felt upset, discouraged, upset as a result of it was a tough resolution to make, and I’ve no doubts that it was the appropriate resolution,” McChesney mentioned in a press launch. “Discouragement and disappointment solely motivated us to wish to get in there much more.”
The subsequent day, decided to attempt once more beneath the quilt of evening, Attain 824 navigated the mountains round Kabul and handed a number of different C-17s that couldn’t land because of the airfield closure, low gas or different threats. Nonetheless missing managed airspace, McChesney requested a Chinook crew on the bottom for assist determining the place to land.
The jet had been airborne for thus lengthy, although, that it was working out of gas. So the crew turned again a second time.
Whereas flying to Qatar, the airmen had been in a position to join with a close-by KC-10 Extender tanker jet that accompanied the C-17 again to Kabul. That means, the transport aircraft might fuel up after touchdown and takeoff from the airport as effectively.
With sufficient gas in tow, the crew got here up with a plan to land.
“We knew how critical [our mission] was,” Catu mentioned. “We knew the cargo we had been carrying was actually desperately wanted by the folks on the bottom.”
With no touchdown clearance and no terminal or constructing lights, and whereas being regularly shot at, the crew was given one easy instruction: “Land at your individual danger.”
Attain 824 lastly touched down in Afghanistan and was swarmed by closely armed Taliban forces in 12 automobiles, who escorted them over taxiways plagued by rubbish, stray animals and deserted automobiles to the allied aspect of the airfield.
Within the face of extreme stress and hazard, the crew nonetheless managed to dump the rescue crews’ cargo in an unprecedented 40 minutes, permitting the particular operations crew to get well Individuals throughout the nation.
“They had been in a position to recover from 800 folks out from the countryside who in any other case wouldn’t have made it to Kabul,” Guagenti mentioned. “If we didn’t full our mission, that’s 800 individuals who can be caught there nonetheless.”
The crew returned to Kabul two extra instances to assist evacuate 348 folks, the youngest of whom was a 17-day-old woman.
On its last mission, the crew transported the stays of 13 service members killed within the Aug. 26 suicide bombing on the airport’s Abbey Gate.
The 13 service members killed within the assault, claimed by the Islamic State-Khorasan, had been Marine Corps Workers Sgt. Darin Hoover, 31; Sgt. Nicole Gee, 23; Sgt. Johanny Rosario Pichardo, 25; Cpl. Hunter Lopez, 22; Cpl. Daegan Web page, 23; Cpl. Humberto Sanchez, 22; Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz, 20; Lance Cpl. David Espinoza, 20; Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum, 20; Lance Cpl. Dylan Merola, 20; Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui, 20; Navy Hospitalman Maxton Soviak, 22; and Army Workers Sgt. Ryan Knauss, 23.
“That was on the finish of an extended two weeks attempting to determine all the things out,” Guagenti mentioned. “We had been all exhausted. We thought we had been going residence. Not one among us hesitated, whilst exhausted as we had been.”
Army Gen. Daniel Hokanson, chief of the Nationwide Guard Bureau, praised the crew’s dedication to the mission regardless of setbacks and hazard.
“You met disaster with conviction,” Hokanson mentioned through the ceremony. “With goal. With valor.”
Rachel is a Marine Corps veteran, Penn State alumna and Grasp’s candidate at New York College for Enterprise and Financial Reporting.
