Three Airmen to receive valor awards
According to the Washington Post, Tech. Sgt. Matthew J. Greiner, Senior Airman Dustin H. Temple and Senior Airman Goodie J. Goodman have been awarded valor medals for their actions in a Sept. 27, 2014 battle in Afghanistan. Temple was awarded the Air Force Cross while the other two received the Silver Star Medal.
It turned into a fight for their lives, three U.S. Special Operations airmen involved in the battle recalled Tuesday. The insurgents, numbering close to 100, sprung a fierce attack in which they not only launched a barrage of fire on the Americans, but made plans on the radio to overrun their position and take them hostage, the airmen said.
“They were much, much more brave than any insurgent that I have ever had throughout my deployments there,” Senior Airman Goodie J. Goodman told reporters in a conference call Tuesday. “They didn’t seem like they were willing to quit until the last soul.”
From the Air Force Times;
Temple, in addition to calling airstrikes, repeatedly exposed himself to enemy fire, resupplying his team and retrieving a mortally injured soldier.
[…]
More than 100 insurgents were ready for the fight and began with most of their fire focused on Temple’s element. He directed close-air support from F-16s, AH-1s, AC-130s and an MQ-1 as the men faced overwhelming fire. When a soldier, Sgt. 1st Class Andrew Weathers, was hit by a sniper, Temple ran into enemy fire to return him to safety.
“Airman Temple helped keep him alive so his family was able to fly to Germany to see him alive one last time,” Army Capt. Evan Lacenski, the team leader of 7th Group Special Forces and leader of the mission. said during the medals ceremony.
When Temple returned to his team, the enemy fighters surged within 40 meters. The group’s interpreter captured the insurgents’ order, “Take the Americans alive.” The team fought the insurgents at close range, keeping them from “climbing through murder holes” in the team’s compound, Lacenski said.
There’s a more complete narrative of the battle and the airmen’s actions at the Air Force Times link.
Category: Air Force
TACP, hooah! Way to go, boys!
Reckon they needed a C5 to fly them around considering the size of their balls.
Now that I live in Slammintonio and am surrounded by Air Force types, my wife and I see a lot of new AF Basic Training graduates with their proud families when we eat out on the weekends.
Can’t help but wonder if one of those will be on the Brass Ball list some day…
Great stuff!
Congrats men and keep up your good work
Well done Airmen. Damned well done!
He was taken to Kandahar Air Field for treatment, and then to Bagram, but kept asking for permission to return to his team. But “you have holes in your legs,” doctors told him.
“I said, ‘Show me what you want me to do, I’ll do whatever you want,'” Greiner told Air Force Times. “So they said, ‘Go run a mile and a half.’ So I ran a mile and a half. I hobbled it, but I made it, and they said ‘You’re good.'”
Way more than “good”.
No USAF recipient of the MOH for the GWOT, Airman Temple seems a deserving candidate.
^^^^ This ^^^^
I had the pleasure of working “for” both Matt and Dusty. Both of them are superstars, no doubt, as well as the team they were embedded with. I was at KAF the day that Matt got released and got to talk with him prior to him going back to the team. He was banged-up and still a bit wobbly but definitely in high spirits and ready to go. A few days later I heard about the TIC and the resulting casualty, SFC Andy Weathers, and was pretty upset by it but also happy that there wasn’t more loss of US lives. It wasn’t until quite awhile later that everything was made public and the awards ceremony for the (3) Airmen was announced, I was super stoked for those guys. Without them, there would have been a lot more flag-draped coffins. Bravo Zulu Matt, Dusty & Goldie!
Real guts.
One engagement, resulting in an AF Cross and 2x Silver Stars.
Seriously well done, men. Kudos.
Makes you proud.
Wow, just wow…these men are amazing. Well done indeed.
Well done, boys.
Well, done.
And as well as a job well done to protect themselves and their comrades in arms, How many quoanderthals did they sent to the “loving” arms of Shaitan?
THIS is one reason I hate posers. Well done, guys. Damn well done.
These men are what Valor means. The turds exposed on this site, no so much.
BZ! Amazing, thank you for your service brothers!
Dear DoD, this is what makes special operation forces special. Please do not lower the standards!
Respectfully,
Dustoff
P.S. “Clear Hot!”
Wow. Just Wow. What a team!
HOOAH !!!!!!!