From the Albuquerque Journal comes the news that the Air Force will award Master Sergeant Greg Gibbs of the 512th Rescue Squadron at Kirtland Air Force Base the Distinguished Flying Cross for his actions in Shorbak District, Kandahar Province, Afghanistan five years ago;
Gibbs was a door gunner on an HH-60G Pave Hawk during the mission to rescue a squad of Army Pathfinders who had been decimated by improvised explosive devices.
On the last evacuation, the aircraft lost power, and Gibbs guided the pilots down the valley to land just a few feet outside the minefield. Once the aircraft was operational again, Gibbs calculated that they could fly the patient to higher medical care on emergency fuel.
When the patient was transferred to the hospital, the aircraft had only five minutes of fuel left.
I’ll bet he was glad that he paid attention in Algebra class.
The DFC for doing math?
He deserves it just for that epic porn-stache.
Excellent job by MSG Gibbs!
I think the Good Lord was in charge of that operation!
“DFC for performance of his duties under high pressure, resulting in a safe emergency landing and the expedient medical care of the patient” is how I read this.
Well done, Master Sergeant!
So those green lenses aren’t really to protect his eyesight, right? They’re to keep other people from being zapped by his X-ray vision. I knew it. Superman and Green Lantern ain’t got nothin’ on him.
BZ to this guy.
Why the brown upper on the flight suit?
Looks like a combat shirt, not a flight suit.
That’s not a flight suit,it is a Combat shirt and multi type FRAGO bottoms.
sorry FROG
Tnx Eden and CPO.
I didn’t think it was much of a flight suit but I wouldn’t know anyway being old and stuff.
Great stache and now some great chest candy. Congrats and BZ MSgt
CLANK CLANK. I hear him walking down the hall. I’m surprised the chopper could lift the extra load.
All Right! The DFC for an enlisted man.
Ya know, not even the first man to step foot on the moon has a DFC.
He can do math and calculate fuel reserve? Obviously not a lawyer residing in Florida.
Well damn done, Sir. BZ
Heh-snort!
Plus he’s an actual E-7.
In every way he’s the anti-Bernath.
Well done but a DFC for doing his job? There must be more to this. They landed a chopper, put a guy on that needed medical care and he got out a calculator, figured fuel mileage and they flew off.
I’m not saying he did not earn it but there must be more. It just sounds a little much to award him the 2cd highest medal for this. Of course, there is that epic ‘stache and sunglasses.
He did the calculations in his head?
The DFC is nowhere near the 2nd highest military award, for valor or otherwise. That would be the respective service’s cross (Army – DSC; Navy/USMC/USCG – NC; and USAF – AF Cross.
The DFC ranks 8th in precedence in the USAF (6th if you consider the DDSM and DSSM on par with the AF DSM and LOM, respectively).
I was thinking the same thing. There just has to be more to the story that we’re not being told.
I mean it’s not like the pilots don’t have the fuel and mission elapsed time gauges right there on the instrument panel. But maybe the instruments were out due to the power failure and they had to revert to the manual mode.
But maybe due to weight restrictions the pilot’s seeing eye dogs, huge Seiko watches and aviation common sense had to be jettisoned before take-off./smile
But, bottom line is BZ to the MSgt even if it took five years.
Apparently what is not being told in the story here is that the Master Sergeant used his penis to continue manning the door gun, firing at the enemy, while simultaneously calculating the fuel capacity and estimated flight time on his fingers.
/*SMSgt says “What”?
// Good jerb MSgt
To add a little more information for ya’ll. The reference to “power” is not electrical but how much power the engines are producing to provide lift. Flying down the valley means getting to a lower altitude. After being a sitting duck for a bit burning/dumping enough fuel to get enough “power” to clear them there hills. In the Air Force, Gunners are not crew chiefs who get to fly but were their own career field. Gunners ain’t exactly known for their math skills to say the least, and doing those types of calculations were not part of their jobs. Sadly the Gunner AFSC no longer exist as their own entity. Hope this helps.