Category: Air Force

Andy11M sends us a link to the story about Air Force Staff Sergeant Greggory Swarz who rescued three French pilots from the flaming wreckage of a Greek F-16 aircraft which crashed at a Spanish airbase during a NATO exercise. The French government honored Sergeant Swarz’ courage with the award of their Legion d’Honneur medal at the Paris Airshow yesterday;

“Once I got closer, I realised there were still a couple of people that were saveable,” said Swarz. “I saw some stuff that shouldn’t really be talked about. Some pretty horrific things.”

Swarz ran into the inferno, burning his hands as he dragged three people from the fire, rolling them on the ground to put out the flames.

The third had lost a hand, so Swarz made a tourniquet with his belt.

“It was horrible. I couldn’t breathe because of the heat and the smoke,” said Swarz, adding that he was “very honoured and nervous” to be receiving the bravery award.

“It’s human nature, there’s people suffering, you’ve got to do as much as you can,” he said.

The conflagration did claim the lives of 11 others and injured about 20 people.

Several of you have sent us links to the story about Brigadier General Paul W. Tibbets IV who has taken command of the 509th Bomb Wing – 20 B-2 “stealth” bombers. Tibbets’ grandfather, Paul W. Tibbets, Junior, flew the B-29 named “Enola Gay” which dropped the world’s first atomic bomb against an enemy on Aug. 6, 1945 on Hiroshima.

Tibbets, who wears an old Rolex his grandfather gave him and whose son is also named Paul W. Tibbets V, told about 500 people attending the ceremony that his grandfather would be “touched by your appreciation for his service and the service of those that he was with back in that time.”

His grandfather would also tell them, Tibbets said, that “he’s counting on you, he’s counting on us, today’s generation of airmen, to continue as you do each and every day to raise the bar and set the standard and continue the great work that our nation relies on us to to do.”

The elder Tibbets commanded the 509th Composite Group which delivered both nuclear weapons to mainland Japan. That unit is the predecessor of his grandson’s command. Tibbets, Junior passed on to his reward in November 2007. The Enola Gay was nick-named for his mother.

Bobo sends us a link to the Washington Post which reports that “These U.S. airmen refused to be taken hostage in Afghanistan. Now they’ll get valor awards.” about Sergeant Matthew J. Greiner and Senior Airman Goodie J. Goodman, who will both receive the Silver Star and Senior Airman Dustin H. Temple (that’s him in the middle), who earned himself an Air Force Cross. All three earned their medals on September 27, 2014.

I’m not going to cut and paste the story written by our friend, Dan Lamothe, so you should click over and read it yourself. But, you should know that Senior Airman Temple is only the third recipient of the Air Force Cross from the Afghanistan War behind Jason Dean Cunningham and John Chapman, both of whom were awarded the medal posthumously.

The Hill reports that Major General James Post, the vice-commander of Air Combat Command was relieved from his position for warning Airmen at a convention to refrain from speaking to Congress or the media if they didn’t support the official policy of the Air Force to dump the A-10 Thunderbolt (the Warthog) close ground support aircraft.

Post’s “choice of words had the effect of attempting to prevent some members from lawfully communicating with Congress,” which is a violation of the U.S. Code and [Department of Defense] Directives, whether that was his intention or not,” said Air Combat Command (ACC).

His remarks had a “chilling effect on some of the attendees and caused them to feel constrained from communicating with members of Congress,” the command said.

So, the A-10 chalks up another casualty and survives yet another fight. Post made the Air Force look impotent because they have no real rationale to remove the indispensable bird from it’s inventory and the discussion about their plans doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.