{"id":121993,"date":"2022-01-20T12:02:59","date_gmt":"2022-01-20T17:02:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=121993"},"modified":"2022-01-20T12:02:59","modified_gmt":"2022-01-20T17:02:59","slug":"i-ran-the-kabul-evacuations-airspace-and-all-i-got-was-an-af-comm-medal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=121993","title":{"rendered":"I ran the Kabul evacuation’s airspace and all I got was an AF Comm Medal"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Senior Airmen Dakota C. Bartz and Andrew J. Kimrey (center) and Capt. Adam J. Solomon (right)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Some of the Airmen who ran the hectic airspace into, out of, and above Biden’s colossally botched Afghanistan pullout last summer recently received awards. The captain who ran the operation, and apparently worked hand-in-hand with the Taliban, received a Bronze Star (an in-theater Meritorious Service Medal) while the two senior airmen (E-4) received Air Force Commendation Medals w\/ “C” device (for “combat”, i.e. in-theater, exposed to the potential for enemy fire but not actively engaged in combat).<\/p>\n

You ask me, all these awards are too little. A company grade officer running the flight control for Kabul, which saw more than 120k people evacuated, and who had to engage in international diplomacy with a terrorist organization, should probably rate a Legion of Merit. Even a Distinguished Service Medal, for those who “Distinguished themselves by exceptionally meritorious service to the Government in a duty of great responsibility” would seem more appropriate. Especially since any field grade officer who walks through the CENTCOM AOR gets a meritorious BSM.<\/p>\n

Then you get to the two E-4s who were on the radio doing the operation of coordinating the safe arrival and departure of hundreds of aircraft. They definitely rate the BSM for meritorious service in a combat zone. Instead they get commendation medals, which are normally give to E-6s and up or O-3s and up when they PCS. Though they do get a fancy bronze “C” to put on it. Which is nice. So they have that going for themselves.<\/p>\n

From Task and Purpose<\/a>;<\/p>\n

Moving more than 124,000 people out of one airport in just a few weeks takes more than just pilots: it also takes planning. Few people know that better than Air Force Capt. Adam Solomon, who was awarded a Bronze Star medal earlier this month for \u201cmeritorious service\u201d while coordinating the massive airlift that marked the end of the American war in Afghanistan in August.<\/p>\n

While the headlines were filled with lines of Afghan refugees making their way onto C-17 transport jets, Solomon worked behind the scenes to make sure the entire operation, which involved hundreds of aircraft and several allied countries, ran smoothly. To make things more complicated, the airman had to do it all under the risk of enemy fire, and he also had to work with the invading Taliban forces to get as many refugees out safely as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cNone of us could have known that in a matter of weeks, the largest non-combatant evacuation operation in United States history would take place as 124,334 humans were delivered to freedom,\u201d said Lt. Col. Brian Stahl, commander of the 332nd Expeditionary Operations Group, at the awards ceremony on Jan. 7, according to an Air Force press release. \u201cWe controlled the busiest and most dangerous piece of sky in the world \u2026 because a few dozen of our wing stepped forward in spite of the acute danger.\u201d<\/p>\n

Specifically, Solomon and a four man team coordinated communications for thousands of service members and allied partners and used a \u201cnew sequencing tool\u201d that \u201cincreased outbound evacuation flights exponentially,\u201d the press release said.<\/p>\n

Though details were vague about what exactly the \u201cnew sequencing tool\u201d was, it made such a big difference streamlining the coordination of air traffic that it was \u201chailed as a Defense Department benchmark and briefed to the President of the United States\u201d and top officials from other nations. Just to give a sense of scale for the aircraft involved: An Air Force official told Task & Purpose in September that the service committed more than 230 aircraft to the effort, including C-17s, C-5 Galaxies, KC-10, KC-135 and KC-46 tankers, and C-130 turboprop transports. That group included more than half the branch\u2019s fleet of 222 C-17s.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some of the Airmen who ran the hectic airspace into, out of, and above Biden’s colossally … I ran the Kabul evacuation’s airspace and all I got was an AF Comm Medal<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[301,187,479],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-afghanistan","category-air-force","category-bronze-star"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/664"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=121993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121993\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=121993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=121993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=121993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}