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The U.S. Air Force Expeditionary Center held a ceremony honoring
seven Airmen and their families at the Grace Peterson Hall on
November 21, 2017.
Maj. Gen. Christopher J. Bence, USAF EC commander,
presided over the ceremony and presented the Bronze Star Medal to
the following Airmen for their work with the 621st Contingency
Response Wing during their deployments to Northern Syria and Iraq
from October 2016 to February 2017:
Col. Rhett Champagne
Lt. Col. Blaine
Baker
Lt. Col. Robert Rayner
Maj. Jacob Becker
Capt.
Andrew Schnell
Chief Master Sgt. Ricky Smith
Senior Master
Sgt. Christopher Wright
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November 21, 2017 - U.S. Air Force
airmen... Col. Rhett Champagne, Lt.
Col. Blaine Baker, Lt. Col. Robert Rayner, Maj. Jacob Becker, Capt.
Andrew Schnell, Chief Master Sgt. Ricky Smith, and Senior Master Sgt.
Christopher Wright ... stand during a Bronze Star Medal presentation
ceremony at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey. During
their recent deployments in support of Operation Inherent Resolve in
Iraq and Northern Syria, the Airmen led Air Base Opening operations
that enabled coalition forces to maintain and extend the range and
persistence of counter-Islamic State group operations that sustained
coalition forces conducting offensives that led to the elimination
of IS in key regions and territories. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Gustavo Gonzalez)
Click hear or on image for larger version
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“The Airmen on this stage truly put the rapid in our
rapid global mobility,” Bence said. “It’s a true honor to be
here today to award these Bronze Stars to these Airmen.”
The Bronze Star Medal is awarded to members of the U.S.
Armed Forces for heroic or meritorious service or
achievement in a combat zone.
During their recent deployments in support
of Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq and Northern Syria,
the Airmen led Air Base Opening operations that enabled
coalition forces to maintain and extend the range and
persistence of counter-Islamic State group operations that
sustained coalition forces conducting offensives that led to
the elimination of IS in key regions and territories.
For Baker, 821st Contingency Response Squadron commander
stationed at Travis Air Force Base, California, the first
thing that comes to mind when he thinks of receiving the
Bronze Star Medal is the Airmen he had the pleasure of
working within Iraq.
“At the end of the day, the team
made that mission happen,” Baker said. “We’re just fortunate
to have the caliber of professionals in the CRW that are not
just able to go do their mission, but they’re eager to go do
their missions. That’s what you see in the bronze stars,
it's Airmen who are ready to lead wherever they’re called to
go because they’re putting the mission above themselves.”
Baker deployed Qayyarah Airfield in Iraq as the
Contingency Response Element commander, along with
Champagne, Becker, and Smith. They were all part of the
79-person team of 621st CRW Airmen. According to Baker, the
base had been overrun by IS in 2014 and had destroyed the
runways.
“All of the structures across the base had
been blown up and destroyed by IS in their rampage,” Baker
said. “The Air Force Expeditionary Civil Engineering group
came in, did some heavy repairs. Once those repairs were
complete, literally within 24 hours of the cement drying on
the runway, we established airfield operations and brought
in the first [aircraft].”
While the CRE in Iraq had
their hands full opening an airfield, Rayner, Schnell, and
Wright were working in a CRE of their own along with 49
other 621st CRW Airmen in Northern Syria.
“We were
there to degrade and deny IS the ability to continue to
operate in the region,” said Schnell, 321st Contingency
Response Squadron force protection flight commander
stationed here and the CRE’s landing zone airfield manager
at the time.
According to Schnell, they accomplished
their mission by increasing the throughput of cargo to the
airfield and brought the equipment in that was needed there
to the fight.
“We were the most forward airfield that
U.S. Central Command had at that time,” said Schnell.
The parallels between the CREs in Iraq and Northern
Syria were evident in the threats they faced during their
deployments.
“At one point [active combat] was
within 20 kilometers from us,” Schnell said. “Every night
when I would go out to run the landing zone, I could watch
through my night vision goggles of things exploding,”
Baker stated that the days on deployment in Iraq could
be summed up as intense.
“We were very well aware
that the base was a key logistics platform and fire-base,"
Baker said. "In fact, the very first shipment that we got
had rocket replenishment for the actual platforms that were
firing out of [the airbase] and into Mosul.”
Another
common theme between the CREs was the success they
experienced down-range.
“We were able to establish a
robust process [and] hand that off to air expeditionary
forces,” said Schnell about Northern Syria. “They ended up
standing up the 386th Air Expeditionary Squadron and it was
all on us to train them to make sure they don’t fail once we
leave.”
According to Baker, although there is still
work to be done in eliminating IS in Iraq, the mission was
key a key victory.
"About 1.3 million people in Mosul
were liberated from the clutches of IS,” Baker said. “It was
definitely a successful mission.”
By U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Gustavo Gonzalez
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2018
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