The Air Force has awarded the Bronze Star Medal to two airmen at Peterson AFB, Colo. for their actions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Capt. Kevin Lombardo, 21st Space Wing’s Security Forces, served as the battle captain of the Theatre Internment Facility operations center at Camp Bucca, Iraq, where he supervised more than 400 compound searches and helped keep the peace when 1,100 of the 15,000 detainees he oversaw rioted. Lombardo handled the situation and developed and coordinated standard operating procedures for use by the next facility operators. TSgt. Michael Smith, a joint terminal attack controller with the 13th Air Support Operations Squadron, served with Army Special Forces in Kandahar, Afghanistan, where he often had to join his Army teammates in ground combat as well as calling in numerous close air support strikes.
A-10 Thunderbolt II attack planes in the Middle East are flying with fresh modifications as the Air Force looks to make the plane more versatile amid America’s ongoing blockade of Iranian ports and a tenuous ceasefire in the U.S. air war against Iran.