Members of Air Force Reserve 
Command’s 920th Rescue Wing flew fully a third of their Hurricane Katrina sorties in the dark in an area peppered with power lines and buildings, not to mention other aircraft. The Patrick AFB, Fla., airmen credit the warfighting technology in their HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters. To help them pluck from danger 1,043 people stranded by Hurricane Katrina, the Reservists used a combination of night vision goggles, forward-looking infrared radar, and electronically linked mission overlays.
A half-dozen pilots from one of the Air Force’s premier F-16 units, the 20th Fighter Wing at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., have been awarded one of the service’s highest decorations for their role in Operation Midnight Hammer, the June 2025 strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities.