Calling him an “ordinary airman” who stepped up “to make a difference,” Lt. Gen. Norman Seip, 12th Air Force boss, presented the Airman’s Medal last week to Maj. Trace Steyaert at Ellsworth AFB, S.D. On June 10, 2007, Steyaert had rescued a swimmer caught in a rip tide and unable to swim back to shore at Thinker’s Beach near Monrovia, Liberia, where the major had deployed to support a US Army unit. Steyaert is with the 28th Logistics Readiness Squadron at Ellsworth. (Ellsworth report by A1C Abigail Klein)
The U.S. military is maintaining a beefed-up presence in the Middle East, including fighters and air defense assets, following the U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities June 22 and subsequent retaliation by the Iranians against Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.
