Thirty-nine security forces personnel recently were awarded the Air Force Combat Action Medal for their actions defending US and coalition bases during an insurgent attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, in July. Maj. Gen. John McMullen, commander of the 9th Air and Space Expeditionary Task Force-Afghanistan, presented the medals to the airmen during a Sept. 2 ceremony at FOB Oqab, Afghanistan, states a base release. In the early morning hours of July 17, 2014, insurgents “launched more than a dozen rocket-propelled grenades and fired automatic rifles” at a NATO base, the Afghan Air Force’s Kabul Air Wing, and Oqab, all located at Kabul Airport, from a multi-storied building nearby, states the release. Security forces retaliated from guard towers and launched quick-reaction forces with carbines, launchers, and machine guns, unloading more than 3,000 total rounds on the insurgents. The battle ended after for more than five hours “when an Afghan-led quick reaction force—enabled by the suppressive fire from Air Force and Afghan forces on the base—arrived at the attackers’ position and cleared the building, eliminating the threat,” states the release.
Aeromedical evacuation Airmen are preparing for future conflicts in which scores more wounded troops may be forced to grow sicker as they wait for help to arrive across thousands of miles of ocean protected by advanced air defenses.