Lt. Col. David Poage, safety chief of the 81st Training Wing at Keesler AFB, Miss., received a Bronze Star medal Jan. 21 for his work as commander of the Laghman Provincial Reconstruction Team during an 11-month deployment to Afghanistan last year. As PRT commander, he oversaw 86 service personnel who worked on more than 50 infrastructure projects and carried out more than 300 combat support missions in hostile areas. “Getting the Bronze Star is great, but is only the icing on the cake,” said Poage, a 21-year Air Force veteran. He continued, “I told the troops I was deployed with that awards will be written up and not everyone will receive the Medal of Honor, but we all know what we did here.” (Keesler report by A1C David Salanitri)
Space Force’s Top Guardians Share Their Stories
Feb. 27, 2026
Winners of the Space Force’s fourth annual, service-wide Polaris Awards had the chance to discuss the actions that led to their awards from the main stage here at AFA’s Warfare Symposium on Feb. 24, in a panel discussion moderated by Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force John Bentivegna.