Gen. Herbert Carlisle, Pacific Air Forces commander, presented the Distinguished Flying Cross to MSgt. Richard Joy and SSgt. Tyson Reams during an Oct. 29 ceremony at Kadena AB, Japan. He recognized these airmen for their heroic actions in combat while deployed to Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, in 2010. Joy, an HH-60G aerial gunner with Kadena’s 33rd Rescue Squadron, distinguished himself by performing a precision hover and hoist on extreme mountainous terrain under direct enemy fire, according to an Oct. 30 Kadena release. “Without Joy’s actions, many of the men on the mission would not have survived,” states the release. Reams, a 33rd RQS HH-60G flight engineer, flew two mass-casualty evacuation missions in support of a coalition operation in the Watapur Valley. “For more than nine hours, Reams provided accurate power calculations in high-altitude landing zones, along with a steadily increasing number of wounded troops,” states the release. (Kadena report by A1C Malia Jenkins)
The Space Development Agency says it’s on track to issue its next batch of missile warning and tracking satellite contracts this month after those awards were delayed by the Pentagon’s decision to divert funds from the agency to pay troops during this fall’s prolonged government shutdown.
