Army CWO Michael Novosel and his crew extract 29 South Vietnamese soldiers who are under attack, surrounded, and nearly out of ammunition, on 15 trips in and out of an area of the Kien Tuong Province, South Vietnam. For nearly two hours, Novosel and his Dustoff (medevac) crew, flying in a Bell UH-1H “Huey” have no air cover. On the last pickup, Novosel is injured by machine gun fire. He then picks up 10 soldiers and flies to a Special Forces camp. Novosel, age 47, had piloted Boeing B-29 Superfortresses in World War II and was a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force Reserve before resigning and becoming an Army helicopter pilot, is awarded the Medal of Honor, the oldest pilot ever to be so honored.
REFORPAC, the large-scale exercise in the Pacific planned for summer 2025, will be on a scale unseen by the Air Force in recent memory: nearly 300 aircraft spread across 25 locations.