From the March 3rd edition of the Air Force Association's Daily Report:
Pope Airman to Receive High Honor: SSgt. Zachary Rhyner, a combat controller at Pope AFB, N.C., will receive the Air Force Cross March 10 at a ceremony in the Pentagon. Rhyner, a member of Air Force Special Operations Command's 21st Special Tactics Squadron, is being honored for his heroic actions on April 6, 2008, in Afghanistan's Shok Valley, said Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz Feb. 26 during his address at AFA's Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Fla. Rhyner, a senior airman at the time, was with a group of US and Afghan special forces that deployed in rugged high terrain to assault an insurgent stronghold. Approaching the target, "all hell broke loose," as the team came under devastating fire on all sides from a large group of insurgents in elevated and protected positions, said Schwartz. "Courageously moving into position without regard for his own life, [Rhyner] returned fire with his rifle to cover his wounded teammates while they were extracted from the line of fire," explained Schwartz. And, although shot three times and seriously wounded in his leg, Rhyner called in more than 50 air strikes during the six-hour battle to prevent the team from being overrun. "Zack, it's a wonderful thing you did and how proud you make us all," said Schwartz. (For more, read the Fayetteville Observer's Feb. 27 report and December 2008 AFPS report) (U.S. Air Force photo by TSgt Brian E. Christiansen)
And from the Fayetteville Observer article linked above:
About 100 Special Forces and Afghan soldiers each were carrying more than 60 pounds of equipment when they jumped from helicopters onto icy, jagged rocks and waist-deep running water in 30-degree temperatures to assault a terrorist stronghold in Afghanistan. Their objective was at the top of the mountains surrounding the valley.
They were ambushed by 200 enemy fighters, and Rhyner was shot within the first 15 minutes, according to an account from the Air Force Special Operations Command. The team came under fire from all directions from snipers, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.
Capt. Kyle Walton, the Special Forces team leader, treated Rhyner for his injuries as the airman called in Apache attack helicopters.
Rhyner called in 4,570 rounds of cannon fire, nine Hellfire missiles, 162 rockets, 12 500-pound bombs and a 2,000-pound bomb, Air Force officials said.
The Army awarded ten Silver Stars to members of Team 3336 of the 3rd Special Forces Group from Fort Bragg, NC in this same engagement. Further details of the battle are here, and it's quite the story.
The Air Force Cross is the service's second highest decoration, second only to the Medal of Honor.
From the March 3rd edition of the Air Force Association's Daily Report:
That is one amazing story - thanks for sharing it. I would bet SSgt Rhyner is one special man. I wonder if he is married ;)
ReplyDeleteWow. Thanks SSgt Rhyner! And thanks to you, Buck, for sharing.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful. As a former forward observer, that story swells me up a bit. He would have been on the radio non-stop for hours to call in and direct that amount of ordinance, all while wounded and firing his weapon. Holy, holy, holy cow.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad he made it through in good shape.
ReplyDeleteWhy didn't they look at the MOH? The MOH was never intended for posthumous awarding only...
Barco - this may a bit cynical, but if he was an officer I would bet the MOH would have been awarded.
ReplyDeleteLou, Jenny, and Andy: Yep... SSgt Rhyner is MOST definitely a hero. And you, Andy, appreciate what he did more than most.
ReplyDeleteDC and Andy: I just spent about an hour in a fruitless search for a discussion I read recently about why there aren't more living MOH recipients. I KNOW there was some discussion at Lex's place recently on this subject, specifically when Lex posted about a guy who recently won the Navy Cross in Afghanistan. But I could have sworn I read something else, specifically statements made by some DoD muckety-mucks about criteria, chain-of-command evaluations, and other such stuff. But fundamentally I'm in agreement with both of you: there's precious little difference in between the AF Cross/Navy Cross/Army Distinguished Service Cross and the MOH... except for the fact recipients of the former are usually living.
Not even living...look at John Chapman and Jason Cunningham. One singlehandedly attacked multiple enemy strong points allowing the remainder of the SEAL Team he was with to escape. After being unintentionally left for dead, he came to and engaged in a solo battle with numerous enemy forces before being overwhelmed after killing several of them. The other exposed himself to enemy fire numerous times while treating the survivors of a downed MH-47 (that was flying to the rescue of the previously mentioned SEAL Team). He was wounded several times, eventually mortally, but continued to treat the wounded and refused evac until nightfall because he knew that it wouldn't be safe for the medevac chopper to come into the hot LZ.
ReplyDeleteBoth received the Air Force Cross...posthumously. How these actions were not worth of the MOH is beyond me. The only way I can figure is that they were both part of the rat-fuck that was Operation Anaconda and the brass didn't want to give the ultimate recognition to someone who won it in a screwed up battle. I can't remember who it was unfortunately, but someone recently jumped on a grenade...and just got the Cross, which up until now was the lone sure fire way to earn a MOH.
I don't know what the criteria is, but it's not good. Dead heroes aren't the only thing we should have. We've got entirely too many of them.
Andy, I'm sympathetic to your comment regarding officers and decorations. I assume you saw the story in AF Times a few weeks ago about how vastly disproportionate things are. I think it's an absolute travesty what has happened to the Bronze Star, and I think it's ridiculous that aircrew get the Air Medal for flying 20 "combat missions" (aka - doing their job while deployed). Equating tooling along in uncontested airspace at 20,000 ft to raiding Ploesti or even heading to downtown Hanoi is an insult.
However, I think your criticism is a little off target in this case as the one area the military has done the right thing re: enlisted/officer (even as it refuses to do the right thing by being too stingy) is medals for valor. Of the eight post Vietnam MOHs, all but one have been awarded to enlisted personnel (the lone officer was Lt. Mike Murphy, who I think you'll agree is probably more than deserving.) Of the post Vietnam Service Crosses, the vast majority have been awarded to enlisted personnel.
Mike,
ReplyDeletePoint taken. I was definitely shooting from the hip on that one a bit, based on my experience (Army) with the way things like medals are usually automatically upgraded a step or two if the recipient is an officer.
I carry my NCO cynicism with me everywhere I go.
Heh, like I said, I would agree with you on that on anything other than medals for valor. Those are usually downgraded, if anything (regardless of grade). The upgraded on officers for everything else was kind of what I was alluding to with the Bronze Star comment.
ReplyDeleteSigh. Here I am, late to my own party! I just poured my first cup so I'm less than cogent/coherent at this point, but will try and comment anyhoo.
ReplyDeleteVERY well said, Mike. Well researched, too. And you KNOW how I feel about medal creep in general, and most specifically when Bronze Stars are passed out for just "being there." (For Andy: I've ranted on this subject before.) Your example of Air Medals awarded during the current unpleasantness is in that very same space. I can see where the CAS guys deserve them... but tanker crews and trash haulers? Not even.
Once again: well said.
Checked out the post you linked - that was before I even knew what a blog was. No arguments here, of course. Funny how it works: My first 4 years were in a very high speed combat arms unit full of overachievers, and awards were hard to come by. I re-enlisted for an intel job, and suddenly awards were flying around to supervisors (was a time they were called squad leaders and platoon sergeants) for just about anything they didn't do wrong.
ReplyDelete