Airmen earn medals for valor while deployed

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MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. (ACCNS) --  For repeated valor under enemy fire, three Airmen here were recently awarded medals for heroic or meritorious achievement in connection with operations against opposing armed forces while deployed to Iraq.

Tech. Sgts. Jason Hohenstreiter and Chris Villenueve, and Senior Airman Robert Hunyor, all with the 5th Logistics Readiness Squadron, earned Bronze Star medals for their support to vehicle convoys traveling across the country. The three Airmen were deployed to an Army base as part of a team augmenting Army forces during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

We were security escorts for the civilian supply trucks, Sergeant Hohenstreiter said. We escorted supply trucks from the border of Turkey to our base, and some we escorted to other forward operating locations.

When they first arrived in Iraq in March, things were quiet, but in April tensions mounted. Sergeant Hohenstreiter and Airman Hunyor were caught in a firefight during one of their convoy missions.

We were outside of Baghdad headed to Mosul when we took fire, and from then on it was nonstop for an hour and a half, Airman Hunyor said. It was the longest engagement in our deployment. [Once we were out of the kill zone], we ended up hiding out in Baghdad International [Airport] for a couple days.

Sergeant Villenueve also came face-to-face with danger when an improvised explosive device exploded 75 feet in front of his vehicle.

IEDs are usually planted on the side of the road. Then [the enemy] waits for the trucks to come by and blow them up. [The aggressors] were mainly aiming for the gun trucks with the 50-caliber machine guns in them, but I just happened to be in front, he said. [The convoy] got out of the kill zone, got into our box formation and did accountability. We then reported into the higher headquarters who sent the [explosive ordnance disposal team] out to sweep the area and we just kept going.

To prepare for their tour of duty, the three went through a series of short survival courses before they deployed and also in theater.

The Army spun up a one-week short school [for Air Force members] in Fort Leonard Wood, [Mo.], and taught us how to drive the M-series trucks and taught us some of their procedures, Sergeant Hohenstreiter said. We went to Camp Virginia, Kuwait, where we received war training from the Army and Army contractors on how they run convoy operations and use radio equipment. We eventually got trained sufficiently enough to get us up north [to our permanent base in Iraq].

All three Airmen agree their training paid off.

Were here. The only way you know if you pass or if youre certified is if you get to go home safe, Sergeant Villenueve said.