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Major given DFC for SEAL rescue mission

A rescue mission in Afghanistan detailed in a best-selling book has earned an Air Force major the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Maj. Keith Wolak of the 74th Fighter Squadron, Pope Air Force Base, N.C., received the honor Friday in a ceremony at the base.

On July 2, 2005, Wolak, then a captain and flying with the call sign “Sandy 02,” was part of a task force assigned to rescue Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell from the mountains of eastern Afghanistan. Luttrell was the only survivor of a four-man SEAL team that was attacked while on a reconnaissance mission. The first attempt to rescue the team June 28 ended with the crash of an Army MH-47 Chinook helicopter and the deaths of 16 soldiers and SEALs onboard.

Luttrell wrote about his experience in “Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10.”

From his A-10 cockpit, Wolak had the job of controlling 17 aircraft pushed by bad weather into an area of about 16 square miles, the DFC citation said.

When another A-10 had an equipment failure that prevented the fighter from flying strafing runs to clear out Taliban positions near the landing zone, Wolak took on that job.

“Without hesitation, Capt. Wolak maneuvered his A-10 into position, identified the targets and rapidly engaged with 30 mm rounds, suppressing enemy air defenses,” the citation stated.

As Wolak rolled in on his final attack run, he was directed to mark the landing zone for an approaching HH-60G Pave Hawk that would land to pick up the SEAL.

“If Sandy 02 [Wolak] hadn’t marked the landing zone, we wouldn’t have landed,” one of the rescue helicopter crew members was quoted as saying in the citation.

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