Recent articles showcase how three Special Tactics combat controllers — Senior Airman Dustin Temple, Air Force Cross recipient; and Tech. Sgt. Matthew Greiner and Senior Airman Goodie Goodman, Silver Star medal recipients — consistently and courageously put themselves in harm's way to coordinate close air support with multiple aircraft and necessary resupplies ["'Exceptional heroism': 3 airmen honored with Air Force Cross, Silver Stars for 48-hour battle" and "He saved 80 lives: Why not the Medal of Honor?" May 18-25 issue of Air Force Times].

There is no doubt these three Special Tactics airmen turned the tide of the 48-hour battle against nearly 100 insurgents. However, it's important to recognize the valor and commitment of their Army Special Forces team members, whom the airmen supported on this mission.

It is always our intent to transparently demonstrate the incredible proficiency of Special Tactics airmen, the aircrew and our joint partners. On the battlefield, interoperability is life-or-death, and success hinges on each force's capability to perform with courage and competence despite the chaos of war.

The Special Forces team, along with the three Special Tactics airmen, inserted at night in order to disrupt an insurgent stronghold of command, weapons and drug caches.

Within five minutes of inserting via helicopter, Greiner called in close-air support to eliminate armed individuals within the bazaar. That night, the Special Forces team and Goodman cleared weapons caches in the village, destroying the largest cache that had been found while the special operations team was in country, according to Army Capt. Evan Lacenski, Special Forces team leader from 7th Special Forces Group.

Upon infiltration, the Special Forces team and their Afghan commando counterparts then split into three friendly elements. While it was mostly quiet at night, the attacks from the insurgents began in earnest once the sun rose. Temple's element included eight other team members, and their stronghold received 80 percent of fire during the first day, according to Lacenski.

During the intense attack, Army Sgt. First Class Andrew Weathers and another Special Forces solider were on the roof, engaging insurgents from both sides. When the soldiers ran out of ammunition for the machine gun, Weathers bounded across the roof to the 84mm anti-tank recoilless rifle to continue fighting. An insurgent shot a round through the machine gun feed tray, disabling it, and Weathers was hit by a sniper, suffering a gunshot wound to the head.

The Special Forces solider on the roof with Weathers, exposed to two flanks of enemy fire, ran across the roof to retrieve and drag Weathers back to the ladder. Temple and another Special Forces solider then climbed up the ladder to the roof, willingly exposing themselves to intense enemy fire, to pull Weathers down to safety.

Weathers made the ultimate sacrifice for his country, later perishing from wounds sustained in battle.

We credit the outstanding courage and teamwork of Air Force Cross recipient Temple, the other combat controllers, and the Special Forces soldiers in providing Weather's family an opportunity to see him.

Due to the special operations service members' brave and timely efforts, Weather's family was able to see him before he passed away at Landstuhl Army Regional Medical Center, Germany.

Later in the battle, when supplies were dangerously low, several Special Forces soldiers and Temple braved enemy fire multiple times to retrieve necessary ammunition in order to resupply the friendly forces. Once Temple and the Special Forces soldiers returned with the heavy ammo, they were informed bullets had hit all around their feet. Despite this, the Special Forces soldiers and Temple ran out again across 100 meters of open terrain to retrieve the last of the ammunition.

Throughout the two-day battle, Greiner and Goodman continued to accurately coordinate close-air support to protect Temple and the Special Forces team. In addition to rescuing Weathers and gathering resupplies with his Special Forces teammates, Temple continued to attack the insurgent force by coordinating 75 danger-close strikes.

The success of this mission was due to the entire special operations team's bravery and professionalism, including the Special Tactics combat controllers.

The airmen's well-deserved medals in no way discount or overshadow the actions of their Army Special Forces team during the mission.

1st Lt. Katrina. J Cheesman, Air Force Special Tactics Public Affairs, 24th Special Operations Wing

Hurlburt Field, Fla.

WRITE US:Email your letters to airlet@airforcetimes.com. Include your name, address, phone number and rank. Submissions may be edited and published in print and electronic form and become the property of Gannett Government Media.

Share:
In Other News
Load More