Fairchild Airmen awarded Bronze Star and Army Commendation Medal for heroism

  • Published
  • By 2nd Lt. Tristan Hinderliter
  • 92nd Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. --  Whether it is a meth lab in Spokane, Wash., booby trapped with grenades or an Improvised Explosive Device in Baghdad, every day brings something new for an Explosive Ordnance Disposal technician.

On the morning of Dec. 7, two of Fairchild's EOD technicians were awarded decorations for heroism in a ceremony at the 92nd Civil Engineering Squadron's Stampede Room.

Tech. Sgt. Jesus Hernandez was awarded a Bronze Star Medal and Senior Airman Amos Smith was awarded an Army Commendation Medal with a "V" device, indicating the act of heroism for which the medal was awarded was performed in direct contact with an enemy force.

The two were deployed together to Sather Air Base, Iraq, from January to June of 2006, in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Sergeant Hernandez grew up in San Antonio. He has been in the Air Force 14 years, the last five here at Fairchild as an EOD technician.

One of his duties in Iraq was disabling IEDs, which have proven to be among the most deadly tactics employed by terrorists and insurgents against American forces on the ground.

The unit Sergeant Hernandez was deployed with responded to one of the busiest area of operations in Iraq, covering some 500 square miles surrounding and including Baghdad International Airport. While in Iraq, Sergeant Hernandez and his team safely resolved 437 EOD emergency response missions. The sergeant personally led 93 missions, often under direct attack. Of the 437 total missions, 226 of those were responding to IEDs.

It was on just such a mission to disable IEDs on a road that Sergeant Hernandez found himself in one of the most perilous situations of his deployment, he said.

He and one other EOD technician were clearing a series of three IEDs within a 100-meter stretch of road, and while working the second IED, a mortar launched against his team landed 10 meters away.

"It gets you moving," he said. "We knew we had to keep going, had to clear the way to get everyone through."

To exacerbate the situation, one of the soldiers in their security detail discovered wires coming out of the ground in a fourth location, near the other three, which they suspected may be another IED. They investigated and the wires proved harmless, but it still served to momentarily redirect their mission.

That was a long day, he said, but others were even longer. He and his team once worked what turned into a 27-hour day.

The EOD response teams - usually made up of two or three people - were always accompanied by Army security details to protect the ordnance disposal teams while they did their work. For every one EOD vehicle, there would be several Army vehicles for protection.

"We had good rapport with the Army. We had a good working relationship," Sergeant Hernandez said. "It got to the point where they knew what we needed and could adjust accordingly."

Often when they had downtime in the evenings, they would invite the Soldiers over to barbecue with them. The Soldiers were from all different career fields, pulled to Iraq to do security, Sergeant Hernandez said.

Army Commendation Medal-winner Airman Smith was also at those barbecues with the Soldiers.

Originally from central Massachusetts, Airman Smith has been at Fairchild 4 ½ years. This most recent deployment was his second as an EOD technician. The first time, he was deployed to Kuwait, but forward-deployed to Balad Air Base, Iraq, for about 30 days. This time, like Sergeant Hernandez, he spent most of his time in Baghdad in support of the Army's 101st Airborne Division, doing off-base missions to safely detonate IEDs and weapons caches.

One cold, rainy day his team was investigating a weapons cache buried on a farm. One of the Humvees in front of his vehicle was parked near the edge of a dirt road. The driver of the Humvee tried to accelerate, but instead the vehicle flipped over and fell into the water-filled canal beside the road.

"When it rains there, the mud is like ice," Airman Smith said. "The dirt is clay and the top layer gets very slick."

Airman Smith jumped out of his own vehicle and, along with other troops on the scene, jumped in the waist-deep water and pulled the vehicle's occupants to safety. It is for this act of heroism he was awarded the Army Commendation Medal.

Every day as an EOD technician presents new situations and challenges, Airman Smith said. Military ordnance is military responsibility, so the Fairchild EOD unit is sometimes called to safely dispose of ordnance found in the community. They average about one call per month, although they seem to come in clusters, Airman Smith said.

"A common call we get is when a veteran dies and his kids find an old mortar among his belongings," he said. About two years ago, however, they responded to a meth lab that was booby trapped with grenades, he said.

The unit is responsible for the geographic area ranging west to the Grand Coulee Dam, Wash., east to the Montana border, north to the Canadian border, and south to the Oregon border.

"This is definitely a close-knit career field within the Air Force," said Sergeant Hernandez of the EOD community. "But it's also a career field in which all four services go through the same school - so when you see that badge, you know you can count on that person.

"It's pretty evident when you're deployed," he said. You have to be able to trust each other. We're all here to do the same thing - make sure we get our people home safe."