Medevac Crew's Heroism Earns Them Prestigious Valor Award, You Won't Hear About This on CNN
Courageous rescues of comrades wounded by enemy fire have earned members of an Army evacuation team some well-deserved awards for aviation bravery.
Stars and Stripes reports that the rescues were made on the morning of July 12, 2018, when Black Hawk helicopter pilot Capt. Benjamin Krzeczowski led a two-helicopter medevac mission onto an Afghan battlefield.
It was the crew’s second medevac mission of the day, Stars and Stripes reported: They were tasked to pick up a wounded patient in urgent need of treatment. The crew was warned that they might face enemy fire in the area.
Combat medic Sgt. 1st Class Andrew Six spotted the landing zone and coordinated the crew for landing.
At this point, the Black Hawk began taking fire, but still landed. Six and Spc. Emmanuel Bynum didn’t hesitate to cover medic Sgt. Armando Yanez as he rushed across heavy fire in the battlefield to get to the casualty, according to Stars and Stripes, citing the men’s citations.
A team of American soldiers laid down suppressing fire as they escorted Yanez and the wounded patient back to the Black Hawk, which was getting ready to launch.
Just after takeoff, Bynum alerted the crew that he saw another soldier get shot and drop to the ground. This soldier was Army Ranger Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Andrew Celiz, whose team was reportedly assisting CIA counterterrorism plans to kill or capture top militant targets, according to Stars and Stripes.
Despite being under fire and already carrying a wounded patient, the Black Hawk turned around to rescue Celiz.
Bynum and Six rushed out to Celiz, finding him in critical condition, and brought him back to the helicopter.
“SPC Bynum completely disregarded his own safety by exiting the aircraft while under heavy fire to provide security for the aircraft and crew,” Bynum’s citation reads, according to Stars and Stripes.
As the Black Hawk launched, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jonathan Cole reported that the helicopter’s control system had been seriously damaged. Continuing to fly would be extremely risky, and procedures generally called for an immediate landing, Stars and Stripes reported.
But because of the patients’ grave wounds, Krzeczowski instead decided to fly to where a forward surgical team was waiting.
“Ballsy to say the least,” Navy Lt. Jack McCain, a Black Hawk pilot, told Stars and Stripes. “It was a judgment call, but yeah, I would say the situation was about as serious as you could get.”
The crew members did their best to care for the patients while the heavily damaged aircraft made it to the surgical team. Despite their efforts, Celiz later died of his wounds.
The 32-year-old mortar platoon sergeant had served in Iraq and Afghanistan before joining the Rangers and was on his fifth deployment with the regiment. His commander called him a “national treasure.” Celiz left behind his wife and their 8-year old daughter.
The unnamed patient, who was a member of the Afghan military, underwent surgery and survived his wounds, including a shot to the chest.
After delivering the patients to the surgical team, the crew headed back out for medevac coverage missions in a spare aircraft.
For their courage during the operation, Bynum, Krzeczowski, Cole, Six, and Yanez received the Distinguished Flying Cross with valor during a Jan. 5 ceremony officiated by Gen. Scott Miller, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan.
Each member was recognized for having “completely disregarded his own safety” in refusing to leave Celiz and the unnamed Afghan soldier on the battlefield.
The award is the military’s seventh-highest personal decoration, according to Stars and Stripes. It was created in the early years of military aviation to be given to service members in aerial flight who distinguished themselves through heroism in combat or extraordinary achievements.
Col. Matthew R. Weinshel, 101st CAB commander, said in an email to Stars and Stripes that the medevac crew is part of a “very special breed.”
They went out in the only airframe with “absolutely zero protection in the worst possible conditions,” Weinshel said.
It’s the kind of action that puts American soldiers on the honor rolls of heroism, and the kind of action American civilians don’t hear enough about from mainstream media outlets like CNN, that are too obsessed with opposing the Trump administration to give the military the coverage it deserves.
But commanders like Weinshel know what military is capable of.
He said medevac crews have no idea of what might be ahead of them each time they go out on mission, yet they still go.
“You do your job professionally, competently and with valor,” Weinshel said of the crew. “I am proud of you all.”
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