US Air Force SSgt Alaxey Germanovich: Air Force Cross Recipient On April 8, 2017, (then Senior Airman) Alaxey Germanovich was serving as a Joint Terminal Attack Controller (JTAC) with the Combined Joint Special Operations Air Component in Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan. For 17 straight days, he and his Special Forces team fought shoulder-to-shoulder with Afghan commandos under relentless enemy fire. That morning, their unit was ambushed by a coordinated enemy assault using machine guns and snip

US Air Force CMSgt Robert Gutierrez: Air Force Cross Recipient On October 5, 2009, deep in Taliban territory, SSgt Robert Gutierrez Jr. was shot in the chest during a high-risk night raid. Pinned down with his team and badly wounded, he refused medical evacuation. Instead, he coordinated three danger-close A-10 strafing runs while fighting through a collapsed lung. His precise air control eliminated the enemy just 30 feet away and saved every man on his team. For his his courage and selfless act

US Air Force Col Leland Kennedy: Two Time Air Force Cross Recipient Vietnam War Colonel Leland Thornton Kennedy is one of the rare and courageous few to receive the Air Force Cross not once, but twice. As a captain assigned to Detachment 5, 38th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron at Da Nang Air Base during the Vietnam War, he risked his life on multiple occasions to save his fellow Americans under intense enemy fire. On October 5, 1966, Captain Kennedy piloted an unarmed HH-3E rescue helicop