Two Fort Campbell aviators — one man and one woman — have been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for their role in a firefight last December. The pilot and gunner were pinned in a ceremony on Wednesday.
Captain Lindsay Gordon and Chief Warrant Officer 2 David Woodard were flying their Apache helicopter as part of an operation dubbed Freedom’s Sentinel.
Lt. Col. Jeffrey Bragg says their unit with the 101st Aviation Regiment was called to extract a group of Army Rangers. The special operations troops on the ground had been ambushed in Afghanistan near the border with Pakistan.
“Capt. Gordon and CW2 Woodward deliberately placed their aircraft in a position to distract and draw fire from the assault helicopters,” Bragg said.
In other words, their Apache was a decoy.
The commander who was on the ground says he had never been pulled from a more dire situation.
The Distinguished Flying Cross has been given out with some frequency in the current conflicts, but only a handful of women have been awarded the medal.
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