Three Airmen awarded Bronze Star

  • Published
  • By Valerie Mullett
  • 341st Space Wing Public Affairs Office
Three Airmen here were awarded the Bronze Star Medal recently in a ceremony at the base theater.

The 20th Air Force commander, Maj. Gen. Thomas Deppe presented the awards to Senior Airman Charity Trueblood, Maj. Lawrence King and Capt. Jonathan Bennett for duties they performed while fighting the Global War on Terrorism in Iraq.

Airman Charity Trueblood is with the 341st Logistics Readiness Squadron. Major King is with the 341st Space Wing command post, and Captain Bennett is with the 741st Missile Security Forces Squadron.

Driving a Humvee the night of Dec. 5, 2005, Airman Trueblood was returning with her convoy after performing a mission. Her team came under fire by insurgents from a village just outside Balad Air Base, Iraq. Before they could get out of the "kill zone," two of the civilian truck drivers in the convoy were shot.

"When we halted the convoy and got up to him, I saw he'd been shot," Airman Trueblood said. "He'd been hit in the shoulder and it was a clean entry and exit wound."

As she and three other Airmen provided security, the truck caught on fire and their attempts to put it out failed. She pulled the driver from the truck and performed combat life-saver skills.

In addition to her treatment of the gunshot victim, "her application of sound tactics resulted in the safe onward movement of the convoy and disrupted an enemy plot to interdict coalition supply routes," her citation stated. "Airman Trueblood's selfless acts during hostile actions saved the lives of 39 personnel."

For this and other actions that took place that night, Airman Trueblood earned a Bronze Star Medal with Valor for heroism.

"We [she and the gunshot wound victim] were reunited at a later date and I got to meet him, officially this time, and see how he was doing. He was fine and that was a good thing," she said.

Captain Bennet also served a year in Iraq in a different role than his fellow Bronze Star Medal recipients.

The security forces officer acted as commander of the base defense unit area support team where he successfully managed a 10-man military training team and 220 Iraqi soldiers in an austere and hostile environment.

His convoy was ambushed on the main supply route from Baghdad and Captain Bennett commanded his team to neutralize the immediate threat and provided suppressing fire to allow the assault team to neutralize the secondary threat.

His actions resulted in no coalition casualties.

Major King served in Iraq for a year. The 19-year Air Force veteran was cited for exceptionally meritorious conduct while serving as the Strategic Operations Center operations officer, strategy branch chief and strategic planner for the Multi-National Forces.

Major King established a strategic communications function, supported senior leaders with political analysis during the Iraqi National Elections and stood up the Shi'A Engagement desk officer function. The major is also cited for managing command information operations for more than 130,000 multi-national troops and authoring the 2005 Strategic Communications Elections Action Plan.

"Earning this medal means that the military does, in fact, appreciate the sacrifices we make," said Major King. "It adds that much more of a sense of importance to my deployment."