Forum: Air Power

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Air Force salutes rescue pilot

Distinguished Flying Cross goes to Boerne man who saved 2,080 Afghans.
Sig Christenson, express-news Copyright 2011 express-news. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Lt. Col. Gregory A. Roberts was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, with valor, for distinguishing himself during 1,092 rescues in Afghanistan during recent flodding.

Lt. Col. Gregory Roberts had done big missions as an Air Force search-and-rescue helicopter pilot though the years, saving flood victims from Mozambique to New Orleans.

But the mission order that came down one summer day in the war zone was as tough as they get: Save a nomadic group of Afghans from rising floodwaters in two provinces known for treacherous terrain and an enemy that has killed 208 coalition troops in the past decade.

Leading the mission with another U.S. pilot, Roberts handpicked an American/Afghan crew, and thought of a flight only three weeks earlier in which his Mi-17 “Hip” helicopter was hit by enemy ground fire.

An Afghan National Army flight engineer next to him had been struck in a leg artery by a bullet and fragments and seriously wounded. Miraculously, he lived.

“So it was with that in mind that I had some trepidation about taking my unarmed helicopter, or my unarmed two helicopters, with four Americans and the highest-ranking rotary-wing Afghan officer up into the mouth of the lion,” Roberts, 40, of Boerne said.

If risky because of terrain and the Taliban, the mission into Nangarhar and Kunar provinces just east of Kabul would carry dangers that included bad weather, fatigue and Afghan crews that hadn't been trained on the Russian-made helicopter. But when it ended, Roberts' Afghan Rescue 705 Flight saved 2,080 people, making it the largest rescue by two helicopters in Air Force history in terms of the number of people saved.

With his family at his side, Roberts received the Distinguished Flying Cross with valor Thursday from Gen. Edward Rice Jr., head of the Air Education and Training Command. The award, created in 1926, is given to air crews performing “heroic or extraordinary” deeds during an aerial mission.

“Many of you probably know a little bit about the history of the Distinguished Flying Cross. It is presented for extraordinary achievement or heroism in aerial flight,” Rice told a crowd of more than 120 at Randolph AFB. “And in this case, sometimes you have ‘and' — not ‘or' — it's not extraordinary achievement or heroism, it's extraordinary achievement and heroism.”

After getting the order on July 28, 2010, Roberts had decisions to make. The weather was terrible where they were going, with heavy thunderstorms. He'd fly with Afghan Air Force Brig. Gen. Mohammed Barat, who had served under five regimes including the Russian occupation and the Taliban.

Another Air Force lieutenant colonel, Bernard Willi, flew the second helicopter. Afghan flight engineers were aboard, but so too was Air Force Master Sgt. Kevin Fife, who would dive into the floodwaters wearing a bulletproof vest to save two children.

There had been other missions, but nothing like this. Ten years before, Roberts had helped flooding victims in Africa. In 2005, he ran the Air Force operations center in Jackson, Miss., after Hurricane Katrina, and rescued 12 people in New Orleans.

After 17 years of flying the Air Force's version of the UH-60 Black Hawk in search-and-rescue missions, Roberts was in the Mi-17. He called it rugged and easy to fly, but it had a weakness that would slow them down — it couldn't refuel in the air.

Landing often to refuel and then going back up again, the usual crew-rest rules went out the window. Roberts flew 13 hours during the mission, not counting refueling time. Once darkness fell and the copters were on the ground, the crews knew they would not save everyone.

“When we landed the first night, news reports on the TV indicated that already six to eight folks that they knew about had been killed,” he said. “So we knew that what we were doing was important, but we also knew obviously that people were in danger nearby, right now, because it was still pouring down rain at that point.”

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Forum: Air Power

Air Force Salutes rescue pilot