Just curious as to what awards the others in his crew received. They were at risk too and the gunners possibly more so, especially seeing how one was wounded. Does he just get the Purple Heart for his wound but nothing for his valor? Seems lopsided to me if this is the way it was done. Without the gunners willing to actually engage the enemy and subject themselves to return fire, all the flying the pilot did would have been meaningless.
They all got fairly high level awards but obviously not DSCs though. Hopefully their awards were upgraded as well.
When it comes to aircraft crew awards, most of the time the entire crew is awarded the same unless it entails extraordinary decision making circumstances. In this particular case, I believe the higher award was warranted. As PIC, he made the decision to use his aircraft that only has defensive weapons, as an offensive platform. A bold decision that can result in a hero or a goat, which even with the positive outcome, the later almost happened. You see, Chris was actually suspended after this, awaiting a flight evaluation board (FEB) and possible UCMJ action. His BTL / BDE commander wanted to fry him. By pure luck word had gotten out to the media and higher CoC about his plight and a possible discharge with loss of aeronautical designation, ended up being a Silver Star. So goes the crazy system of military awards.
While the PIC sometimes gets the reward when things go right, when things go wrong, they usually bear the brunt of the punishment. Example, another friend of mine had his crew chief shoot a hole through the floor of the aircraft with his M-60. He had a jam in which he decided to bring the weapon inside to clear it, resulting in a negligent discharge. Well that crew chief didn’t get in trouble, my friend as PIC did for not ensuring that his crew chief keep his weapon outside the aircraft. This is the reality of if being PIC. They deservedly get the glory when things go right but sometimes undeservedly get blamed for other’s mistakes. Goes the same for civilian ops but more so for military because of the dynamics of war and training for war.
So while I would have at least like to have seen the Army Times mention his crew by name in the article, I think the award breakdown was appropriate for the situation. I’m sure Chris would have liked everyone to get DSCs. To be honest, knowing the type of person he is, he’d probably be fine with no award at all for anyone. The impact of his actions that day was more rewarding than a medal.
Oh, something else that wasn’t mentioned in the article, Chris was actually firing his M-9 out the window because in his words, the aircraft was being “bum rushed.” Shows just how low he was and how close to the insurgents they were.
