{"id":29917,"date":"2017-12-03T15:51:45","date_gmt":"2017-12-03T15:51:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2017\/12\/03\/7-airmen-receive-bronze-star-for-work-on-airfields-in-iraq-syria\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T20:48:54","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T20:48:54","slug":"7-airmen-receive-bronze-star-for-work-on-airfields-in-iraq-syria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/news\/your-air-force\/2017\/12\/03\/7-airmen-receive-bronze-star-for-work-on-airfields-in-iraq-syria\/","title":{"rendered":"7 airmen receive Bronze Star for work on airfields in Iraq, Syria"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When Islamic State militants destroyed the Qayyarah West Airfield in Iraq, they didn\u2019t count on the Air Force repairing and reopening it in three weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Airmen operating missions out of Qayyarah, referred to as Q-West, and an undisclosed airfield in northern Syria provide support in the fight against ISIS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Almost 200 airmen worked on both missions in Iraq and Syria from October 2016 to February 2017, but seven stood out for their leadership:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Lt. Col. Blaine Baker \u2013 Iraq&nbsp;<\/li><li>Col. Rhett Champagne \u2013 Iraq&nbsp;<br><\/li><li>Maj. Jacob Becker \u2013 Iraq&nbsp;<br><\/li><li>Chief Master Sgt. Ricky Smith \u2013 Iraq<\/li><li>Lt. Col. Robert Rayner \u2013 Syria<\/li><li>Capt. Andrew Schnell \u2013 Syria&nbsp;<br><\/li><li>Senior Master Sgt. Christopher Wright \u2013 Syria&nbsp;<br><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These airmen from the 621st Contingency Response Wing received the Bronze Star Medal during a ceremony at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey on Nov. 21.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of deserving folks out there, but these seven were specifically highlighted by not only folks in the field that were teamed with them, but also leadership back in the States,\u201d Maj. Gen. Christopher Bence, U.S. Air Force Expeditionary Center commander, told Air Force Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>Q-West<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">ISIS militants had occupied the Qayyarah West Airfield, south of Mosul, for two years when Iraqi forces pushed them out in July 2016, but an obliterated and unusable runway was left behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cBefore [ISIS] left, they did everything in their power to make the airfield unusable,\u201d Bence said, adding that they trenched holes through the concrete of the runway and set up booby-trapped explosives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhat they did not anticipate was our forces coming in there and partnering with some engineering forces and opening that airfield up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/news\/your-air-force\/2016\/10\/27\/airmen-resurrect-iraqi-airfield-wrecked-by-isis-in-time-for-mosul-fight\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"201\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/download-8.png.png?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Airmen resurrect Iraqi airfield wrecked by ISIS, in time for Mosul fight<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">When Iraqi forces pushed the Islamic State out of the strategically crucial Qayyarah West Airfield in Iraq, south of Mosul, in July, they left behind an obliterated and unusable runway.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lt. Col. Blaine Baker, who was the contingency response element commander, said before his team arrived, a civil engineer group did heavy repairs on the runway and taxiways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWithin 24 hours of the concrete drying, we set up operations with air traffic controllers and made sure we set up the landing zone so it could accommodate aircraft covertly,\u201d said Baker, who\u2019s stationed at Travis Air Force Base in California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The airfield was used to bring critical supplies in the fight against ISIS in Mosul, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe knew based on the location of the airfield, which is just under 30 miles from Mosul, that it was very strategic in terms of a logistics platform and strike platform, as well as train, advise and assist missions that were going on as well,\u201d Baker told Air Force Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Baker was there for just over 100 days, and by the time he and his group left, they had helped bring in more than 340 heavy fixed-wing aircraft. Adding Iraqi rotary wing and light aircraft that came through, more than 2,000 aircraft used the airfield.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When Baker, who has been in the Air Force for 17 years, found out he was receiving a Bronze Star, he was immediately humbled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThat medal is representative of the blood and sweat that our airmen put into the mission at Q-West,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s humbling but also a representation of all the fantastic work that all the airmen did that I had the privilege to lead while I was out there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The most rewarding part for Baker was seeing Mosul officially liberated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAt the end of the day, that\u2019s what our mission is,\u201d Baker said. \u201cWe open airfields and air bases, and we were successful in our mission, but that was to an end, and that end was to support the coalition liberating Mosul.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/digital-show-dailies\/air-warfare-symposium\/2017\/03\/03\/afcent-2-star-air-force-work-to-rebuild-airfields-critical-to-syria-iraq-fight\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/air-iraq-runway-repair.JPG.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">AFCENT 2-star: Air Force work to rebuild airfields critical to Syria, Iraq fight<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The Air Force\u2019s effort to build, rebuild and expand airfields in Iraq and Syria is a central element of the coalition\u2019s push to defeat the Islamic State, the deputy commander of U.S. Air Forces Central Command said Thursday.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>Syria<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Airmen took an unprepared location in northern Syria and opened a landing zone where supplies could be received in the middle of the night under the cloak of darkness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bence said improvements were made to what was basically a dirt strip in the desert to land C-130s but also C-17s, which tripled the amount of cargo per landing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt greatly increased the operations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Opening these airfields contributed to victories in the fight against ISIS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":58431,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":67,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["your-military","news"],"primary_category":"your-military"}}},"categories":[101,16,26,67],"tags":[],"coauthors":[2954],"class_list":["post-29917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-news","category-newsletters","category-your-air-force"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"42W355FJ75D3NPZK74IEE62GIE","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-air-force\/2017\/12\/03\/7-airmen-receive-bronze-star-for-work-on-airfields-in-iraq-syria\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>7 airmen receive Bronze Star for work on airfields in Iraq, Syria - Air Force TImes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Opening these airfields contributed to victories in the fight against ISIS.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"7 airmen receive Bronze Star for work on airfields in Iraq, Syria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Opening these airfields contributed to victories in the fight against ISIS.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" 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