{"id":45626,"date":"2025-05-19T17:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-19T17:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2025\/05\/19\/desert-storm-apache-crews-awarded-distinguished-flying-crosses\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T04:27:51","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T04:27:51","slug":"desert-storm-apache-crews-awarded-distinguished-flying-crosses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/air\/2025\/05\/19\/desert-storm-apache-crews-awarded-distinguished-flying-crosses\/","title":{"rendered":"Desert Storm Apache crews awarded Distinguished Flying Crosses"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Army awarded Distinguished Flying Crosses to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dvidshub.net\/news\/498151\/task-force-normandy-heroes-awarded-long-awaited-distinguished-flying-crosses\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"\" title=\"https:\/\/www.dvidshub.net\/news\/498151\/task-force-normandy-heroes-awarded-long-awaited-distinguished-flying-crosses\">15 aviators<\/a> who helped kick off the air campaign of Operation Desert Storm in January 1991.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The men received the high honor May 15 at the 2025 Army Aviation Mission Solutions Summit hosted by the Army Aviation Association of America in Nashville, Tennessee. The cross is the fourth highest award for military valor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The pilots and weapons operators originally received Air Medals with \u201cV\u201d devices for valor following the historic mission. Retired Gen. Richard \u201cDick\u201d Cody served as battalion commander for the unit \u2014 the 1st Battalion, 101st Aviation Regiment \u2014 during Desert Storm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cody worked for multiple years to secure upgrades to the medals for the aviators, who were part of Task Force Normandy, according to an Army release.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/news\/2019\/02\/26\/5-soldiers-awarded-distinguished-flying-cross-for-rescuing-wounded-comrades-in-a-damaged-aircraft\/\" 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=\"157\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Six.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\">5 soldiers awarded Distinguished Flying Cross for rescuing wounded comrades in a damaged aircraft<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The five soldiers were able to get two wounded troops to safety despite taking small-arms fire.<\/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\">Maj. Gen. Clair Gill, commanding general of the Aviation Center of Excellence and the Aviation branch chief, presented the awards to the aviators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis is one of those truly significant moments for us, both as an Army and as an Aviation branch,\u201d Gill said. \u201cEvery one of us who joins the Army looks to those who came before us. We need to use these example setters as people we should recognize and honor and then replicate the commitment that they made on that night of January 17, 1991.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The task force of eight Army AH-64 Apache helicopters and four Air Force MH-53J Pave Low helicopters were divided into two teams for the mission, Red Team and White Team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Distinguished Flying Cross recipients from Red Team are: Chief Warrant Officer 4 Lewis Hall, Warrant Officer Jerry Orsburn, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Shawn Hoban, Warrant Officer Tim Vincent, Chief Warrant Officer 3 James Miller, Warrant Officer Jody Bridgeforth, Capt. Newman Shufflebarger and Chief Warrant Officer 3 Tim Roderick. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">From White Team, they are: Chief Warrant Officer 3 Dave Jones, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Tip O\u2019Neill, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Ronald Rodriguez, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Lee Miller, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Tim Zarnowski, Lt. Tom Drew, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Brian Stewmon and Lt. Col. Dick Cody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1620\" height=\"1080\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/CWO2-DFC.jpg.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-88141\" srcset=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/CWO2-DFC.jpg.jpg 1620w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/CWO2-DFC.jpg.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/CWO2-DFC.jpg.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/CWO2-DFC.jpg.jpg?resize=1024,683 1024w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/CWO2-DFC.jpg.jpg?resize=1536,1024 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1620px) 100vw, 1620px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Chief Warrant Officer 2 Tim Zarnowski stands proudly after being awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross on May 15, 2025 during the AAAA Summit in Nashville, Tenn. (Leslie Herlick\/Army)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The teams destroyed two Iraqi early warning radar sites 22 minutes before H-hour, which disabled the adversary\u2019s air defenses and established a 20-mile wide air corridor in the first minutes of the air campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Apache crews launched 27 Hellfire missile, hundreds of rockets and thousands of rounds of 30mm ammunition during the mission, according to the release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The citation for their awards said the men \u201cdisplayed heroic actions\u201d during the 15-hour mission, which occurred in darkness, 90 miles into enemy territory. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe eight crews of Task Force Normandy fired the first shots of Desert Storm leading to the destruction of the Iraqi radar and ground control sites and officially kickstarted the allied air campaign,\u201d the citation reads. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The aviators received the awards 34 years after they kickstarted the allied air campaign of Operation Desert Storm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":88135,"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":7,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[72,7,160,29,36],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3481],"class_list":["post-45626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aaaa","category-air","category-daily-news-roundup","category-digital-show-dailies","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"WDGLNTHEWFHJRALWB5GT6LFMQY","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-army\/2025\/05\/19\/desert-storm-apache-crews-awarded-distinguished-flying-crosses\/","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>Desert Storm Apache crews awarded Distinguished Flying Crosses - Defense News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The aviators received the awards 34 years after they kickstarted the allied air campaign of Operation Desert Storm.\" \/>\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=\"Desert Storm Apache crews awarded Distinguished Flying Crosses\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The aviators received the awards 34 years after they kickstarted the allied air campaign of Operation Desert Storm.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" 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