Pave Low Pilot Wins Top Safety Award

June 11, 2008

Lt. Col. Eugene Becker, a MH-53M Pave Low helicopter pilot with the 20th Special Operations Squadron at Hurlburt Field, Fla., has received the 2008 Koren Kolligian Jr. trophy, the service’s top safety award. Gen. Duncan McNabb, vice chief of staff, presented Becker with the trophy June 9 during a ceremony at the Pentagon. Becker won the award for his calm demeanor and quick thinking that saved the lives of his crew when his Pave Low experienced a catastrophic mechanical failure while hovering during a nighttime tactical training mission on Sept. 7, 2007. After overriding the aircraft’s flight control system, Becker successfully negotiated 90-foot trees and brought the aircraft down in a small landing zone, saving the lives of his seven crewmembers. The helicopter was heavily damaged in the crash. (Air Force report by TSgt. Nick Choy)

Related Content

US Steps Up Intelligence Flights for Border Mission with RC-135 and P-8 Spy Planes

Feb. 4, 2025
The U.S. military is carrying out intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions along the southern border and off the coast of Mexico using U.S. Air Force RC-135 Rivet Joint and U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon aircraft as part of the Pentagon’s effort to secure the southern border at the direction of President…

Air and Missile Defense for the US Is an Absolute Imperative

Feb. 4, 2025
If there is anything we’ve learned from the conflicts in Ukraine and Israel—and the growing threats from China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea—it is that massed air and missile attacks are now a fundamental component of modern warfare. This puts our U.S. homeland at risk. 

New Pentagon Report: F-35 Test Progress Slow, Readiness Below Par

Feb. 3, 2025
The F-35 fighter program continues to struggle with meeting test milestones and mission readiness goals, but progress is being made on both fronts, according to the latest report from the Pentagon’s test director and comments from the Joint Program Office and Lockheed Martin.

Air Force Equal Opportunity Programs Not Included in DEI Purge

Feb. 3, 2025
The Air Force is not shutting down its equal opportunity programs, it said in a new memo, distinguishing them from the department’s sweeping review of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. Acting Assistant Secretary for Manpower and Reserve Affairs Gwendolyn Defilippi wrote that she was issuing the Jan. 30 memo as…

Not 10 Feet Tall: Experts Say China’s Military Faces Major Issues

Jan. 31, 2025
While U.S. defense officials have spent much of the past decade warning that China is the nation’s pacing threat and its People’s Liberation Army represents an urgent threat in the Indo-Pacific, several defense researchers are skeptical that the PLA has the human capital, the structural ability, or the political appetite…

Air Force Wargames for a Summer of Major Exercises

Jan. 31, 2025
Air Force wargamers gathered in Alabama earlier this month to help leaders prepare for a sweeping series of exercises this summer that will be among the biggest in recent service history. At the heart of the exercise series is Resolute Force Pacific, but officials want to integrate REFORPAC with other exercises.