Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz awards Capt. Barry Crawford the Air Force Cross-the second highest honor for valor in combat-during a Pentagon ceremony. An Air Force Special Operations Command special tactics officer, Crawford was assigned to an Army SOF unit in Afghanistan on May 4, 2010, when he “placed himself at grave risk on four occasions while controlling over 33 aircraft and more than 40 airstrikes on a well-trained and well-prepared enemy force” during an intense 10-hour-plus firefight, according to his citation.
Air & Space Forces Magazine traveled the the globe in 2024 to cover the biggest stories involving the U.S. Air Force and Space Force, from Ukraine to the Middle East, from Florida to California. Between regional conflicts in Europe and...