Two in Air Force special ops awarded Silver Star

San Antonio Express-News:

Tech. Sgt. Ismael Villegas was awarded the Silver Star in a San Antonio ceremony Monday, marking only the second time in a dozen years that a member of the Air Force Special Operations Command has been given the honor twice.

Standing before Lt. Gen. Eric Fiel, Villegas, 35, of Del Rio was given the Silver Star along with another airman, Staff Sgt. Dale Young.
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A native of Akron, Ohio, Young and an Army Special Forces team he was with came under intense fire for 94 hours while conducting an operation in 2009. He guided bombs from 11 coalition aircraft while taking small-arms and rocket fire that missed him by just 10 yards.

A citation for his Silver Star said Young's “calm demeanor under fire, leadership in the face of grave danger and ability to simultaneously conduct precision attacks ..., undoubtedly saved the lives of numerous personnel.” It also credited his actions with ensuring that a black tar opium cache valued at $1 billion was destroyed.
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Villegas survived a number of engagements over a three-week period in 2011. In one battle, a Special Forces soldier was hit by fragments from a rocket-propelled grenade, and Villegas laid down covering fire and rushed to help the downed GI despite taking heavy fire.

A Silver Star citation credited Villegas, a native of Mexico City, with controlling 40 aircraft that dropped 32,500 pounds of bombs over his 18-day mission. It also said he constantly risked his life during a series of engagements.

That included the battle in which he pulled the wounded man behind a wall, placed himself between insurgents and his team, and then provided cover fire so those in his patrol could “fight their way out of the kill zone,” the citation stated.
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Congratulations to both Villegas and Young.  Most Air Force troops never get outside the wire surrounding their base.  These guys go out with other special ops troops to call in air strikes on enemy concentrations that are attacking the patrol.  They allow small unit operators to survive attacks by numerically superior enemy units.   They are an integral part of a special operations unit.