Kadena Airman receives Distinguished Flying Cross

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Brooke P. Beers
  • 18th WG/Public Affairs
KADENA AIR BASE, Japan --  Test taking can be a very stressful situation for anyone. Sitting in a quiet room listening to other people quickly scratch away at their papers while fumbling on calculations and questions for what seems to be an eternity.

For U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Scott Lagerveld, 33rd Rescue Squadron flight engineer, doing calculations under pressure is normal, but it's not failing a class he's worried about. It's saving people's lives.

"We don't do our job for medals or awards," Lagerveld said. "We do it for the guys on the ground."

In the summer of 2010, Lagerveld was deployed to Afghanistan along with other members of the 33rd RQS and pararescuemen from the Alaska National Guard. They were a search and rescue team that dealt with patient transfers and supported direct operations.

The terrain around them was mountainous with some points ranging from 7,000-10,000 feet, some even 45 degrees up. It was very rugged with one road for the small village.
Flight engineers do calculations to see how many people they can take and with how much fuel. When the pilots would give Lagerveld the altitude he would then calculate how many people they could take with minimal gas.

"It's not like you end your training and then end up in this situation," Lagerveld said. "If you can't think of anything else, you go back to what you're initially taught."

On June 27, Lagerveld and his crew were back at Bagram Airfield waiting for a call when they heard heavy gun fire. They knew there were probably troops in contact.

"We know its coming; we just don't know when the call is," Lagerveld said.

The crew started mulling around and getting their gear on.

"At the beginning of the operation you don't really know how it's going to be," he said. Little did Lagerveld and the crew know, they were about to participate in eight non-stop casualty evacuation missions that day, ultimately leading to Lagerveld and four other crew members receiving Distinguished Flying Cross medals.

When most people take tests, it normally last 45 minutes to an hour. For Lagerveld, his test that day was nearly seven hours. The crew's safety for each location depended on his calculations of aircraft performance.

One casualty evacuation in particular was of an Army Officer who had fallen 200 feet off of a ridge line. At the 200-foot marking point they saw the soldier's gear but he had actually rolled down another 30 to 40 meters.

Normally they would get both pararescuemen on the ground, stabilize the patient and hoist them up on a litter, but with enemy in the area they had to save him.
The plan was to have one pararescueman sent down the 45 to 50 feet to retrieve the soldier while Lagerveld performed the hoist. The first and last 20 feet of the rope is orange. As soon as the first orange part left Lagerveld's hands they were under fire.

"I told the pilot we were under fire, and he asked how effective it was (the gun fire)," Lagerveld recalls. "'It's pretty effective,' I said." Lagerveld needed just 45 more seconds to pull them up.

When they got to the soldier he was conscious, so they decided to go with a strop which requires the patient to hold his or her arms down. But when the Army officer realized he was finally in safe hands, his body gave up on him and he passed out. This made it extremely hard for the pararescueman to pull him up because he had to bear hug him to keep him from falling. It took a couple of tries but they finally pulled him up.

Due to Lagerveld's extreme discipline and actions, he was able to help in the recovery of 13 United States soldiers and coalition forces that day, which earned him the Distinguished Flying Cross.