AWARDED DFC: 1
CONFLICT/SPACE FLIGHT/EVENT:  GWOT
MODEL:  U-28A

Citation:  1.) The President of the United States takes great pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Flying Cross (with Valor) to Lieutenant Colonel Samuel G. McIntyre for heroism in aerial flight while engaged in military against an enemy of the United States as U-28A Aircraft Commander at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan from 15 August 2021 to 16 August 2021. During this period, in support of Operation FREEDOM'S SENTINEL, Colonel McIntyre's flying skill and courage saved the lives of his crew, Afghan civilians, and United States Embassy and military personnel, throughout a twenty-four-hour duty day. Departing Kabul amidst the initial Taliban invasion and tasked to defend an emergency United States Embassy evacuation, Colonel McIntyre was immediately attacked by small arms and rocket fire less than one-thousand feet above the ground. His precise defensive maneuvers saved the aircraft and lives of his crew as a rocket passed two-hundred feet overhead. While this mission unfolded, violent urban warfare caused thousands of civilians and the enemy to stampede over Kabul's airport security and obstruct the runway, thus challenging aircraft recovery, and potentially causing direct impact to people at landing speed, which would be fatal for aircrew and civilians. Below emergency fuel, lacking divert options and facing a runway covered by running humans, Colonel McIntyre used night vision goggles and infrared sensors to execute a perilous and unprecedented feat of airmanship by landing between a moving gap in the crowd. Despite exhaustion, upon learning the embassy rescue was incomplete, Colonel McIntyre accepted a second high-risk mission protecting the evacuations' final hours; an intense assignment requiring full U-28A tactical capabilities. Completing the mission and approaching emergency fuel condition a second time, Colonel McIntyre again landed on Kabul's unsecure runway, taxiing near burning vehicles and dead bodies to safely recover his crew. The outstanding heroism and selfless devotion to duty displayed by Colonel McIntyre reflected great credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.