Leading the blind

WHITEMAN AIR FORCE BASE, Mo. - Staff Sgt. Kirk Miles, 509th Operations Support Squadron receives the Lt. Gen. Gordon A. Blake Aircraft Assist Award from Lt. Col. Brian Copello, 509th OSS commander Feb. 7. He earned the award while working as an air traffic controller in Iraq. While performing duties an F-18 aircraft suddenly experienced a loss of rudder control. This emergency situation was further compounded by the loss of one engine. Sergeant Miles gathered all the necessary information to relay to the next air traffic facility when the pilot reported he was losing his second engine and needed to land within the next five minutes. The situation then escalated further when the pilot reported he was not receiving needed information from navigational aids for landing and had no flight information for airports in the area. Sergeant Miles quickly rerouted 17 other aircraft and vectored the now severely disabled aircraft for a straight-in arrival to the closest airfield. The grateful pilot stated that had it not been for Sergeant Miles outstanding situational awareness and immediate actions he would have ejected from the aircraft to avoid catastrophe. (U.S. Air Force photo/Robert Breshears)