“There are guys who didn’t get the recognition I’m getting.”

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On Wednesday, a hero was honored by the United States Air Force. One of their own — Staff Sgt. Keaton Thiem, a combat controller — was awarded the Silver Star for his heroism during an intense firefight in Afghanistan in February of this year.

Thiem is credited with saving a 100-man special operations unit with “precision airstrikes”. The Texas native, however, was quick to shirk the credit for the feat, saying that while he was honored to be considered among elite special tactics airmen of the past, there are many whose courage goes unacknowledged.

The 27-year-old is assigned to 22nd Special Tactics Squadron at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington.

The third-highest honor in the U.S. military, it’s only the thirty-sixth of its kind awarded since 2001.

As Thiem recalls, the actions that ultimately led to Wednesday began when he and other members of special forces (as well as members of the Afghan military) were given a “midnight mission” to execute. Basically, they needed to secure a capital city in the Baghlan Province, known as Pul-e Khumri. At the time, the Taliban had been having its way with the area, causing power outages and bedlam in Kabul almost 150 miles south.

Through rough weather conditions and terrain the teams finally reached their target city, but soon realized it was heavily guarded by the enemy, with flooded fields and only a few approaches left open.

“We were moving exactly how they wanted us to.”

Soon, the American and Afghan forces were being ambushed. A mixture of machine gun fire, rifle and RPG rained down upon them near a walled compound, and none of it — from the Taliban’s prep to the complex nature of their attack — was detailed in the intelligence Thiem and his team had been receiving. Even worse, their technology framed them with bullseyes: the night-vision goggles allowed terrorist fighters to track them by the glowing, blinking lights atop their helmets.

The young airman had no other choice: he had to expose himself to fire in order to orchestrate air support that would — hopefully — save them.

This from Stars and Stripes:

Thiem removed himself from cover to gather targeting data for a pair of F-16s overhead. It was a dangerous close-fire mission. Two 500-lbs. bombs destroyed enemy positions just 35 and 80 meters from friendly forces.

Coalition troops regrouped for exfiltration. Taliban soldiers used the opportunity to launch additional attacks, wounding eight personnel. Thiem maneuvered 100 meters through enemy fire to account for a friendly element before calling in more strikes.

The F-16s screamed overhead on six low flights designed to overpower the senses of fighters with a jet-wash and thunderous engine roars.

In the chaos of triaging the wounded, coalition troops realized a nightmare scenario: four Afghan commandos were still missing after a head count.

Thiem, while coordinating precision strikes, orchestrated drone surveillance of the battlefield to locate three of the commandos, who were pinned down and wounded.

He led a recovery team on foot with an AH-64 Apache escorting the movement, calling in runs to rake enemy positions with the Apache’s 30-millimeter chain gun as he held one side of a litter filled by a wounded commando.

The recovery team bounded back 200 meters to the rally point, but there was one commando still missing.

Thiem and the recovery team launched one last effort under fire as he coordinated two more Apache gun runs, including eight 2.75-inch rocket strikes pounding enemy sniper positions as they reached the fourth missing commando and brought him back to the exfiltration point.

Thiem continued airstrikes while coordinating medevac support. Fourteen hours after first contact, he coordinated 18 close air support engagements, resulting in 33 dead Taliban troops.

Eight coalition troops were wounded. None were killed.

“The most heartfelt things I’ve heard are from the Army [Special Forces] guys. I don’t know that I have any words when they say ‘you saved my life.'”