December 2022 — MHCE Newsletter

WWW.MHCE.US Monthly Newsletter | 29
October. "We're making that
landed with 271," Adams
airport's Abbey Gate on Aug.
Brown said during the
right, and we've worked
said in a press release last
26, 2021, killing 13 troops
ceremony that Orellana's
with our partners across
year.
-- 11 Marines, a sailor and a
award was the first
the Air Force to ensure
AMC is able to swiftly and
effectively recognize our
mobility warriors."
A spokesman for Air
Mobility Command told
Military.com that about
half of the 96 Distinguished
soldier; wounding more than
20 other troops; and killing
or wounding hundreds of
Afghans.
Distinguished Flying Cross
he had presented during his
career.
More awards outside of the
The baby born during
Flying Crosses still need to
Orellana was among the first
nearly 100 announced in
the C-17 flight was one
be awarded.
to respond to the casualties at
October are still on the way.
of several children who
were delivered during the
Afghanistan evacuation.
On Aug. 23, 2021, while in
a holding pattern waiting to
land after evacuating Kabul,
Conner received a report
from loadmaster Schmidt
that there was a woman in
distress who shut herself in
the lavatory.
Green, an Air Force flight
nurse, discovered the
Most recently, Air Force
Chief of Staff Gen. Charles
"CQ" Brown Jr. visited the
375th Air Mobility Wing
at Scott Air Force Base
in Illinois on Thursday to
present the Distinguished
Flying Cross to Tech. Sgt.
Katherine Rosa Orellana.
The Afghanistan evacuation
effort saw the final U.S.
casualties of the war when a
suicide bomber struck at the
Hamid Karzai International
Airport that day, and she
helped evacuate and save the
lives of 22 service members
and refugees over an eighthour
period.
"I joined the team a week
prior and had to trust they
knew what they were doing,
and when we went in, we just
did our jobs," Orellana said
in a Thursday press release.
"And we did really well."
Air Mobility Command said
350 additional individual
awards were approved for
Operation Allies Refuge,
and individual commanders
have approved more than
4,500 medals that didn't
require a board review
for Mobility Air Forces
airmen who supported the
operation.
woman in the bathroom
was in labor. At about 1,000
feet in the air, Schmidt and
Green began to help her
give birth.
"The baby was perfect! ... a
little bit small; it definitely
didn't make it full term,
but it came out crying,"
Green said in a press release
describing the incident
last year. "She [the baby]
seemed to be doing well in
this world."
Adams, who was helping to
pilot the plane, said Conner
made one of the smoothest
landings he ever saw after
the baby was born.
"Someone said, 'We took off
with 270 children, and we