Liverpool Air National Guard pilot honored for bravery in during Afghan evacuation effort

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Capt. Matthew McChesney

NEWBURGH, NEW YORK (05/31/2022) (readMedia)-- New York Air National Guard Capt. Matthew McChesney, a Liverpool resident, will receive the Distinguished Flying Cross during a ceremony on Saturday, June 4 at Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh, New York.

'McChesney, a C-17 instructor pilot and assistant flight commander in the 105th Airlift Wing, is being honored for his valor and professional skill during an August 16, 2021 mission to Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan.

In civilian life he is a pilot for Delta Airlines.

This was one of the first missions flown in support of Operation Allies Refuge, the effort to evacuate Afghans before Kabul fell to the Taliban.

The Distinguished Flying Cross is awarded for heroism or extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight. It is the nation's highest award for aerial achievement.

The other five Airmen in the crew will be awarded the Air Medal with the C device to denote that he award is being presented for a combat mission.

"We could not be more proud of our Airmen. They executed their missions with the highest degree of professionalism and compassion upholding our Air Force and American values, said Col. Gary Charlton II, the commander of the 105th Airlift Wing.

"When faced with up unprecedented or unforeseeable challenges, their training, leadership, and perseverance enabled them to successfully complete their mission," he said

McChesney, and his crew of five Air Guard Airmen-- two other pilots and three enlisted loadmasters--exhibited personal courage and overcame obstacles in order to fly into the blacked out airport using night vision goggles and not knowing if the Taliban would open fire on them.

They were delivering a vitally needed MH-47 special operations helicopter and 22 Soldiers to U.S. commanders on the ground , according to the Air Force.

The helicopter was being shipped in to evacuate Americans, coalition personnel, and Afghan allies from isolated areas. At least two of these specially designed helicopters were required and one had already been landed.

According to his citation, on the morning of the planned flight from Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates to Kabul, live television reports revealed that Taliban forces had breached the airport as panicked civilians flooded the runways closing the airfield.

Because there was no good intelligence on what was happening on the ground, McChesney asked the MH-47 pilotxs to use their special operations channels to find out what he could expect. He also sought to get as much fuel for his plane and tried to arrange air-to-air refueling, according to the Air Force citation.

While enroute to Kabul, McChesney and his crew passed a half-dozen C-17's unable to land at Kabul due to airfield closure, enemy activity, or minimum fuel.

Within the vicinity of the airfield, and under cover of night, McChesney expertly navigated mountainous terrain, no air traffic control, and diverse uncontrolled aircraft departures, his citation says.

Ground controller communication was only available within ten miles of the airport. This made aircraft vulnerable to surface-to-air threats, the citation says.

The crew orbited in the threat zone as long as they could hoping to land with their critical cargo. They finally reached the minimum fuel level needed to return to base safely and were forced to divert.

During the flight back from Kabul, and on their own, they made every attempt to secure air refueling and found a KC-10 that could give them enough fuel to attempt another return.

"Unwilling to fail, Captain McChesney coordinated for the tanker to fly formation back to Kabul so they could retain air refueling capability, increasing their chance of success. The crew remained cutoff from command and control as they approached the closed field, still under the siege of panicked civilians amid continued gunfire reports," the citation says.

"They created an ad hoc orbit and performed an additional air refueling to give their critical cargo more time, then ingressed Kabul, sustaining battle damage to the left wing during final approach," according to the citation.

" Upon landing they were confronted with twelve heavily armed Taliban vehicles that escorted them to the Allied side of the airfield. The crew masterfully offloaded the vital cargo in an unprecedented forty minutes, enabling the evacuation mission," according to the Air Force.

"The professional competence, aerial skill, and devotion to duty displayed by Captain McChesney under extremely hazardous and hostile conditions reflect great credit upon himself and the United States Air Force," the citation concludes.

McChesney was commissioned into the United States Air Force through ROTC at Clarkson University in 2014 and then joined the New York Air National Guard. In 2016 he attended flight training.

He became an aircraft commander I the 105th Airlift Wing's 137th Airlift Squadron in 2019 .

In August 2020, he volunteered for a mission at Ramstein Air Base in Germany in support of the Air Force response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In this role he flew C-17 missions throughout Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, transporting patients with severe COVID-19 symptoms back to U.S. healthcare facilities in Europe for five months.

McChesney has over 2,600 total hours and over 700 combat hours flying C-17s.

He has been involved in a wide spectrum of operations including multiple hurricane relief missions, contingency operations in the Middle East, and aeromedical evacuation missions.

His awards also include the Air Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, and the Humanitarian Service Medal