Airman to be Awarded Air Force Cross

For a moment on Oct. 5, 2009, Air Force Staff Sgt. Robert Gutierrez thought he might die in Afghanistan.

Gutierrez and a team of Green Berets from the 7th Special Forces Group were pinned inside a building in Herat province, outnumbered by Taliban fighters and without an escape route.

As a combat controller, it was Gutierrez's job to call in and direct air support. But Gutierrez could barely talk.

A gunshot wound to his chest had collapsed a lung while narrowly missing his heart. The Special Forces team leader also was shot.

Despite his injuries, Gutierrez kept fighting, leveling his M-4 rifle toward enemy fighters while refusing to relinquish his radio.

He had to, he said. Otherwise, he'd be a burden to the Green Berets around him.

"It never is about oneself; it is always about the others first, then you last," said Gutierrez, who at the time was assigned to Pope Air Force Base's 21st Special Tactics Squadron. "I had a second to think about not making it. After that, I told myself that I was going to get up and fight. I had an unborn child to see and my wife and family to come home to."

For his actions that day, Gutierrez will be awarded the Air Force Cross this fall.

The award, the highest an Airman can receive outside the Medal of Honor, is approved by the president.

A spokeswoman for Air Force Special Operations Command said the medal is expected to be announced today by Gen. Norton Schwartz, chief of staff of the Air Force, during the Air Force Association Convention.

Gutierrez will receive the cross in late October during a ceremony at Hurlburt Field, Fla., where he is currently assigned, the spokeswoman said.

As the team medic treated his injuries and inflated his collapsed lung, Gutierrez called in three strafing runs from an A-10 Warthog, obliterating the enemy and allowing the team to make it out alive.

"I refused to give up on that soil," Gutierrez said. "If I did, I would be a burden to my team and that was unacceptable. So I just drove on."

The strafing runs were so close -- enemy fighters were estimated to be only 30 feet away -- that Gutierrez's eardrums burst.

"Throughout the four-hour battle, Sgt. Gutierrez's valorous actions, at great risk to his own life, helped save the lives of his teammates and dealt a crushing blow to the regional Taliban network," says a citation that will accompany Gutierrez's medal. "Through his extraordinary heroism, superb airmanship, and aggressiveness in the face of the enemy, Sgt. Gutierrez reflected the highest credit upon himself and the United States Air Force."

The battle for which Gutierrez is being recognized came during a high-risk nighttime raid to capture the Taliban's second-in-command for the region, according to the citation, which was released ahead of today's announcement.

Gutierrez said he paid little attention to his injuries, crediting his training for helping him concentrate on his duties and the Special Forces medic for saving his life.

"My main focus was to eliminate the threat because the situation and problem was not about me, it was about making sure that my team would be covered and safe," he said. "He was one of the best medics I have ever worked with, and I had the utmost confidence in him."

Gutierrez, 31, will be the second living Air Force Special Operations Soldier to receive the Air Force Cross and one of only five total, according to Air Force Special Operations Command.

The medal itself, which dates to 1964, has been awarded fewer than 200 times.

Gutierrez joined the Air Force in March 2002, just months after being added to a waiting list at a recruiter's office after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

He tried to enlist the day after the attacks, Gutierrez said, but recruiting stations were closed.

Earlier this month, Gutierrez was one of five service members to accompany Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on a visit to the 9/11 memorial and One World Trade Center site in New York.

Gutierrez said he became a combat controller because he wanted to make "as much impact against the enemy as possible."

From September 2009 until April, Gutierrez was based with Pope's 21st Special Tactics Squadron.

Gutierrez had seen combat on several prior deployments, but he had never been seriously injured before the Oct. 5, 2009, battle, he said.

In addition to the bullet wound, collapsed lung and ruptured eardrums, Gutierrez broke two ribs during the attack.

The months after the battle included multiple blood infections, three blood transfusions and seven surgeries.

Nearly two years after the battle in Herat, Gutierrez is stationed at Hurlburt Field, Fla., where he serves as an Air Force Special Operations training instructor.

Earlier this year, he told Air Force Magazine that he was about 98 percent recovered but still had limited movement in one arm.

From Hurlburt Field, Gutierrez is close to the new home of the 7th Special Forces Group, which moved from Fort Bragg to Eglin Air Force Base this year.

Gutierrez said he still has a close bond with members of the Special Forces team that he helped save.

"I had never worked with them before," he said, "but they brought me into their team as if I was one of them. They treated me as an asset."