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The National Aeronautic Association and the U.S. Air Force’s Mackay Trophy is awarded annually to an Air Force member, members or organization that achieved the most “meritorious flight of the year,� and for atypical initiative and resourcefulness that leads to exceptional results during combat or non-combat conditions.

Lt. Col. Leif Nordhagen and Lt. Col. Joel Bier, of the 354th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron, were awarded the 2020 Mackay Trophy earlier this year for their actions on a deployment mission in Afghanistan on Jan. 5, 2020. The airmen’s mission was to provide air support with their A-10C’s to Afghan troops, whose combat outpost was being heavily attacked by Taliban forces.

The airmen’s support helped prevent the outpost from being overrun by the opposing forces and saved the lives of 30 Afghan soldiers.

Airmen from Davis-Monthan have won the award three out of the last four years.

“Our main objective there was to provide on-call close air support to whoever needed it. Whether that was American troops on the ground or in this case, Afghan troops in need of close air support,� Nordhagen said.

Unlike the previous missions on the airmen’s 6-month deployment in Afghanistan, the airmen faced intense weather conditions in mountainous terrain.

Upon takeoff of the two-manned crew, the airmen spotted bad weather across Afghanistan, including snow and, in some places, cloud coverage from the surface all the way up to 20,000 to 30,000 feet in the air. Due to the harsh weather conditions, other crews who previously attempted to reach the Afghan combat outpost could not break through.

The weather was so extreme that Bier said he couldn’t determine where the clouds and the mountains met each other. At the time, Bier and Nordhagen were the only airmen airborne throughout Afghanistan because of the lack of visibility.

“The terrain actually looks a lot like Southern ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥, where you kind of have some desert valley floors with a lot of mountains … at least in the southern part of Afghanistan,â€� Nordhagen said. “So our challenge was to stay below the weather, while still making it up to the combat outposts, so that we could actually see what was going on.â€�

On top of extreme weather conditions, the airmen faced communication difficulties while in the air.

Since there were no American forces on the ground, the pilots relied on Afghan forces to relay information via cellphone to American forces about 100 miles away from the outpost. Then, American forces would communicate with the airmen in their jets via satellite radio known as SATCOM to keep them updated on what was happening at the outpost down below.

“You can imagine that communication chain, it takes a while and it’s kind of like playing a long telephone game. You never quite know how accurate it is,� Nordhagen said.

After several attempts, the airmen were able to fly over the Afghan outpost through the thick clouds and pockets of heavy rain and execute three different strafing runs near the outpost. During a run, Nordhagen got mud on his A-10C from flying so low and close to the ground.

“In 15 years, that’s the only time I’ve had that happen,� he said.

The weather, terrain and communication issues created a challenging encounter for the two pilots, who have more than 17 years of experience in the United States Air Force. But as two of the most experienced airmen on the deployment, Bier said their training allowed them to “fill in the spaces when communications weren’t there,� which made a huge difference in the ability to focus on close air support in that type of situation.

A year and a half after their successful mission in Afghanistan, the airmen call being a recipient of the Mackay Trophy an honor.

“It’s still a bit unreal to me because we talked about some of the guys that have been awarded this honor in the past, you got Eddie Rickenbacker and Henry ‘Hap’ Arnold, and the list goes on and on and lots of historically amazing people that have been a part of it, it’s very humbling,� Bier said.

The Mackay Trophy is permanently housed in the Smithsonian’s National Air & Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Later this year, Nordhagen and Bier’s names will be engraved on the trophy and presented at an award ceremony in the fall. Both airmen hope to attend the fall ceremony with their families.

Having DMAFB airmen win three of the last four Mackay Trophy awards “speaks pretty highly to the quality of airmen from the ops and maintenance side that are with those squadrons and then Davis-Monthan as a whole,� Nordhagen said. “We are thankful for the opportunities that we’ve been able to support our brothers in arms on the ground.�