High-risk pilot wins AFA's top airmanship honor

Flying low and comparatively slow over the deserts of Iraq earned Capt. Jonathan Graham the Air Force Academy's top airmanship award this month.

Graham, an academy graduate, flew special operations missions aboard the MH-53 helicopter during five deployments to Iraq that started with the 2003 invasion. Those missions involved flying at rooftop height to insert highly trained troops into enemy-held territory to kill or capture enemy fighters.

Graham also flew resupply missions to haul equipment and food to isolated bases around Iraq.

"We tended to get shot at more during those resupply runs," said Graham, a married father who now teaches pilots to fly the tiltrotor CV-22 Osprey at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M.

The award given Graham is named for Col. James Jabara, the first ace of the jet-fighter era, who shot down fifteen enemy planes during the Korean War. It has been awarded by the academy since 1968 to recognize aerial skill and heroism.

Commanders wrote in a citation that went with the award that Graham's leadership skills and bravery made him stand out

"During his fifth deployment to Iraq, he and his largely inexperienced crew quickly established themselves as the commander's first choice to lead high-risk missions," the citation said. "In 2006, he flew 66 combat sorties encompassing 96 combat hours. He led 23 joint and combined special operations forces air-assault missions, mostly inserting American, British and Iraqi troops into hostile areas and providing air cover."

On April 26, 2006, Graham led seven aircraft in an assault on insurgents in Baqouba, inserting 83 allied troops.

On the way in, Graham's MH-53 Pave Low, the military's largest single-rotor helicopter, was targeted by enemies with an SA-16 Russianbuilt anti-aircraft missile.

Graham whipped his chopper through the sky to dodge the missile while firing off flares to counteract its heat-seeking guidance system. The missile missed.

Graham, for all his Iraq experience, doesn't talk much about heroism. He describes what he did in mundane terms.

"The most difficult part of our job as helicopter pilots was landing in the desert," he said, describing ground-obscuring sandstorms whipped up by the rotor blades.

Graham said he's working to pass on what he learned in Iraq to new pilots, including his admiration for the ground troops who were his passengers.

"They do all I do, then they have to jump off the helicopter and go kick down somebody's door," he said.

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