Airman earn Silver Star for actions in Iraq

Airman earns Silver Star for actions in Iraq
Staff sergeant recognized for calling in air strikes ‘danger close’ to his position
By Rachel Young, Northwest GuardianPublished: May 17th, 2007 12:43 PM The Silver Star for gallantry in action was bestowed upon an Airman in a ceremony at McChord Air Force Base May 11.

Staff Sgt. Earl Covel earned this high honor, one rarely given to Airmen, in June 2004 while working as a Tactical Air Control Party member attached to 3rd Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group in Iraq.

“His exceptional devotion to duty and outstanding bravery proved instrumental in the detachment’s successful defense against attacking terrorists,” the Silver Star Citation said.
“Staff Sgt Covel’s uncommon heroism is in keeping with the finest traditions of military service and reflects great credit upon himself, the Defense Special Forces Group Airborne and the United States Air Force.”

Covel’s work as a TACP is unique in the Air Force, said Col. Eric Schnitzer, group commander, 1st Air Support Operations Group. TACPs are attached to Army units on the ground and accompany those units into combat, he said. The TACPs job is to call in air power if the unit gets into trouble.

“It’s a unique thing - it’s an Air Force enlisted guy, getting a medal for valor for ground combat because he has dedicated his life...to going out on the ground with the Army and bringing in air power.”

Covel earned his award while he was the TACP with an eight-man Operational Detachment Alpha team in an undisclosed city in Iraq. The team was on a supply run to a nearby forward operating base when a call came in from the safe house where the team was operating. The safe house was taking fire, which was not out of the ordinary, but the team leader was not certain that this would be an ordinary attack. Soldiers in the safe house had engaged a building with Mujahadeen fighters, so Covel’s team hurried back to the city to help.A few hours later, Mujahadeen fighters began to maneuver on the safe house compound, Covel said.

Everyone inside took up battle positions for what they assumed would be another 15-minute skirmish, which happened almost nightly, he said. Covel needed to move to a different building to get in front of his team. “I put myself where we were taking the most fire, which was my job: to keep the other guys on my team safe,” Covel said.

A machine gunner set up with him inside a copula and would lay down fire so Covel could pop his head up to locate targets.

Under fire for a day and a half, Covel and the machine gunner held the position. Covel called in air support that did runs as close as 75 meters from his position, well within danger close, he said.

“The planes were low enough that I couldn’t hear anything - my ears would ring from them hitting the after-burner pulling off the target,” Covel said. “They were coming down to about 200 feet off the deck to strafe individuals.”

Well into the fight, Covel ran out of equipment to mark targets. Instead, he got on the radio to some Bradley fighting vehicles that were in the area. He would get the gunners to engage a target, then tell the pilots to look for the building the Bradley was engaging to find their target.
Finally, after nearly two days, the fight ended. Over 100 Mujahadeen fighters were neutralized and everyone on Covel’s team was alive.

Months later, when Covel was leaving Iraq, he found out he had been submitted for the Silver Star for his actions during that fight. “I thought it was little overboard, to be honest,” Covel recalled. “Any of the guys in my job, if they had been given the opportunity to be in that situation, they would have responded in the same, exact way.” While Covel was humbled and overwhelmed by the award, his father was “bursting” with pride. Earl Covel Sr., who came from Arkansas to celebrate with his son, found it difficult to relate just how proud he was of his son’s achievement.

“He’s an extraordinary kid,” he said.