Chinook pilot receives Distinguished Flying Cross

FORT BRAGG, N.C. -- The commanding general of the XVIII Airborne Corps presented the Distinguished Flying Cross to a helicopter pilot now serving with the 82nd Airborne Division in a ceremony here Feb. 6.

For volunteering to fly a dangerous mission in Afghanistan to aid stranded ground forces, Lt. Gen. Frank Helmick presented the aviation medal to Maj. Brendan Murphy, a CH-47 Chinook pilot and current brigade aviation officer for the 82nd's 1st Brigade Combat Team.

Joining Murphy for the ceremony were his wife, Katherine, his parents, Patrick and Eileen Murphy of New Jersey, sister Corinne Murphy of Pennsylvania and Chief Warrant 3 Eric Sikes, the other pilot with whom Murphy made the first of many flights to aid the trapped soldiers.

Sikes, now an instructor pilot at Fort Rucker, Ala., was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in an earlier ceremony.

A West Point graduate who chose to fly the Army's largest and fastest helicopter because the low-key, "more laid-back" crews seemed a good match with his personality, the six-foot-one Murphy was quick to point out that he and Sikes had plenty of help that day.

"Between the two aircraft, there were 10 people involved. We all equally risked everything to do that."

Chinooks require two pilots, a flight engineer, a crew chief and a door gunner, and each is essential to fly the aircraft, especially in a combat zone, he said.

On Sept. 5, 2010, Murphy was serving with the 3rd Infantry Division's 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade, supporting an air assault mission near Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan.

His two-bird element was grounded by inclement weather on Forward Operating Base Mehtar Lam, a condition known as "red air."

Just 10 minutes away by air, the approximately180 soldiers of Task Force Iron Gray were in desperate need of reinforcements.

"The weather came in, the enemy closed in on them, they were running out of ammunition and they had several wounded," said Murphy. "They were in a pretty bad spot."

The two aircrews volunteered to help out, consolidating into one crew led by Murphy and Sikes in a single helicopter.

"The first time we went, we were hunting and pecking through the weather," said Murphy. "We had intended to just follow the road through the valley, and when we saw that wall of rain, we knew we couldn't get through there."

Counting the initial flight to bring in reinforcements and ammunition and evacuate the wounded, the two crews made a total of six flights into the "hot" landing zone, eventually extracting the entire task force which had been fighting within hand-grenade range of the enemy and was under constant threat of rocket-propelled grenade.

Murphy, who still counts flying as his top passion, is honored to receive the recognition, but he would rather the whole thing hadn't happened, he said.

In a dining facility in Bagram two months after the incident, a captain approached Murphy and asked if he was one of the pilots that had pulled him out of the valley that day. When Murphy acknowledged that he was, the captain thanked him.

"That was one of the happiest moments of my life," the captain said.

Murphy was floored, he said. An eight-year veteran at the time and serving in his third combat deployment, he and the other crewmembers had just followed the Army ethos of leaving no comrade behind.

"It was challenging, but we had a good crew," Murphy said. "We had been over there for about 10 months at that point, so we were pretty proficient. There was no hesitation by any of the crew. It was go time."

Murphy will deploy for his third tour to Afghanistan this spring.