Executed in the frigid, icy mountainous terrain of the Shahikot Valley in Afghanistan, Operation Anaconda elevated the most courageous tendencies of the human spirit, whether from Navy SEALS, Green Berets, Army infantry, or, in the case of Staff Sergeant Stephen Achey, a member of the U.S. Air Force.

Achey’s job as a terminal attack command and control specialist (TACC) required that he be on the ground in-country with Army infantry to call in precision air strikes on enemy targets. But when his team was ambushed by a hurricane of enemy fire, a mortar blast damaged his radio. That’s when Achey devised a plan to salvage a vital piece of equipment from the middle of the fully exposed battlefield.

Achey sprang to his feet and ran at top speed. He could hear bullets whizzing through the air and pinging off the terrain around him. But then Achey heard the deep, drumming sound of an enemy RPK machine gun just fifty meters away. The gun spit a lethal chain of fire that tracked him as he ran. Somehow, Achey managed to scoop up the needed gear, turn, and race back to the bowl-like indention he and the others were using for cover.

Alternating between his radio and rifle, Achey killed three enemy fighters with his AR-15 rifle. But it was Achey’s ability to calculate pinpoint coordinates and orchestrate a gunship and fighter attack that destroyed numerous enemy positions and facilitated the extraction of his wounded brothers in arms.

“It was very special to have the Army guys treat me as one of their own, but I was just doing my job,” Achey told us. “I just did what anyone in my position would have done.”