I will start this out that I have received many awards while serving in Afghanistan and Iraq. My greatest accomplishments were when I kept the rest of my flight crew to include pilots safe by engaging the enemy head on. I also told the pilot how to fix the current helicopter engine problems so the helo did not contact the mountain we were heading toward while flying in Afghanistan. The engine was having some weird torque readings but the power turbine inlet temperatures were about the same. I told the pilot to flip the engines to ptit matching a while engaging enemy locations that were shooting at our helicopter. We landed next to the enemy compound after being engaged by multiple 14.5mm anti-aircraft weapon locations. We returned fire effectively and completely destroying 4 of the enemies big weapon systems with our 3000 rounds per minute Dillon Aero mini-guns. We have done this mission many times for three weeks straight. We really needed other gun ship helicopter assistance but could not get it due to the operation tempo. We shot 160,000 rounds over the three week period and I received the Distinguished Flying Cross (highest award in the aviation field), the Purple Heart (landed on an improvised explosive device), 2 Air Medals, and memories tgat will last a lifetime. I would never change the way I reacted to the combat operations to which I was involved in. It was an opportunity of a lifetime to serve with the memory and pride of the soldiers tgat were lost and the ones that barely made it out alive. I would not change a thing and would be honored to do it again. I will risk my life every day if it meant giving my children a better opportunity to go through life without having to go to war. Family and fellow Americana are why I do the job that I love. Thank you for honoring our service members and thank you for being pro-American. We are all family and should do exactly what our fore fathers have done before us. They fought and WON. That is why we are The "United" States of America!!!