CANNON AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. -- Snapped awake by the sound of belt-fed machine gun fire, then-Senior Airman Alaxey Germanovich, a 26th Special Tactics Squadron combat controller, surveys the compound he had dozed off in after several sleepless days of combat.
âI look around and I donât see any of my American teammates,â Germanovich said. â(At that moment I said to myself) I need to find my friends right now.â
Grabbing his helmet and rifle, Germanovich bolted out of the compound and into the fight, where he saw several of the Army special forces Soldiers he was embedded with huddling for cover from behind a small rock.