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Air Force pararescueman Staff Sergeant Michael Rogers of the 57th Rescue Squadron was awarded the 2021 Air Force Sergeants Association Pitsenbarger Award for treating seven members of a Special Forces team that were wounded in a blast in Kunduz province in Afghanistan during a 2019 deployment.
The Air Force special operator was assigned to a Special Forces A-Team (ODA) from the 7th SFG(A) during late 2019. The team was supporting Afghan military units battling the Taliban. It was Rogers’s second deployment to Afghanistan as he had previously been there in 2017.
The unit came through a village where Taliban fighters launched several rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) at the team as they attacked a Taliban HQs and arms cache that they had located in a former school.
Air Force PJ Earns Heroism Award for Treating 7 Teammates After Explosion in Afghanistan
U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Michael Rogers, 57th Rescue Squadron pararescueman, poses for a photo while deployed to an undisclosed location in Afghanistan in the winter of 2019. (Courtesy Photo)
2 May 2021
Minutes before a massive explosion at a school the Taliban had been using for a headquarters and weapons cache in an Afghan village, Air Force Staff Sgt. Michael Rogers and his teammate had been sitting inside, sifting through a pile of electronics, ammunition and artillery.
Fifty or so pounds of homemade explosives were scattered in piles throughout the room, Rogers recalled in a recent news release about a routine mission that quickly took an alarming turn.
PJ wins AFSA Pitsenbarger Award for heroic actions > U S Air Force > Article Display af.mil - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from af.mil Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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PJ wins AFSA Pitsenbarger Award for heroic actions
He sat back in his chair, recalling the tragic events that took place one night一the explosion, the fire, the confusion.
“The first thing that comes to mind is fire,” said Staff Sgt. Michael Rogers, 57th Rescue Squadron pararescueman, or PJ. “There were so many things covered in fuel and burning. It looked apocalyptic.”
Thinking back to a time before this life-altering event, Rogers explained he worked as a mountain guide and paramedic in Wyoming before he felt the call to join the U.S. Air Force in October 2014.
“I was reaching a place in my previous career where I wanted to take the next step forward, with medicine in particular,” Rogers said. “I started looking into flight-medicine and stumbled across the pararescue career field. On my honeymoon almost a year later, I got a text saying I was leaving for basic training in a couple weeks.”