Airmen receive Purple Hearts
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- Airman 1st Class Janette Gonzalez, 96th Security Forces Squadron, receives a Purple Heart from Lt. Col. Timothy Meserve, squadron commander, for her injuries when the vehicle she was driving in Iraq was hit by an explosive device Jan. 20. The Airmen were part of a team due to fill a more traditional billet at a forward-operating base in Mosul, Iraq, but were redirected to Contingency Operating Base Speicher instead, taking on the in-lieu-of mission -- ordinarily tasked to the Army -- of training Iraqi police. The 15-member security forces team was awarded a U.S. Army Commendation Medal. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Mike Meares)