FRIDAY FOTO (January 1, 2021)

Hard Core, Old School.

(U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sergeant Michael Washburn)

The U.S. Air Force isn’t just about jets, missiles and drones. It’s about the power of human strength and intelligence, too.

The red berets these airmen are wearing means they are part of Air Force Special Operations — combat controllers and tactical air control party members, who wear scarlet berets and pararescuemen, who wear maroon ones — in short, commandos.  They fly, parachute or chopper into hostile environments — often behind enemy lines — to pave the way for other troops and aircraft operations.

And this is not a photo of ordinary morning PT exercises. Instead, it shows Staff Sergeant Alaxey Germanovich, a combat controller with the 26th Special Tactics Squadron, leading Air Force and Army special operators in pushups following a ceremony where he received the Air Force Cross, a heroism award second only to the Medal of Honor.

Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett, presented the Air Force Cross to Germanovich during a December 10, 2020 ceremony at Cannon Air Force Base, in New Mexico.

Germanovich was cited for his actions as the air-to-ground liaison for his special ops team during a fierce 2017 firefight in Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan. His efforts were credited with saving over 150 friendly forces and destroying 11 separate fighting positions. After the award ceremony, Germanovich led the troops in pushups to commemorate the event, the firefight and the ultimate sacrifice paid during the clash by Army Staff Sergeant Mark De Alencar, a Special Forces Soldier assigned to the team in which the combat controller was also embedded.