Good for TSgt Chapman and for the Air Force. The USAF took advantage of the DoD wide review of combat awards to justify the upgrade of TSgt Chapman’s award of the Air Force Cross. I think that his case met the threshold.
The nature of modern day air way and the technological superiority of the USAF translates into a dearth of traditional heroic actions among airmen. Most of combat awards to airmen have gone to those operating in a ground role and to enlisted airmen. Officers dominate the air combat role, but it is the enlisted joes carrying the fight for the Air Force based on their boots on the ground with their Special Operations, Army, and coalition partners. Chapman, not Grabeski, represents the modern Air Force combat heros.
Which Grabeski, the WWII pilot or the female Lt Gen.?