Eielson Airman nominated for second Bronze Star

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Zachary Perras
  • 354th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
EIELSON AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska --  A 354th Civil Engineer Squadron explosive ordnance disposal technician has been nominated for a second Bronze Star and Army Commendation medal with valor for his response after a soldier stepped on an improvised explosive device while on a foot patrol in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

While assigned to the 966th EOD Flight, Operating Location-Bravo, in the Panjwai district of Kandahar province, Staff Sgt. Kenneth Guinn and his team augmented a U.S. Army platoon on foot patrol in search of IEDs. Near the end of the operation, a soldier on the patrol stepped on a pressure plate and was catapulted into a nearby well. Guinn rushed to the soldier's aid.

"I jumped in the well and saw that both of his legs were gone and he was in danger of losing his arm," Guinn said. "That's when my brain switched off and my training took over."

Guinn and his EOD team members quickly applied tourniquets to each of the soldier's thighs and one to his arm. He later found out that the tourniquet he placed on the soldier's arm saved the limb from amputation.

When Guinn arrived at Eielson in June 2011, his peers immediately knew that he took his job seriously and was committed to carrying the mission forward. He was presented his first Bronze Star here in fall 2011 before leaving for his third deployment to Afghanistan.

"Right away, I could tell that he was a top-shelf Airman," said Senior Master Sgt. Heath Tempel, 354th CES EOD flight chief and Guinn's supervisor. "He would lead the guys on any task and I knew I could lean on him and rely on him to get things done."

Guinn's professionalism and level of dedication to his career are apparent in nearly every aspect of his personality. During pre-deployment training at Tyndall Air Force Base, he was named the outstanding team leader during the Combat Operational Battle Ready Airman course.

"He is the professional EOD NCO that any flight chief would wish to have - anything that you would desire in an EOD team-lead is what he embodies," Tempel said. "I'm incredibly proud of him and this is right in line with his character."

As a leader of a three-man team in Afghanistan, Guinn is standing out among his peers on the counter-IED front. In the first month of his deployment, he and his team found and cleared 48 IEDs in the Panjwai district, the most of any EOD team in Regional Command-South.

Because of his experience outside the wire, Guinn was selected to work on a partnership training team with the Afghan National Army. Currently, he trains, mentors and subsequently validates ANA soldiers through a number of operations to safely identify, investigate and render safe unexploded ordnance and IEDs.
Until he returns to Eielson in June, Guinn will continue efforts to make a positive impact on the mission in Afghanistan.

"I don't think we will be able to successfully withdraw from Afghanistan unless we train the Afghan National Security Forces to follow in our footsteps and independently continue the mission," he said. "I think the fruits of our labor will become evident only after we turn over the counter-IED mission, and if the teams that we validate are not successful with their mission, then we have failed with ours."

(Tech. Sgt. Beth Del Vecchio, U.S. Forces Central Public Affairs, contributed to this article.)