Hollidaysburg native is awarded the Air Medal with Valor [Image 3 of 3]

FORT HOOD, TX, UNITED STATES

10.04.2012

Photo by Sgt. Richard Wrigley 

1st Air Cavalry Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division Public Affairs

Lt. Col. Henry Perry (second from left), commander of the 4th Attack Reconnaissance Battalion, 227th Aviation Regiment, 1st Air Cavalry Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, holds the citation for the Air Medal with Valor Device awarded to Chief Warrant Officer 3 Michael Leipold (third from left), a native of Hollidaysburg, Pa., and an AH-64D Apache helicopter maintenance test pilot for B Company, 4-227th ARB, 1st ACB, at Hood Army Air Field, Oct. 4. Alongside him are his peers Chief Warrant Officer 2 Charles Kojak (second from right), a native of Mountain View, Calif., and an AH-64D Apache pilot for C Company, 4-227th ARB, and Chief Warrant Officer 3 Kyle Cutler (right), Kyle Cutler, a native of Milford, Neb., and maintenance test pilot for C Company, both who were awarded air medals. Leipold was awarded the Air Medal with V device for valor for his actions during a battle he was in last July in the Helmand province of Afghanistan. As the Air Mission commander and pilot-in-command, Leipold and his team successfully engaged and destroyed more than twenty enemy fighting positions, all while taking extreme amounts of enemy fire, in order to ensure that U.S. and British Special Operations Forces could safely and successfully infiltrate and occupy the area the next day.

• Date Taken: 10.04.2012
• Date Posted: 10.15.2012 17:47
• Photo ID: 722767
• VIRIN: 121004-A-5831W-058
• Resolution: 3439x2886
• Size: 1.31 MB
• Location: FORT HOOD, TX, US