An Air Power squadron commander who led a history-making deployment to the Center East was not too long ago offered with the navy’s third-highest fight award for fight heroism that reads like a Blockbuster film script.
Lt. Col. William “Skate” Parks, who commanded the 480th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron out of Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, till earlier this yr, acquired the Silver Star on the Pentagon on Wednesday in recognition of a high-risk flight on March 27 that helped save the lives of his wingmen in addition to his personal from the pressing menace of operating out of gasoline, along with incoming enemy missiles.
The 480th EFS was designated in 2010 with one of many Air Power’s rarer and extra dangerous missions: Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses, or SEAD. As the one squadron in Air Forces Europe and Africa performing SEAD, it destroys, spoofs and subverts enemy ground-based air defenses, reminiscent of surface-to-air missiles and anti-aircraft weapons.
Whereas Air Power releases and Parks’ award quotation don’t specify the place the squadron was working within the Center East on the time, the timeframe aligns with Operation Tough Rider, a collection of strikes in opposition to the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, who had been concentrating on service provider ships within the Purple Sea and the Gulf of Aden for the reason that Hamas assaults on Israel in October 2023. Operation Tough Rider started March 15 and continued by means of April. Operation Prosperity Guardian, a coalition-led response to the Houthis, was additionally ongoing and continued by means of Could.
Parks, in accordance with the award quotation obtained by Army Instances, had been serving as mission commander for a 21-plane pressure package deal of strike plane on March 27 whereas additionally main 4 F-16 Preventing Falcons conducting SEAD operations.
“Throughout this mission, Colonel Parks deliberately positioned himself in menace vary of a posh air protection zone defending the enemy’s capital,” his quotation reads. “Colonel Parks’ heroic determination ensured mission success in crippling enemy ballistic missile manufacturing services.”
Nevertheless, this selection additionally left the plane susceptible to enemy assault and dangerously quick on gasoline. Fighters on the bottom loosed “a barrage of exactly focused enemy air protection missiles and anti-aircraft artillery” on the 4 F-16s. Going through dying from beneath, Parks needed to resort to high-stress flight maneuvers usually reserved for dogfighting.
“For fifteen agonizing minutes, with enemy missiles detonating mere ft from his plane, Colonel Parks stoically led his flight by means of a collection of high-G maneuvers and countermeasure employment,” the quotation reads. “Under minimal gasoline and nonetheless inside enemy territory, Colonel Parks instantly coordinated for an emergency rendezvous with two separate tankers, making certain his [flight’s] entry to important gasoline and stopping the possible lack of two plane as a result of gasoline hunger.”
It’s uncommon for pilots to obtain the Silver Star, an award just under the service crosses and the Medal of Honor. It’s rarer nonetheless for the award to go to a squadron commander. Air Power Chief of Workers Gen. Ken Wilsbach famous in Parks’ medal presentation ceremony that fewer than 100 Silver Stars had been offered inside the Air Power because it turned a service in 1947.
“After listening to Skate’s story, his management, decisive motion, and talent within the face of hazard, I completely consider he deserves this honor,” Wilsbach mentioned, in accordance with a service launch. ”Recognizing valor in fight issues, and it’s a privilege to serve alongside warfighters like him.”
The discharge famous that Parks had led his squadron to quite a few different fight achievements through the deployment, together with 108 shoot-downs of enemy drones and land assault cruise missiles — a document — and the primary profitable fight employment of an AIM-9M Sidewinder missile in three many years. Parks’ “progressive employment requirements” in utilizing the AIM-9M as a substitute of the newer AIM-9X; and his use of comparatively cheap AGR-20F Superior Precision Kill Weapons System rockets, designed for air-to-ground fight, in an air-to-air function, additionally helped save the Air Power $25 million, the service mentioned.
Six of the 108 aerial victories the squadron notched helped defend the usHarry S. Truman, deployed to the area with greater than 5,000 sailors onboard, and one other 5 of the shoot-downs have been missiles concentrating on his personal plane, in accordance with releases.
On the ceremony, Parks described biking by means of peaceable and panicked emotions throughout his high-stakes mission.
“That loneliness settles in, despite the fact that it looks as if it’s all occurring quick, you simply really feel that second the place ‘I’m feeling very alone out right here tonight,’” Parks mentioned, in accordance with releases. “After which that transitioned in a short time to elation. As I received slightly bit nearer, the [command and control] businesses and the Air Power workforce began selecting me up, and my requests of ‘Hey, I need assistance! We’re out of gasoline. I want tankers moved.’”
He added that his household historical past in Air Power aviation, which incorporates his dad, an Air Power take a look at pilot, and a grandfather who flew C-47 transport planes in Vietnam, added to the importance of the award. His brother and cousin are additionally pilots, the Air Power mentioned.
“It’s unimaginable, and this implies quite a bit,” Parks mentioned. “The quantity of aviation and every little thing that we now have in our household, that’s what formed me and helped mildew me.”
Current fight operations involving enemy drones and missiles have resulted within the minting of recent Air Power flying aces — a title given to these with 5 or extra air-to-air shoot-downs — for the primary time in additional than half a century. Whereas it’s not clear whether or not Parks himself has earned the title of ace, his award sheds gentle on an rising period of aerial fight that includes a mixture of manned and unmanned techniques.
Hope Hodge Seck is an award-winning investigative and enterprise reporter overlaying the U.S. navy and nationwide protection. The previous managing editor of Army.com, her work has additionally appeared within the Washington Submit, Politico Journal, USA In the present day and In style Mechanics.
