Weapons & Tactics Awards

Assistant Chief of Weapons and Tactics

Captain Benjamin H. Baumann distinguished himself by meritorious service in various assignments culminating as the Wing Assistant Chief of Weapons and Tactics, 355th Operations Support Squadron, 355th Wing, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona from 22 April 2016 to 1 May 2019. During this period, Captain Baumann led the 354th Fighter Squadron Mission Planning Cell while deployed in support of Operation Inherent Resolve, yielding 1,600 missions and 3.5 million pounds of weapons expended, enabling the liberation of Mosul, Iraq from the Islamic State. His efforts led to earning United States Air Force Wingman of the Year honors after destroying 179 targets and killing 118 enemy fighters. In addition, he secured 15,000 dollars in cutting edge upgrades for debriefing rooms across the Wing. After moving up to Wing Weapons and Tactics, Captain Baumann continued to revolutionize operations by acquiring over two million dollars of equipment to integrate video downlink, Link-16, and beyond line-of-sight voice capabilities, enhancing the safety and training effectiveness of over 2,500 aircrew and 3,000 missions. Moreover, Captain Baumann won 200,000 dollars for innovation funding by submitting a proposal to acquire radio relays to the Barry M. Goldwater Ranges, which enabled dislocated Joint Terminal Attack Controller operations and instructor integration into scenarios from a ground station with full constructive datalink capability. Further, he designed and acquired a 690,000 dollar mobile communications suite for the 354th Fighter Squadron, enabling contact with command agencies from anywhere in the world. After his selection as the Wing representative for the U.S. Air Force Mission Planning Cell User's Conference, Captain Baumann attended and directed nine new requirements for Air Force planning systems, garnering commitments from Headquarters Air Force for all nine. Finally, Captain Baumann finished both the two-ship Flight Lead Upgrade and the Multi-Ship Flight Lead Upgrade during his time at Davis-Monthan. The distinctive accomplishments of Captain Baumann reflect great credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.

Flight Commander, Weapons and Tactics

Captain Marcus G. Fairchild distinguished himself by meritorious service as Flight Commander, Weapons and Tactics, 4th Space Control Squadron, Space Delta 3, Peterson-Schriever Space Force Base, Colorado. During this period, the outstanding professional skill, leadership, and ceaseless efforts of Captain Fairchild resulted in major contributions to the effectiveness and success of the squadron's training, exercises, and deployments. Additionally, as a master of operational integration, he initiated tactical revisions to bolster extremist targeting capabilities in multiple combatant commands, resulting in the tracking and capture of twelve high-value targets. Moreover, he streamlined his unit's development of tactical experts to simplify processes to develop exercise controllers, line tacticians, and ensure squadron-wide knowledge of operational integration into the joint conflict. Furthermore, he led tiger teams in Air and Special Operations Centers to revise two expeditionary units' command and control processes which enabled his teams to immediately provide electronic warfare effects to over twenty troops-in-contact events, ultimately protecting over seventeen thousand American, French, Nigerien, and NATO combat forces. Finally, he developed new methods to provide intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance for hostage rescue efforts which filled a critical intelligence gap with real-time extremist activity and location data, directly leading to a French Special Operation Forces raid on a kidnap-for-ransom network camp and the rescue of two French citizens. The superior efforts of Captain Fairchild resulted in his personal selection as Headquarters Space Force Space Electronic Warfare Company Grade Officer of the Year and his expeditionary unit's win as the Air Force Associations Best Space Crew of 2019. The singularly distinctive accomplishments of Captain Fairchild reflect great credit upon himself and the United States Space Force.