KIRTLAND AFB, New Mexico -- Capt. Jonathan Graham, Air Force Academy Class of 1999, received the 2008 Col. James Jabara Award for Airmanship during a ceremony on the Mitchell Hall staff tower May 9.
He distinguished himself through sustained superior performance while serving as an MH-53 Pave Low crew commander, instructor pilot, and weapons officer assigned to the 20th Special Operations Squadron at Hurlburt Field, Fla.
Captain Graham is a CV-22 instructor pilot assigned to the 71st Special Operations Squadron, 58th Special Operations Wing, here.
"I was honestly, completely surprised when I (won this award)," the Moore, Okla., native said. "I've gone back and read some of the citations of the people who have won this before and I don't know that I necessarily compare with them. In fact, there will be a bunch of guys here tonight who I flew MH-53s with and by virtue of the fact they didn't go to the Academy; they aren't up here getting this award. The things in my citation and what I did were day-in-the-life stuff for (special operations) helicopter pilots over there. That's just our reality."
Drawing upon experiences gained during multiple deployments to Operation Iraqi Freedom, as well as the lessons learned from other MH-53 crews in Operation Enduring Freedom and OIF, Captain Graham developed new, detailed and realistic training scenarios and threat briefs for crews to use during training missions. The existing scenarios were outdated and did not reflect threat briefs associated with those scenarios focused on threat systems and counter-tactics that crews were not likely to encounter in the current theater of operations.
In March 2006, Captain Graham deployed for the fifth time to OIF. Due to his high level of experience and superior instructional abilities, he was given four non-combat experienced crewmembers as part of his six-man crew. Under his mentorship and leadership, Captain Graham's crew quickly established itself as the commander's first choice to lead high-risk missions.
"One thing I learned at the Academy, especially as I moved up and became an aircraft commander and flight lead in Iraq, was the concept of being able to manage your time because you never have enough," the 1999 graduate said, reflecting on the training he received as a cadet.
"As a freshman they give you more to do than you can possibly do by yourself in the time they give you to do it. So it's the realization that you have to figure out a way to work with people to get things done and figure out when to say okay that's too much, I need to give some of this to somebody else.
"The other big deal with being a freshman here is being able to operate under stress," he continued. "Everything they wanted you to do or to be able to remember or to recite, they would make you do it while you were trying to do something else. At the time that stuff is hard and it sucks, but it comes back later in the situation where someone is shooting at you and it is obviously a stressful situation. But the things you know you're supposed to do and say all just come out naturally, even in the middle of that stressful situation and that's something they do to us on purpose here. So you are learning how to do it even before you are put in a situation like that."
During his deployment, Captain Graham flew 66 combat sorties totalling 96 combat hours. He led 23 joint and combined special operations forces air-assault missions, mostly inserting American, British and Iraqi troops into hostile areas and providing air cover.
He was also handpicked to lead a mission to transport the combined forces special operations component commander on a daylight tour of SOF outposts in Ramadi and Baghdad, a short-notice mission that was carried out successfully and without incident.
On April 26, 2006, Captain Graham commanded a seven-ship assault in Baqubah, tasked with inserting 83 U.S. and Iraqi SOF troops to two separate objectives. En route to the objective area, his helicopter was engaged by insurgents armed with an SA-16. Captain Graham immediately began defensive maneuvering and deployed flares, defeating the missile. He continued to lead the formation to the objective area and completed the mission.
"People read some of the stuff I did and they are like, 'Oh my god, that's crazy! I can't believe you guys do that.' But the guys who ride in the back of the helicopter, they do all that I do and then they have to jump off and kick down somebody's door and go face to face with these bad men. We all on the flying side of it have the utmost respect for those guys and know that really our sole purpose in life is to support them and to provide them with all the tools they need to go and do the real work, which is taking bad guys off the streets."
Before departing Iraq, Captain Graham developed a briefing for replacement MH-53 crews, focusing on aircraft changes, current threat data and trends, as well as the tactics that MH-53 crews had proven during the most recent deployment.
The level of detail in the brief provided the new crews with the information they required to start flying combat missions within 24 hours of their arrival, as compared to the usual 72-hour period required to prepare new arrivals for combat duty.
During the award period, Captain Graham also graduated from Squadron Officer School and was a Distinguished Graduate of the USAF Weapons School Weapon System Instructor Course, where he won the Flying Award for exceptional instruction during 22 training sorties.