Liberty Warrior receives Bronze Star

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Kristopher Levasseur
  • 48th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
ROYAL AIR FORCE LAKENHEATH, England --  While deployed to Baghdad, a Liberty explosive ordnance disposal Airman executed more than 46 EOD combat missions, covering more than 4,300 miles and spent nearly 500 man-hours outside the base under constant threat of insurgent attack. He was recently recognized for those efforts.

Tech. Sgt. Charles Price, 48th Civil Engineer Squadron Explosive Ordnance Disposal technician, was awarded the Bronze Star Medal by Lt. Gen. Robert Bishop, 3rd Air Force commander, during an Airmen's call March 19 at the Lakenheath Fitness Center. The award was presented to Sergeant Price for exceptionally meritorious conduct during a six-month deployment last year where he served as an EOD team leader for the 332nd EOD flight Detachment 2, Baghdad International Airport, Iraq.

The purpose of EOD down range is to eliminate the threat of improvised explosive devices and unexploded ordnances, collect evidence, and dispose of weapons caches to keep explosives away from terrorists, said Sergeant Price. Ultimately they keep coalition forces and civilians safe.

According to the award citation, Sergeant Price's experience and confidence were unmatched while supervising two EOD team members.

"I had some of the best people around to support me," said Sergeant Price. "From my teammates to my flight leadership to our security teams watching our back while we are outside the wire."

Under his direction, he led his team during recovery and disposal of four, five gallon containers of homemade explosives and three gallons of highly volatile nitric acid. His team was successful in assessing, recovering and safely disposing of all hazardous items. Sergeant Price and his team directly took deadly improvised explosive device materials out of insurgents' hands, effectively saving the lives of numerous coalition forces.

Sergeant Price worked with various EOD units in Iraq supporting quick reaction forces, route clearance and weapons cache missions.

"This was my second deployment to Iraq. Compared to my first time around, I could definitely tell things were improving," said Sergeant Price.