2007: OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM/MACKAY TROPHY. Captain Scott Markle received the trophy for his actions in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Captain Markle, an A-10 Thunderbolt II pilot from the 81st Fighter Squadron at Spangdahlem AB, Germany, engaged Taliban fighters on 16 June 2006, who were fighting an American special forces team on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. When he arrived just before dawn, visibility made it difficult to find the team’s location. Unable to employ weapons due to the enemy’s close proximity to the team, he flew a dangerously low pass over the area and released self-protection flares. A ground controller then asked Markle to make a few more close passes to give the U. S. team the time to create more distance from the Taliban forces. Afterwards, he strafed the enemy with more than 1,000 30-millimeter rounds, allowing the special forces team to escape with no casualties. In his effort, Markle destroyed three machine gun nests and killed 40 enemy combatants. (AFNEWS, “A-10 Pilot Awarded Mackay Trophy,” 30 Oct 2007, USAF Photo.)
