Shaffer
11-25-02, 10:45 AM
CAMP PENDLETON ---- The first time Marine pilot Capt. Mike Johnson got a close look at the enemy, he was flying his helicopter to an austere, rugged air base in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar.
Local villagers fanned out on foot, running in his helicopter's direction. But one man carrying an AK-47 assault rifle ran right at him. He wasn't sure of the man's intentions and he never found out because his copter was moving too quickly. "It was kind of surreal," Johnson said of his first brush with a potential foe.
On Thursday, during a ceremony at Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Air Station, he and seven other pilots received Air Medals for combat-related actions in the U.S. war on terror.
http://www.nctimes.net/news/2002/20021122/50640.html
Local villagers fanned out on foot, running in his helicopter's direction. But one man carrying an AK-47 assault rifle ran right at him. He wasn't sure of the man's intentions and he never found out because his copter was moving too quickly. "It was kind of surreal," Johnson said of his first brush with a potential foe.
On Thursday, during a ceremony at Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Air Station, he and seven other pilots received Air Medals for combat-related actions in the U.S. war on terror.
http://www.nctimes.net/news/2002/20021122/50640.html