The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 2, 1926, takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Flying Cross to Staff Sergeant Shelton J. Nunez, III, United States Air Force, for extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight as MH-53M Aerial Gunner, Air Force Special Operations Detachment Kandahar, Joint Special Operations Air Component, Special Operations Command Central, in support of Operation Enduring Freedom near Jalalabad, Afghanistan from 26 May 2002 to 28 May 2002. During this period Sergeant Nunez performed exemplarily as aerial gunner of a crew tasked with recovering an MH-53M helicopter that had crashed behind enemy lines in territory controlled by elements of the Taliban and Al Qaeda terrorist network. This five-hour mission that spanned the course of three nights required Sergeant Nunez’s crew to fly into hostile territory to the crash site, repair the aircraft and fly back to a coalition base. Sergeant Nunez worked diligently with his pilots in developing the plans for threat degradation and evasion. Despite a volley of harassing mortar fire at the objective, he immediately stepped forward and worked to devise a plan to remove and replace the damaged blades, securing them to the main rotor head. He and his counterpart, in a spectacular display of ingenuity and improvisation, utilized a painter’s ladder an sheer brute strength coupled with absolute force of will to life the 320 pound rotor blades over eighteen feet in the air. Sergeant Nunez struggled to hold the blade stable while maintenance recovery team members waiting atop the helicopter attached them to the main rotor head. If not for the herculean efforts of Sergeant Nunez, the mission would have ben put in serious jeopardy and the aircraft most certainly would have fallen into enemy hands. With the limited repairs completed, the crew flew direct to Bagram Air Base and after a minimum rest, continued the mission to Kandahar. Darkness, combined with dust storms of incredible magnitude, dropped visibility to zero. Sergeant Nunez’s steady calls to his pilots save the aircraft and crew by bringing attention to the unusual attitudes induced by spatial disorientation. His valiant performance and tremendous awareness under pressure guaranteed success on this, the first battlefield recovery of an aircraft undertaken by the Air Force since the Vietnam War. The professional competence, aerial skill and devotion to duty displayed by Sergeant Nunez reflect great credit upon himself and upheld the highest traditions of the United States Air Force.