Pilot gets second Distinguished Flying Cross

For the second time in his career, Nellis Air Force Base pilot Lt. Col. Daren Sorenson has been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, a medal for heroism or extraordinary achievement in aerial flight.

In a ceremony Friday at Nellis, Col. Tod Fingal, 414th Combat Training Squadron commander, presented the medal to Sorenson while Red Flag exercise participants from the royal air forces of Australia and the United Kingdom watched.

Sorenson is director of staff for the 414th Combat Training Squadron.

He received the award for his actions on May 25 while flying an F-15 Eagle fighter jet in eastern Afghanistan. Using what he had learned during simulated combat training at the Nevada Test and Training Range, he employed close air support munitions and tactics to save about 50 coalition soldiers.

"The ground forces were pinned down by enemy fire in an ambush, and Sorenson used the noise generated by his aircraft, in combination with munitions, and coordinated effective assaults on combatants who were well sheltered in high cliffs and caves," base officials said in a news release.

Sorenson earned his first Distinguished Flying Cross in 2003 shortly after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. During that mission in Operation Iraqi Freedom, he located and helped destroy a Republican Guard armored division.