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Vietnam
Last Update:
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Site Mission: Provide Pararescue
and Air Rescue History
Airman's or Soldier's Medal Recipients
Attention to orders. Citation to accompany the award of the Airman's Medal to Technical Sergeant John D. Willis
Technical Sergeant John D. Willis distinguished himself by heroism involving voluntary risk of life at the World Trade Center, New York City, New York, from 14 September 2001 to 27 September 2001. During this time, despite life-threatening conditions in extremely dangerous and unstable collapsed structures and subway tunnels located six stories beneath the World Trade Center facilities, Sergeant Willis continuously placed himself in harm’s way, tirelessly searching for survivors of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attack. Working deep beneath the wreckage, under constant threat of collapse, fire, secondary explosions, toxic smoke and dust, Sergeant Willis led a Federal Emergency Management Agency search team down six levels of collapsed voids to search a caved-in and flooded portion of the subway system. He also recovered seized narcotics from a collapsed United States Customs evidence vault with an estimated street value of more than two million dollars. In addition, Sergeant Willis assisted the United States Secret Service to recover weapons, sensitive communications equipment, and also discovered over 1.5 million dollars in United States Bearer Bonds and fifty thousand dollars worth of gold jewelry. His heroic efforts directly facilitated the search and recovery of numerous victims of the terrorist attack. By his courageous action and humanitarian regard for his fellow man, Sergeant Willis has reflected great credit on himself and the United States Air Force.