Gentlemen,

For his performance during the Battle for Balkans 2nd Lt. Blade has been awarded the Bronze star!

Here is the story from Capt. Neptune's perspective:

Blade was #2 under Hans, in a Strike packages going 800 miles from Tuzla, over Zakinthos to the coast of Siciliana, to destroy High value war production sites! And back again. I was overall mission commander and took AWACS at the same time. We were accompanied by 3 Hungarians from VT010 "Pumas".
The rest of the FRY pilots were tasked with seemingly usual missions, but with some diversions and special tasks to keep NATO E-3's from detecting the Strike Package

Hans had to Abort shortly after departure. TB as 2nd on-site commander had to abort down 1/3 of the ingress. This left the flight with nothing but 'wingman' qualified pilots. (I checked with TB) In addition the two pilots from VT010 were just barely language proficient.
Blade confirmed he was ready to lead the 3-ship further into the mission...

On the AAR track the KC-135 behaved strangely and the flight was unable to refuel. Blade decided to fly back to Zakinthos (110nm) for a hotpit refuel (and a piss). Afterwards he continued the last 340 to target.

His flight lost Precision steering points due to technical issues. Blade noted Target Lat/Lng's and made 100% sure his Hungarian wingmen had them re-punched into their system Double checking it.

The weather over Siciliana was very poor with a cloud deck at 20.000ft and very limited visibility, Blade (as the only one with a TGP) dropped below the cloud layer getting within Hawk engagement envelope to confirm the coordinates in their system were indeed on the intended buildings! It was confirmed and the six 2000 pound JDAMs were dropped ON TARGET.

I cleared Blade to return to Zakinthos and call it a day. The F16 would be ferried back to Tuzla later.
However! Blade merely refuelled at Zakinthos and took his wingmen back to Tuzla right a way!
Back in Tuzla, after his 4-5 hour 1800 mile flight, he grabbed a clean and dry flight-suit and got airborne to Bomb an Artillery battery found by Striker an hour before. He successfully returned to Tuzla again.

On behalf of Command,