Honoree attributes actions to his training

CANNON AIR FORCE BASE - Thursday morning will see Alaxey Germanovich honored with the Air Force Cross, the second highest honor Air Force personnel can receive, and there will no doubt be talk of the staff sergeant rising to the occasion in a 2017 conflict in Afghanistan.

But that's not what happens, Germanovich said during a Monday press briefing arranged by the Air Force.

"Nobody rises to the occasion," Germanovich told a Zoom meeting of media. "You fall back to your training. You're going to do what you've done 1,000 times in training. For me, it was almost an out-of-body experience watching myself do the things I've repped thousands of times in training scenarios. It definitely sets you up for success as best as you can be, I truly believe."

Germanovich, a native of Boiling Springs, South Carolina, is stationed at Cannon Air Force Base with the 26th Special Tactics Squadron. He is being honored for his actions during an eight-hour conflict on April 8, 2017, in Afghanistan's Nangarhar province.

The 11:30 a.m. ceremony, which will include Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett, will be livestreamed at facebook.com/AirForceSpecialTactics .

The battle was one part of a 17-day clearance operation, along with Afghan Special Operations Forces and some Green Berets. The area was violent and kinetic, Germanovich said, and the terrain of hills and valleys only exacerbated that over a 17-day period.

"Guys were falling asleep standing up," Germanovich said. "It was getting pretty interesting. The biggest starting point was I remember sitting inside of a compound. I sat down for a second, not planning to do anything but sit down for a second. Next thing I know, I'm opening my eyes to belt-fed machine gun outside of the compound."

As soon as he put on his helmet and left the compound, he saw teammates hunkered behind a rock to protect themselves from machine gun fire raking the area.

Germanovich, after sprinting to his teammates and joining them behind the rock, starts calling in ordnance in his role as a joint terminal attack controller - basically a liaison on the ground who tells the aircraft operators what locations to target.

The group began an assault on an enemy bunker, but eventually expended all of their ammunition. The scene, one of "absolute and utter chaos," quickly led Germanovich to call in medivac helicopters. At one point, the group simply used their bodies to shield Staff Sgt. Mark R. De Alencar, 37, who eventually died of small arms fire during the conflict.

An AC-130 that was serving the group was low on fuel and beginning its departure, but Germanovich called in one more attack and it provided just enough of a pathway to the helicopter landing zone. While continuing to direct close air support, the group ran 700 meters up a mountain to the landing zone, with Germanovich carrying De Alencar the entire way.

Though De Alencar perished in the conflict, Germanovich's actions were credited for the protection of more than 150 friendly forces and the destruction of 11 enemy fighter positions. He shrugged off any suggestion he was a hero on that day.

"I think I'm just a product of our environment," Germanovich said. "The Special Tactics community is extremely proficient at what we do and what we get trained to do. If you ever placed me with any other Special Tactics individuals, they would have done just as well or better than I did. It's such a small slice of what happens.

"I'm not going to lie and say I wasn't scared, and I would venture everyone is scared. Everyone had trained to understand that quitting is not an option, and it's across the board. You're surrounded by trained, competent (individuals). I want them to get back, and I know they want me to get back."

When people think of the mission, Germanovich implored people to think of "D" and discover the person who gave his life for the mission. De Alencar, the son of an Army veteran, enlisted in 2009 and his decorations included the Purple Heart, five Army Commendation Medals, six Army Achievement Medals, the Iraq Campaign Medal with two stars, the Combat Infantryman Badge, the Expert Infantryman Badge, the Special Forces tab, the Ranger tab, the Parachutist Badge and the Air Assault Badge.

De Alencar, according to The Veterans Site News, was so beloved by his Green Beret 7th Special Forces Group that 80 of its members attended his step-daughter's high school graduation on his behalf six weeks later to fulfill a promise to attend he couldn't keep.

Germanovich, who joined the Air Force in 2012 because he wanted a challenge in his life and career, advised anybody else in the Department of Defense to "stay super humble" and never turn down a chance to learn.

"You never know," he said, "when that one piece of knowledge might get you and your teammates out of an extremely bad situation."