Air Force loadmasters and pilots assigned to the 816th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron load passengers aboard an Air Force C-17 Globemaster III in support of the Afghanistan evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on Aug. 24, 2021. (Donald R. Allen/U.S. Air Force)

The Air Force will award one dozen airmen Distinguished Flying Crosses and four more Bronze Star Medals for their efforts during the chaotic 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, service officials said.

Air Mobility Command approved those honors last month in a final awards board for the evacuation alongside 208 Air Medals and 73 Meritorious Service Medals for airmen who participated in Operation Allies Refuge, the service announced Wednesday. The awards will be presented to maintainers, loadmasters, aircraft security forces, aeromedical evacuation personnel and tanker aircrews, who joined hundreds of other Air Force troops cited for their efforts to remove thousands of Americans, Afghans and allies from Kabul in the final days of the war.

The Distinguished Flying Cross is a valor decoration for heroism or extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight. Many of those receiving the honor are joining other members of their crews, including pilots, who had already been awarded the DFC for evacuation actions, according to the Air Force.

Distinguished Flying Cross medals lie in rows. (Shane Ellis/U.S. Air Force )

Most of the other medals announced this week include combat “C” devices, showing the honors were earned under combat conditions, the service said. One of the three Bronze Stars includes a “V” device for valor, the fourth highest award for battlefield heroics.

The Air Force did not provide names of recipients or their units this week, saying that information would be released later.

Air Force Gen. Mike Minihan, the commander of Air Mobility Command, in a statement called the honors “long overdue.”

“I am proud to recognize another group of mobility airmen who accomplished heroic feats two years ago,” he said. “There is no clearer evidence that airmen will always be the magic.”

Aircrews worked around the clock in August 2021 to remove more than 124,000 people from Afghanistan as the Taliban capped a lightning-fast offensive to take over much of the country, including Kabul. The aircrews flew people from Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport, where thousands more spent days crowded around the small airport in Taliban-controlled land trying to leave Afghanistan. On Aug. 26, 2021, an Islamic State suicide bomber set off a blast at the airport’s Abbey Gate killing nearly 200 people in the crowd, including 13 U.S. service members.

U.S. military officials have awarded hundreds of honors to troops who served in the evacuation effort. The latest round of Air Force awards could be the final tranche for efforts among airmen because the authorities to grant those awards expired Nov. 30, a service spokeswoman said.

Last month, the Air Force awarded eight Distinguished Flying Crosses, two Bronze Star Medals, 229 Air Medals and 98 Meritorious Service Medals for those who supported evacuation efforts. Those awards were determined by an earlier awards board.

dickstein.corey@stripes.com

Twitter: @CDicksteinDC