U.S. Air Force Col. Jose Cabrera, 355th Wing commander, places a new Operation Allies Refuge streamer on the 55th Rescue Squadron guidon during a Presidential Unit Citation ceremony at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., on April 17, 2026. The campaign streamer denotes the unit’s service and battle honors earned during unconventional combat search and rescue operations in support of the final withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in August 2021. (Kahdija Slaughter/U.S. Air Force)
Two Air Force rescue squadrons, which have both been inactivated in recent years, received the military’s top award for valor by a unit in battle for their heroics during the 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, service officials announced.
The 66th Rescue Squadron and the 58th Rescue Squadron were awarded the Presidential Unit Citation, the nation’s top unit award for combat performance against an armed enemy, during a ceremony April 17 at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., according to a May 10 news release.
The Davis-Monthan-based 55th and 48th Rescue Squadrons accepted the awards for their shuttered sister units. The 66th, which was based at Nellis Air Force Base, was inactivated in June 2023, and the 58th, which had been located at Davis-Monthan, was closed in June 2025.
The units are the second and third Davis-Monthan units to receive the Presidential Unit Citation for efforts during the chaotic withdrawal and air evacuation efforts in July and August 2021 as the United States worked to pull all of its troops, American citizens and Afghan allies from the country after the Afghan military disintegrated and the Taliban swiftly swept back into power.
The 355th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron received its own Presidential Unit Citation in January.
U.S. Air Force Col. Jose Cabrera, 355th Wing commander, delivers remarks to members of the 355th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron during a presidential unit citation ceremony at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev, Jan. 16, 2026. (Kahdija Slaughter/U.S. Air Force)
The 66th and 58th Rescue Squadrons were part of a multibranch task force of 176 service members set up to provide security around Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, where the U.S. noncombatant evacuation was run, and conduct personnel recovery operations outside the airport in Taliban-controlled grounds. The task force was credited with rescuing more than 1,900 Americans and at-risk Afghans during the operations, according to the Air Force.
Those units flew HH-60 Pave Hawk combat search and rescue helicopters on missions to save stranded people and helped process some 124,000 evacuees leaving Afghanistan from the airport by C-17, according to Air Force Lt. Col. Michael Dommer, who now commands the 55th Rescue Squadron.
Personnel assigned to the task force received one Bronze Star Medal with Valor, 18 Bronze Stars and 151 Air Force Commendation Medals with Combat Devices, according to the Air Force. Capt. Mark Ross, an HH-60 pilot with the 66th Rescue Squadron, received the Distinguished Flying Cross for his actions in nighttime piloting of the last U.S. helicopter out of Afghanistan over hundreds of miles of Taliban territory and through several thunderstorms.
The chaotic withdrawal saw 13 American service members killed in a bombing outside the airport, which also killed more than 170 Afghans. The effort and the circumstances that led to the collapse of the U.S.-backed Afghan government and its security forces in 2021 have been repeatedly scrutinized, especially since President Donald Trump returned to the White House in 2025.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last year ordered a new, deeper review of the withdrawal, which officials described as the “most comprehensive military after action review in modern history.” Pentagon officials said last month that it had been largely completed.
Despite the problems with the withdrawal, Pentagon officials have long credited U.S. forces with exceptional efforts during the operations.
“Every couple of years, there’s something that happens that defines the next generation of rescue airmen,” said Air Force Col. Jose Cabrera, who commands the 355th Wing that oversees the newly cited units. “Every generation has their time, and I think we’re seeing … your defining moment.”
“This will go down in Air Force history as one of the greatest accomplishments of the Air Force rescue community.”
