Senior Airman Chantise Epps
Combat Photographer, 9th Intelligence Squadron, Beale Air Force Base, California

During her deployment with a provincial reconstruction team in Afghanistan in 2010, Senior Airman CHANISE EPPS proved that a simple hand-held camera can be just as effective in war as the high-tech U-2 imagery she normally worked with back home.

On December 28, 2010 while assigned to a small forward operating base, Airman Epps’ FOB came under heavy mortar and small arms fire from insurgent forces. For three intense hours, she courageously performed combat camera documentation, capturing more than 600 images of base defense and firefighting efforts.

In the first two hours alone, several mortar rounds caused a massive fire on the FOB that destroyed the fuel storage depot, vehicle maintenance facility, and several fighting positions.

Airman Epps willingly put herself at risk, moving to a fighting position that had been abandoned due to heat and explosion hazard, all the while ensuring a better angle for intelligence collection. She quickly processed the imagery and provided it to FOB leadership. The images provided a crucial assessment of the damage and magnitude of destruction, enabling leadership to enhance the FOB’s defenses in near-real time, including reinforcing garrison battle and counter-firing positions. Later her photographs were used as evidence to prosecute insurgents detained during the attack, and the images aided interrogations of the detainees in order to identify other violent extremists.

Airman Epps’ actions were commendable. Armed with a camera as her primary weapon, her bravery and quick thinking were in keeping with the highest values of an Air Force combat photographer. For her actions, she was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, as well as the Army’s Combat Action Badge.