Yesterday, three of the airmen added something else to their uniforms: the Bronze Star.

Maj. Gen. David A. Deptula, director of air-and-space operations for Pacific Air Forces, pinned the medals on Master Sgt. Kenneth L. Lindsey, Maj. Manuel D. Martin and Capt. George W. Clifford III.

"You exemplify the type of teamwork that goes on within the services on a daily basis," Deptula said.

Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the 96-member unit has received 13 Bronze Stars for service in Afghanistan and Iraq. At least eight or nine more are in the works.

The Bronze Star for meritorious service. Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser

Martin, 44, who was born in the Philippines, moved to Hawai'i in 1981. He joined the Air Force in 1982, deployed to Afghanistan last March, and was the air mobility liaison officer for the 25th Division at Bagram Airfield.

Among Martin's accomplishments: coordinating on short notice the movement of 800 Afghan national army and coalition forces on 20 sorties of C-130 aircraft from Kabul to Shindand near the Iranian border last August to gain control of an airfield seized by Afghan warlords who had 23 armored vehicles and more than 1,000 militiamen.

But there were also supply runs that he coordinated. Martin said there's "a lot of fulfillment when you see the Army get the supplies it needed. Sometimes they won't have meals unless they get a C-130 to supply them."

The Bronze Star is the highest award he has received.

"It's nice to be appreciated and basically recognized for what you've done over there," Martin said.

Clifford, 30, of Hollandale, Miss., was the senior ranking forward air controller in Kandahar for a southern portion of Afghanistan.

In Afghanistan, the controllers had access to A-10 ground-attack aircraft, B-52 and B-1 bombers, and other aircraft.

"(Clifford) was responsible for leading, caring and feeding — everything — all those guys out there and making sure combat operations went off," said Lt. Col. Kevin Cole, commander of the 25th Air Support Operations Squadron.

There were about 40 squadron members in Afghanistan at any given time. About nine operated in Iraq during the deployment of Schofield Barracks units there.

Lindsey, 36, from New Orleans, received his Bronze Star for service in Iraq. He also was in Afghanistan. Lindsey, who wears a Ranger tab and is a jumpmaster in airborne and free fall, worked with two Special Forces teams and called in four F-15 fighters that hit six targets in Operation Slim Shady. The operation netted the capture of five enemy cell leaders, including the second in command for Muqtada al Sadr's militia in Kirkuk, the Air Force said.

In Afghanistan, Lindsey was picked by the State Department to work with U.S. security forces during the inauguration of President Hamid Karzai.