This Week’s Top Military Photos: Air Force Cadets Learn to Fly, Heroes Awarded, One Rests Easy

This week in the military, after 50 years, four veterans received the Medal of Honor for heroic actions during the Vietnam War; the Department of Justice launched an investigation into "Operation Lone Star," the controversial Texas border mission, for “alleged civil rights violations, according to ProPublica; the Army cut off more than 60,000 soldiers from pay and benefits for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine; Russian President Vladimir Putin told Russian parliament leaders that Russia hasn’t "started anything in earnest" in Ukraine yet amid the Kremlin’s renewed invasion into the country; and the last member of Easy Company, the unit portrayed in “Band of Brothers,” died Sunday. Bradford Freeman, a mortarman with E Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, who dropped into Normandy on D-Day 78 years ago, was 97 when he died.

Medal of Honor recipient retired Army Maj. John J. Duffy stands with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley in a ceremony in which Duffy and five other Medal of Honor recipients were inducted into the Pentagon Hall of Heroes, at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Virginia, on July 6, 2022. (Photo by Lisa Ferdinando, Department of Defense)

Related: 50 Years Later, Four Vietnam Vets Awarded Medals of Honor in White House Ceremony

Cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado navigate an obstacle course. (Justin R. Pacheco/Air Force)

Related: Don't Call It a Flying Car: Air Force Drone Transport Develops New Identity

Cpl. Courtland Mabe, an anti-tank missile gunner with 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, reenlists in the ocean. (Lance Cpl. Ryan Ramsammy/Marine Corps)

Related: The Power of Navy Leaders -- Especially Chiefs -- to Make or Break Sailors

Soldiers sit on the back of a CH-47 Chinook during an aerial gunnery at Fort Stewart, Georgia. (Spc. Caitlin Wilkins/Army)

Related: CH-47D Chinook

Two Joint Terminal Attack Controllers (JTACs) observe bombing runs by an F-15 Eagle during a training exercise in Southwest Asia. (Master Sgt. Kelly Goonan/Air Force)

Related: He Was the Sole JTAC Supporting a Green Beret Team. Then Machine-Gun Fire Rained Down

-- Drew F. Lawrence can be reached at drew.lawrence@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @df_lawrence.