CARTHAGE – Marine Corps Staff Sergeant Aaron Capponi was awarded his 2nd Strike/Flight Air Medal for meritorious achievement in flight while supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom from February to August 2005 as an aerial observer/door gunner in the UH-1N “Huey” Helicopter.

During that time he assisted in convoy escorts, medical evacuations, close air support missions and aerial reconnaissance for improvised explosive devices and insurgent activity.

He is attached to Marine Light/Attack Helicopter Squadron 269 from MCAS New River in Jacksonville, N.C., and is the staff non-commissioned officer in charge of the Flightline Division. He is deployed for his third time to Iraq for a seven-month deployment.

Capponi is the son of Carol Harkness of Carthage and John Capponi Jr. of Estero, Fla. A Mexico native, he graduated in 1994 from Mountain Valley High School. Capponi lives in Richlands, N.C., with his wife, Colleen, and daughter, Alaina.


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