The Air Force presented the Lance P. Sijan Leadership Award to four airmen at the Pentagon on May 26, recognizing them as the service’s top leaders across its officer and enlisted ranks.
Gen. Ken Wilsbach, the Air Force chief of staff, hosted the ceremony in the Pentagon’s Hall of Heroes. Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force David Wolfe also attended the event.
The annual award, established in 1981, is named for Capt. Lance P. Sijan, the first and only Air Force Academy graduate to receive the Medal of Honor. Each year, the service selects one senior officer, one junior officer, one senior enlisted member and one junior enlisted member who best exemplify leadership in their professional and personal lives.
The 2026 Recipients
Maj. Joshua Goliber won the senior officer category. He served as chief of the advanced training division for Air Forces Central, where he led more than 30 security cooperation events across 13 partner nations.
Goliber also served as an F-16 exchange pilot embedded with the United Arab Emirates’ Shaheen squadron, where he trained partner-nation aviators and flew combat air power missions across the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility.
Capt. Megan Langas earned the junior officer award. An F-16 electronic combat pilot, she commanded a flight of 17 pilots in the 55th Fighter Squadron at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., even leading them through 13 combat sorties. Her crews earned more than 15 Combat Action Medals.
Langas also received the Distinguished Flying Cross earlier this month for flying during Operation Midnight Hammer, the June 2025 U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities. She was one of six pilots from the 55th Fighter Squadron decorated for the mission.
Chief Master Sgt. William Brakebill took the senior enlisted category. While assigned to the 3rd Special Operations Squadron, he managed 1,400 personnel during the wing’s largest deployment ever.
Air Force Special Operations Command also named him its 2024 Staff Sgt. Henry E. “Red” Erwin Outstanding Enlisted Aviator, one of the highest recognitions for enlisted aircrew in the Air Force. He was also part of the team that won the General Welsh Total Force Integration Team of the Year recognition.
Master Sgt. Steven Nelson received the junior enlisted award. At the 1st Special Operations Support Squadron, Nelson served as flight chief and wing SERE superintendent, where he managed the service’s largest operational survival, evasion, resistance and escape flight and directed training and deployments across the globe.
His overhaul of career field training standards set a new service-wide benchmark, reshaping how the Air Force prepares airmen to survive and return from hostile environments.
“The Airmen we recognize today have demonstrated exceptional leadership through mission accomplishment, problem solving, perseverance and service to others,” Wilsbach said. “Each of you has made an impact on your units, your teammates and the mission. Your actions strengthened readiness and helped generate combat power for our Air Force.”
The Award’s Namesake
Sijan, a 1965 Air Force Academy graduate from Milwaukee, Wis., flew F-4 Phantoms with the 480th Tactical Fighter Squadron at Da Nang Air Base in South Vietnam. On Nov. 9, 1967, during his 52nd combat mission, he was shot down over Laos while bombing the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The crash left him with a skull fracture, a mangled hand and a compound fracture in his left leg.
With no food, no survival gear and injuries that left him unable to walk, Sijan fashioned a makeshift crutch and dragged himself through the jungle for 46 days. The North Vietnamese captured him on Christmas Day 1967.
Even in captivity, Sijan continued to resist. He overpowered a guard and escaped into the jungle before being recaptured hours later. He was held alongside fellow prisoners, Maj. Robert Craner and Capt. Guy Gruters and eventually transferred to Hoa Lo Prison in Hanoi. Despite severe torture, he never divulged any information to his captors.
Sijan contracted pneumonia in the damp cells and died on Jan. 22, 1968, at age 25. Fellow prisoners later said he never once complained about his injuries, even as he drifted in and out of consciousness. They further noted that he kept planning ways to escape until the very end. Craner and Gruters carried his story out of the prison camps when most American POWs were released in 1973.
Sijan was posthumously promoted to captain. President Gerald Ford presented the Medal of Honor to his parents, Sylvester and Jane Sijan, on March 4, 1976, making him the first Academy graduate to receive the decoration. He remains the only academy graduate to ever receive the award. A dormitory at the Air Force Academy, Sijan Hall, was dedicated in his name later that year.
Military training programs still highlight his story as a prime example of how American prisoners of war should uphold the Code of Conduct.
Sijan’s Sister Addresses the Recipients
Sijan’s younger sister, Janine Sijan, attended the ceremony and spoke directly to the four recipients. For years, she has attended the annual ceremony to ensure the airmen who carry her brother’s name know who he was and what he endured.
“Grief changes shape through the years,” Janine said. “Love endures and stays steadfast and constant. Once I learned to overcome my grief, I knew what I needed to do. I needed to continue to share his story, continue (to myself) think if he could do that, I could do ‘this.’ What is your ‘this? Every day your ‘this’ will change in small, medium and large ways, but I ask you to consider if he could do that, then I can do ‘this.'”
Wilsbach opened his remarks by drawing a direct line between the award’s namesake and what the Air Force expects of its leaders today.
“Captain Lance Sijan represents the very best of what it means to serve in the Profession of Arms,” Wilsbach said. “His legacy is still so impactful because the qualities he lived by are the same qualities we want the Airmen in our Air Force to embody today. He lived the Code of Conduct. He resisted by every means available, continually looked for opportunities to escape, and refused special favors from the enemy. And through these challenges, Captain Sijan remained committed to his fellow Airmen and to his country.”
He closed the ceremony with a final message to the recipients.
“To have your name associated with one of the greatest heroes in Air Force history is one of the highest honors our service can give you,” he said. “Leaders like you ensure that legacy continues and help keep the United States Air Force the most capable and respected force in the world.”
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