He and Chief Warrant Officer 4 Kevin Huggins, CWO3 Robert Moran and Larry Hottot, a retired master sergeant serving as a Defense Department civilian employee, found themselves outside the massive, burning structure. Moran told Howard he'd cleared the second floor on his way out but wasn't sure who might be left inside. Hottot and Huggins checked the back door.
Then came more bangs — not as loud, just as ominous: Afghan service members hammering at the locked door from inside the hangar.
"We started using everything we could find to open the door," Howard said. "We ended up getting a pry bar to pry it open, but we had everything from knives ... you name it. Hell, I think we even stuck an M4 barrel in there at one point to try to pry it open, but we just couldn't bust the door lock."
The lock eventually yielded. Two Afghans "kind of came falling out into our arms," Howard said, "and they said there were more inside."
The rescue team entered the hangar and emerged from the smoke with three more Afghans. After some confusion over who remained inside, the quartet entered the hangar again to find survivors, coming out empty-handed but learning all had been accounted for.
These actions earned Howard, Huggins and Moran the Soldier's Medal, the highest award given to soldiers for valor in non-combat situations. Hottot, now executive service administrator with the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense (Comptroller), received the Office of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Valor.
Chief Warrant Officer 4 Kevin Huggins, Col. Donald Fallin and CWO3 Robert Moran pose after the warrant officers received Soldier's Medals for their rescue efforts following a July 2014 rocket attack.
Photo Credit: Tech Sgt. Arkeisha Lawrence/Air Force
The Afghanistan deployment, his third, was part of a Worldwide Individual Augmentation System assignment under the NATO special operations umbrella. He served as a senior enlisted leader with the Special Mission Wing.
Wing commander Col. Don Fallin was on hand to present the medal.
"While deployed together, I could always rely on him," Fallin said at the ceremony, according to a news release. "It was an honor to serve alongside him, [as] he did so many great things for our unit."
The delay between action and honor didn't bother Howard, especially given the alternative: Just before leaving Afghanistan, he received word that he'd earned the medal, then got a call while in Kandahar from an officer in the unit in Kabul asking if he wanted to head back for the awards ceremony.
"Col. Fallin put the kibosh on that," Howard said. "I would have done whatever I was told to, but on a personal, selfish level, I guess, I didn't really want to stay any longer. ... I had a roster. I was on that plane, going. I had a seat. I knew I was getting out of Dodge, and after the year I had, I was ready to go."
Howard, 44, also has been to Iraq, Somalia and Haiti since enlisting in 1991, and was serving as a recruiter in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001.
He was quick to credit his fellow rescuers; Huggins and Moran are still serving in Afghanistan, he said.
Howard's efforts, on the day of the attack and throughout his time with the unit, earned praise from a former NCO.
"It's about taking care of your people, and the folks around you, regardless of position," Hottot said. "He always seemed to be genuinely engaged in that arena."
Hottot, with the comptroller's office, also pointed out another save made by the men: They and others on scene pushed three helicopters out of the burning hangar, "saving the U.S. taxpayer $60 million," he said.
Kevin Lilley is the features editor of Military Times.
