Army Sgt. Timothy Flynn listened intently from inside the rundown apartment while a woman and a child fumbled with an exterior padlock — the only barrier protecting Flynn's six-man surveillance team from being outed in an area rife with insurgents eager to kill American soldiers.

The Iraqi civilians struggled to understand why their key wouldn't work — unaware that Flynn, a Mt. Lebanon native, had swapped their lock for a nearly identical one he had tucked into the pack around his waist, using a trade craft he learned from a Navy SEAL. The confused pair left, and Flynn phoned in the “soft compromise.”

It wasn't enough to call off the April 14, 2006, mission: Use the upstairs apartment as a hide-site to take photos of people inside the nearby insurgent-friendly, high-walled mosque during its peak of activity, the noon prayer.

Flynn didn't know it when he returned to his base in Ramadi later that day, but his team had secured evidence that would help lead to the June 6, 2006, killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the terrorist leader whose ruthlessness surpassed that of Osama bin Laden and whose Iraq al-Qaida organization evolved into ISIS.

Almost a decade later, Flynn, 35, works at PNC Financial Services Group in Pittsburgh and has not received a formal nod for leading a mission that yielded intelligence used to locate and take down one of the world's most dangerous people.

Flynn's “Team Horse” had located al-Qaida operative Ziad Khalaf al-Kerbouly, who while imprisoned by Jordan provided a key link to Zarqawi. Ziad made international headlines again last month: Jordan executed him and another al-Qaida prisoner by hanging in response to ISIS burning a Jordanian pilot to death in a cage.

“I just don't know why at the end of the day someone couldn't just say, ‘Hey, this was meaningful; this was impactful; this had a very material result,' ” said Flynn, who learned about the connection when his former platoon sergeant emailed a news story. He said a phone call from a higher-up would have sufficed.

“That's good enough for me.”

The lack of recognition is in spite of years of attempts by Flynn's superior, retired Army Lt. Mike McMahon, to secure Flynn a Bronze Star medal for ingenuity and leadership he demonstrated by guiding his team unharmed into a complex that was “notoriously difficult to infiltrate.”

McMahon, of Flynn's former 172nd Infantry Regiment, said the web of inefficient bureaucracy has been “maddening.”

“It's embarrassing that I have a Bronze Star from my duties as an officer to the unit and Tim does not for his execution of a very important mission,” McMahon said.

Of about 200 photos shot from windows of the hide-site, Flynn flagged a few of a man who stood out for three reasons: a child showed him reverence by washing his hair; he drove a white Chevrolet Suburban sport utility vehicle, far nicer than most cars in the slums; and he held a satellite phone — a giveaway that he could be communicating with terrorists.

McMahon said when he showed the photos to a special operations forces officer, “I don't think the picture hit the desk before he said ‘Ziad.' ”

The tip enabled American and Jordanian intelligence to locate and lure into arrest al-Qaida operative Ziad Khalaf al-Kerbouly, who while detained disclosed the identity of Zarqawi's spiritual adviser.

Experts say that spiritual leader proved essential on two counter-terrorism fronts: He led authorities to Zarqawi, and he helped the United States run programs inside prisons that rehabilitated and educated terrorists — some of whom had not been able to read religious texts for themselves.

“The mission of that soldier (Flynn) was a multiplier because it not only led to the death of the most important terrorist in Iraq but also to building a platform to ideologically engage extremists in prison and to transform the extreme back into the mainstream,” Rohan Gunaratna, head of the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research, said from Singapore.

McMahon, who submitted the request for Flynn's award in late 2007, since tried unsuccessfully to use state and federal channels to get it done. At one point, he was told he needed to compile documentation affirming what happened. He spent nearly two years doing so — then learned he doesn't need it anymore.

“The merit is due; it should be recognized,” said retired Sgt. 1st Class Ben Gomez, who was responsible for Flynn and 56 individuals carrying out reconnaissance in Ramadi. He said it's often hard to gauge the return on investment of surveillance missions, but “this one is clearly trackable.”

Part of the problem is that Flynn was attached to multiple units, including Army companies from Pennsylvania and Vermont, and while in Iraq, he reported to two rotating Marine Corps divisions, making it tricky to identify and locate the required sign-offs for the award.

One of his unit leaders from the 104th Cavalry has died of cancer. Flynn's former platoon leader, Mark H. Dooley, was killed in action along with two other men seven months before the mission.

The Pennsylvania National Guard does not have the authority to push the award post-theater, said its spokesman, Maj. Ed Shank.

“It's a problem,” Shank said. “We try to take care of our soldiers the best we can ... but this is the way the system is built.”

It's difficult to advance award submissions once a military member returns home from combat, said 28th Infantry Division Maj. Steven Rodgers.

“You're dealing with the lapse of time, memories and everything else that goes with that,” said Rodgers, noting some families only recently received awards owed to ancestors for service during the Civil War.

Rodgers said his office is “researching the proper process” and will inform McMahon of what is required, with the hope of securing approval this year.

McMahon described Flynn as “very fit, very smart, somewhat bullheaded.” He and Flynn sometimes butted heads; McMahon had to rein in Flynn's eagerness to venture into hostile territory.

“Tim took pride in going to the most dangerous places, the places where no one would go and that no one had seen,” McMahon said. “He had seen friends killed; he'd been shot at and blown up — he already had a Purple Heart — and he never stopped.”

Flynn said he has had a strong sense of adventure since childhood. It's a big part of why he signed up for the National Guard in 1997, shortly after graduating from Mt. Lebanon High School.

“I just was looking to push myself as hard and far as I possibly could, both mentally and physically,” said Flynn, who had been playing rugby for West Chester University when he left for Kuwait, “and I felt like the only way to go after that and achieve that was through the Army.”

Flynn, married and the father of a 2-month-old, works in a much quieter environment these days. He earned his bachelor's degree in business administration with a concentration in finance from Robert Morris University.

He credits fellow soldiers and unit leaders with making the Ziad mission such a success, chuckling bashfully to hear McMahon describe his group, Team Horse, as “electricity in a bottle.”

“The world is better without Zarqawi in it, and Tim Flynn and Team Horse helped make that happen,” McMahon said. “We need people like Tim to continue to confront things like that through very small, precise steps that lead to bigger gains for humanity.”

He added, “There will have to be more Tim Flynns in the world.”

Natasha Lindstrom is a Trib Total Media staff writer. Reach her at 412-380-8514.

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