A decorated Air Force officer was sentenced Friday to five years in prison on child pornograpy charges.

Mark Visconi, 48, of Fairfax is a colonel in the Air Force and a pilot who has won the Bronze Star and numerous other awards.

He pleaded guilty in October to receipt of child pornography. Prosecutors say he downloaded numerous images of preteen girls from the Internet, and he also took hundreds of images on his own phone focused on the clothed buttocks of minor girls.

The five-year sentence imposed Friday in federal court in Alexandria by Judge T.S. Ellis III is less than the 10-year sentence sought by prosecutors.