First female pilot receives Silver Star for downing Iranian drones in large missile and drone attacks on Israel in mid-April

The Air Force has awarded the Silver Star to a female pilot for the first time after her role in shooting down more than 80 Iranian drones that were part of Iran’s major missile and drone attack on Israel mid-April.

REMARK: The video is from an earlier report.

The historic awarding of the nation’s third highest award for valor to a female pilot comes at a time when the role of women in ground combat units is in focus due to critical comments from President-elect Donald Trump’s pick Pete Hegseth. be the next Secretary of Defense.

Captain Lacie “Sonic” Hester, an F-15E weapons systems instructor, is the first Air Force woman to receive the Silver Star and only the tenth female service member to ever receive the award. Also receiving the Silver Star on Tuesday was its pilot, Major Benjamin “Irish” Coffey, for his role in coordinating the shootouts from their two-seat fighter and using all their missiles and their fighter’s Gatling guns to shoot down some of the fighters. to fetch. drones.

At Tuesday’s awards ceremony at their home base of Royal Air Force Lakenheath in the United Kingdom, the men and women of the 494th Fighter Squadron and the 494th Fighter Generation Squadron were honored with two Silver Stars, six Distinguished Flying Crosses with the valor device, four Distinguished Flying Combat Crosses, four Distinguished Flying Crosses, two Bronze Stars, seven Air and Space Commendation Medals and seven Air and Space Achievement Medals.

On the night of April 13, Iran launched more than 300 ballistic missiles and drones at Israel in retaliation for an Israeli missile strike in Damascus, Syria, that killed a top Iranian commander. US military aircraft and naval vessels helped Israel shoot down 99% of the weapons fired by Iran during the attack on Israel.

The actions of the US Air Force units involved in the shooting down of approximately 80 Iranian drones have been described as the United States’ largest air-to-air enemy engagement in more than 50 years. Shortly after the attack, President Joe Biden contacted the commanders of the two units involved, the 494th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron and the 335th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron, to praise their units’ actions.

One of those commanders was Lt. Col. Timothy “Diesel” Causey, the commander of the 494th Fighter Squadron.

“We all fell into an execution rhythm: make the call, shoot and confirm that the target had been destroyed before moving on to the next task we had to accomplish to keep everyone safe,” Causey said in a U.S. Air Force story about the ceremony. this week.

On the night of April 13, his squadron’s F-15Es flew 14 missions from a secret base in the Middle East to shoot down the incoming drones. Patriot air defense missiles at the base were also fired to intercept the drones. Some of those fighters had to turn back and refuel before heading back up to engage more drones, some of which occurred so close to that base that some of the falling debris landed on that base.

“Although intelligence provided the figures of how many (one-sided attack) drones that we could expect, it was still surprising to see them all,” Hester said in an interview with the Air Force.

That night, Coffey and Hester were the commanders of the airborne missions that led the fighters to the drones and were also actively involved in shooting down drones, resorting to shooting down the drones with their fighter’s Gatling guns after they had used up all their dogfights. air missiles.

“It takes a high-performing team of high-performing individuals to be able to find these things to begin with and then run with them,” Coffey said.

Among those receiving awards this week were many members of the pilots of the ground squadrons who helped fly the fighters in and out, especially as some fighters encountered emergencies during the flight.

Hester’s receipt of the Silver Star occurred the same week that Hegseth called attention to recent comments on a podcast criticizing the decision to allow women to serve in ground combat units.

“I’m just going to be honest: We shouldn’t have women in combat roles,” Hegseth said last week on “The Shawn Ryan Show.”

The process of integrating women into combat units has been gradual, beginning in 1993, when Defense Secretary Les Aspin issued an order allowing women to fly fighter planes and bombers in combat.

But women were not allowed to serve in ground combat units until 2013, when Defense Secretary Leon Panetta rescinded the ban, which was then tightened in 2015 by Defense Secretary Ash Carter, paving the way for women to serve in jobs that were still limited to men, including some in special operations.

On the podcast, Hegseth made a distinction between women who served as pilots and women who served in ground combat units.

“I’m not talking about pilots,” Hegseth said. “I’m talking about physical labor, labor-intensive jobs. I’m talking about something where strength is a differentiating factor. Pilots? Give me a female pilot all day. I have no problem with that.