More than a dozen Air Force personnel were decorated with some of the service's highest awards for their actions in combat operations in the Middle East last year while assigned to the 388th Fighter Wing.
Distinguished Flying Cross
A half-dozen pilots from one of the Air Force’s premier F-16 units, the 20th Fighter Wing at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., have been awarded one of the service’s highest decorations for their role in Operation Midnight Hammer, the June 2025 strikes against Iranian nuclear ...
More than a dozen Airmen with the 92nd Air Refueling Wing received decorations for “flying complex and dangerous missions in contested airspace,” the Washington-based unit announced April 1. The 15 airmen were honored for providing critical refueling that enabled other Air Force aircraft to continue ...
Two dozen KC-135 crew members from multiple bases received the Distinguished Flying Cross for refueling the fighters that shot down 80 Iranian drones and missiles bound for Israel on April 13.
In a series of exclusive interviews with Air & Space Forces Magazine, Airmen from the 494th Fighter Squadron described how they helped defeat the massive drone and missile attack launched by Iran against Israel in April—actions that led to many being decorated Nov. 12.
Two air commandos who helped save more than a dozen lives in an CV-22 Osprey crash in Afghanistan 14 years ago were posthumously awarded Distinguished Flying Crosses last week, Air Force Special Operations Command announced.
Airmen who operate the U-28 Draco spy plane usually do so in the shadows, providing intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) in support of special operations ground troops, search and rescue, and humanitarian missions. But 10 Airmen made history Nov. 17...
More than 200 Airmen will receive medals for their roles in Operation Allies Refuge, the effort to move more than 124,000 evacuees out of Afghanistan in the final weeks of the U.S. war there in late summer 2021.
A Minnesota Air National Guard flight nurse who responded to a deadly suicide bombing in the midst of the Afghanistan evacuation in August 2021 is set to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross on Jan. 7. Maj. Katie Lunning of the 133rd Airlift Wing will be the ...
Four Airmen—two pilots and two loadmasters—received the Distinguished Flying Cross at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash., on Dec. 20, among the final Mobility Airmen to be so honored for their actions during the noncombatant evacuation out of Kabul, Afghanistan in August 2021.
Two dozen Airmen at Travis Air Force Base, Calif., were officially awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross on Dec. 9 for their heroism in the noncombatant evacuation out of Kabul, Afghanistan, including the first ever Critical Care Air Transport Team to receive the prestigious decoration. Maj. Gen. ...
Air Mobility Command boss Gen. Mike Minihan awarded 51 Distinguished Flying Cross awards at Joint Base Charleston, S.C., on Nov. 21—one of the largest DFC ceremonies in recent history. All of the awards were given to Airmen who participated in Operation Allies Refuge, the noncombatant ...
