Crew members of the destroyer USS Arleigh Burke, which shot down missiles launched against Israel in 2024 and 2025, have been awarded the Armed Forces Service Medal for “their outstanding support and execution of Ballistic Missile Defense,” a message on the ship’s official Facebook page says.
Any sailor who served aboard the destroyer between Aug. 15 and Dec. 16, 2024 or during the “12-Day War” between Iran and Israel from June 12 to 24, 2025 is eligible, the message says.
Established in 1996, the Armed Forces Service Medal is a non-combat award. The medal is awarded to service members who take part as a unit in a military operation “deemed to be a significant activity and who encounter no foreign armed opposition,” according to the Navy.
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The Arleigh Burke was deployed to the eastern Mediterranean Sea in 2024 and 2025 when it downed the Iranian missiles.
In April 2024, both the Arleigh Burke and another destroyer, the USS Carney, intercepted between four and six Iranian missiles as part of a wider U.S. military effort to shoot down drones and missiles launched by Iran and its allies in Syria and Yemen against Israel.
U.S. aircraft and ships ultimately destroyed more than 80 one-way attack drones and at least six ballistic missiles in total, according to U.S. Central Command.
The following year, the Arleigh Burke was one of five destroyers in the eastern Mediterranean that destroyed “multiple” ballistic measles during the 12-Day War, a June 29 Navy news release says.
The Arleigh Burke sailors are the latest service members to be recognized for their efforts in thwarting drone and missile attacks against Israel launched by Iran and its proxies.
Three F-16 pilots with the District of Columbia Air National Guard’s 121st Fighter Squadron were awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross with a “C” device for downing at least 15 Iranian drones in April 2024 – one of which was destroyed by a fighter’s 20mm cannon.
In November 2024, the Air Force presented 30 airmen from the 494th Fighter Squadron and 494th Fighter Generation Squadron with awards for their roles during the attack that April. The Air Force awarded a total of six Distinguished Flying Crosses with the valor device, four Distinguished Flying Crosses with the combat device, four Distinguished Flying Crosses, two Bronze Stars, seven Air and Space Commendation Medals, and seven Air and Space Achievement Medals. Both the 494th Fighter Squadron and 335th Fighter Squadron took part in shooting down dozens of drones in the April operation.
Two airmen who received the Distinguished Service Cross tried to drop a bomb on an Iranian drone after running out of missiles. A weapons systems officer who flew on another F-15 became the first woman in the Air Force to be awarded the Silver Star.
After using up all their missiles, she and the plane’s pilot switched to their fighter’s 20mm cannon to blast Iranian drones at low altitudes, and they landed with a “hung missile” that had failed to detach when they tried launching it.
