Three Air Force pilots who shot down Iranian drones aimed at Israel in 2024 were awarded the military’s highest flying honor this week.
F-16 pilots Benjamin “Boom” Saunders, Eric “Fume” Anderson, and Capt. Ryan “Hammer” Boodee, all majors in the District of Columbia Air National Guard’s 121st Fighter Squadron, were awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross with a “C” device for combat in a Feb. 1 ceremony at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, officials said in a release.
The three pilots were decorated for air-to-air kills during a major aerial defensive stand against hundreds of Iranian drones and missiles in April 2024. The overnight fight involved U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Army units engaging 300 drones, ballistic and cruise missiles directed at Israel by Iran and Iranian-backed militia groups in the region, like the Houthis. At the time, officials described it as a “multi-hour engagement” of Israel’s defense that also involved assistance from British, French, and Jordanian forces.
In all, officials said that U.S. forces destroyed more than 80 attack drones and at least six ballistic missiles.
The D.C. Air Guard pilots were all deployed to Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, with the 121st Expeditionary Fighter Squadron during the April 13, 2024, attack.
Flying in two-ship formations, Saunders and Boodee as Viper 5-1 and Anderson as Viper 6-1 with his wingman, the pilots searched the skies for incoming missiles when they came across “traces” of more than 100 attack drones launched towards Israel, officials said.
Operating outside reliable radio communication, the pilots were under “execute mission command,” with the authority to make decisions about how to take down the drones without official orders from their chain of command at the main operations center, officials said.
Flying with night vision goggles, Saunders and Boodee shot down more than 15 drones and detected an unspecified number of others that they directed coalition forces to take out.
Saunders detected and took down his first drone of the mission while en route to find an air tanker to refuel mid-air. He also used his 20mm cannon in a low-altitude attack to take one down. In the meantime, Bodee continued to scan the skies and then “detected the frontmost traces of more than 100 additional attacking drones.” The two F-16s fired off missiles until Anderson and his Viper 6-1 wingman arrived to help.
It’s unclear how many drones the three pilots took down altogether, and officials with the District of Columbia Air National Guard did not immediately respond to questions on the pilots’ individual tallies.
Like all modern fighters, the F-16 is designed to fight primarily with missiles, while recording an air-to-air kill with guns is rare, according to Retired Lt. Gen. David Deputla, former Air Force Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance.
Deuptula said the mission was both “unusual and noteworthy,” because air combat in the last several decades has been “dominated by sensors and missiles.” The last air-to-air kills recorded with a fighter’s cannon, he said, came in 1991 during Desert Storm.
Many awards after single night of combat
The three pilots were the latest to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross for their part in the huge 2024 air battle. The DFC is the oldest military aviation award, established in 1926, for flyers who show “heroism or extraordinary achievement while participating in an aerial flight” and is the highest valor award for actions performed entirely during flight. It is frequently awarded for exceptional non-combat flying as well as combat, although exceptionally notable actions under fire by pilots can be awarded with higher medals.
In November 2024, over a dozen flyers from the 494th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron received awards for their role in the anti-drone fight. Over a dozen were awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, and one officer became the third woman in the Air Force to receive a Silver Star since World War II. Official photos showed the 494th fighter jets with several bombs and missile markings showing a tally of their kills, and Air Force officials later said one of the pilots tried to use a laser-guided bomb to take down a drone after they ran out of missiles.
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The bomb “just barely missed” the drone, Lt. Gen. Derek France, head of Air Forces Central, said.
In March 2025, eight pilots from the 335th Fighter Squadron also received DFCs, while a master sergeant from the Air Force’s 4th Operations Support Squadron received a Bronze Star Medal.
A tech sergeant boom operator with the 91st Air Refueling Squadron at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, was also given the DFC in January for refueling fighters during the 2024 operations.
