Capt. Lacie Hester Praised for Shooting Down Iranian Drones

The US Air Force recently awarded a Silver Star to a female airman for the first time. This recognized Capt. Lacie Hester’s contribution to the elimination of 80 Iranian drones that were used in Iran’s invasion of Israel in April.

The Silver Star, which is the third-highest US military combat decoration, was presented to Hester at a ceremony at Royal Air Force Lakenheath on November 12. Also awarded a Silver Star was Maj. Benjamin "Irish" Coffey, Hester’s pilot, for coordinating the two-seat fighter mission. Other servicemembers involved in the sortie were awarded six Distinguished Flying Crosses with the valor device, four Distinguished Flying Crosses with the combat device, four Distinguished Flying Crosses, two Bronze Stars, and more.

Capt. Lacie "Sonic" Hester is an F-15E instructor weapons systems officer from the 494th Fighter Squadron. Receiving the Silver Star made her the first female Air Force member and 10th female overall to accomplish such a feat. Hester earned the award through her life-saving actions on April 13.

On that night, Iran fired over 300 drones and missiles toward Israel to avenge one of their commanders who was killed. The 494th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron and 335th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron were sent to assist the Israeli military in destroying the weapons. They flew 14 sorties and, alongside Patriot air defense missiles, were able to shoot down 80 Iranian drones. This has been dubbed the largest US air-to-air enemy mission in more than 50 years.

"Although intelligence provided the numbers of how many [one-way attack] drones we could expect to see, it was still surprising to see them all," Hester stated.

The award was presented to Hester less than a week after some startling statements from Pete Hegseth, the United States Secretary of Defense nominee in Donald Trump's future cabinet, regarding women’s role in combat. This has sparked further controversy surrounding her achievements.

"I'm straight up just saying, we should not have women in combat roles," Hegseth stated. “I'm not talking about pilots, I'm talking about physical labor type, labor-intensive type job. … I'm talking about something where strength is a differentiator.”

FMI: www.af.mil