The U.S. Air Force on Friday awarded Capt. Lacie “Sonic” Hester and Maj. Benjamin “Irish” Coffey the Silver Star, America’s third-highest combat honor, for their heroism in intercepting over 70 Iranian drones threatening Israel during Tehran’s assault in April.
The operation, conducted by U.S. air and naval forces, unfolded in complete darkness. “When we were getting our brief to go fly that night, we still had no idea,” Hester told CNN, describing the perilous maneuvers and courage required to counter the drone swarm. “It could have just been a bust — just another sortie of flying in a circle, waiting for it to happen.”
Capt. Lacie 'Sonic' Hester, the pilot who led the mission to intercept Iranian drones
(Video: from X)
Hester became the first woman in U.S. history to receive the honor—America’s third-highest military decoration for valor in combat. Her mission partner Coffey was also recognized with the same award.
Hester’s recognition reignited debate in the United States about women’s roles in combat units. FOX News Pete Hegseth, set to become secretary of defense under President-elect Donald Trump, has criticized women serving in ground combat roles but stated he has "no issue" with women in aviation roles.
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Capt. Lacie 'Sonic' Hester awarded the Silver Star for leading the mission to intercept Iranian drones
(Photo: US Air Force)
Hester and Coffee told CNN they had to improvise during the overnight attack as they attempted to intercept Iranian drones in complete darkness. At one point, Coffey descended his aircraft dangerously low to approach a drone he was tasked with downing.
“You feel the terrain rush, you feel yourself getting closer and closer to the ground. The risk was just too high to try again,” Coffey recounted, admitting the maneuver was unsuccessful.
F-15 pilot Lt. Col. Timothy “Diesel” Causey said that the fighter pilots had not had much time before then to practice.
Attack drones “are a low cost, low risk for the enemy to employ. They can send out massive amounts of them and we have to engage them to protect civilians and to protect our allies,” Causey told CNN. “We hadn’t started practicing on a large scale yet.”
“You’re talking about something that is on the very edge of a fighter aircraft’s ability to detect — what we call ‘find, fix, track, target and engage,’” Coffey said. “The best radar in the inventory is in this airplane behind us, and no one really knew whether or not its capability to find these [drones] even existed.”
The pilots described another significant challenge: each aircraft could carry only eight air-to-air missiles per sortie, and ammunition was quickly depleted despite spending hours in the air.
Lt. Col. Curtis "Voodoo" Culver, who participated in the interception efforts, said, “That night, the mission was to shoot down drones with whatever weapons we had available to protect our ally. We ran out of missiles pretty quickly… 20 minutes maybe.”
A subsequent critical task was landing back at base for rearming, often under fire or amid falling debris from interceptions. Occasionally, some of the fighter jets, including Coffey and Hester’s, had to land with a “hung missile” — an emergency situation in which a missile is fired, but malfunctions and doesn’t actually launch.
“This missile — we don’t know if it’s armed, and we don’t know if it’s going to explode on our wing,” Coffey said. “We don’t know if it’s going to explode while maintenance is safing the aircraft. It’s a big deal. And now, as we start into the landing process, we enter alarm red.”
The base had essentially entered a lockdown, signaling an imminent attack, as alarms blared even on the runways
“Missiles and drones are flying over base, and they’re being intercepted over base, so the alarm red goes off,” Causey said. “Then at that point is really when you see a lot of military discipline and a lot of bravery under fire.”
Maj. Clayton "Rifle" Wicks, who oversaw ground operations for the aircraft during the attack, described the challenges posed by falling debris from intercepts littering the runways.
“Really all we could tell them was stay airborne as long as you can, with the gas that you have. Don’t divert, because even our divert airfields – we don’t know what’s going on there either, so if stuff is blowing up over our heads, very likely stuff is blowing up there too.”
While all participating pilots received commendations, only Hester and Coffey were awarded the Silver Star. The pilots emphasized the bravery of ground crews, with Culver recalling a soldier who refueled planes near a truck loaded with fuel and gas while explosions rocked the base. “[T]he courage of that airman, that American, to stand up and do that for an ally, is incredible.”
Immediately after the mission, President Joe Biden called to personally commend the pilots. "Hey, you guys are the best in the whole damn world. That’s not hyperbole. Both these squadrons, you’re incredible,” Biden said, later apologizing for his enthusiasm and joking, "I’m supposed to be much more reserved."
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