Aircraft Carriers III
- Thread starter Jeff Head
- Start date
Full story in the posted link above.
Thousands of sailors from the Ford Carrier Strike Group were awarded the Presidential Unit Citation today for their active role in the war with Iran, where they dealt with constant threat of enemy attack while carrying out or coordinating hundreds of strikes on Iranian targets.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth presented the Presidential Unit Citation to the crews in Norfolk, Virginia. According to the , signed by Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao, the award is for “outstanding performance in action against enemy forces from 28 February to 1 May 2026 in Support of Operation Epic Fury. The personnel of Carrier Strike Group Twelve distinguished themselves by outstanding warfighting prosecution while engaged in sustained combat operations against a determined enemy.”
The award was given as the Ford, the Navy’s largest aircraft carrier, returned to its home port in Norfolk after . The welcome home ceremony was attended by Hegseth, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle and others.
The Presidential Unit Citation is the military’s . The citation is extremely rare, with recipients being troops who have participated in some of the biggest operations in the military, such as 1st Marine Division, which received the Presidential Unit Citation for the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir in 1950, or 2nd Ranger Battalion for its actions on D-Day in 1944.
Along with the titular carrier, the Ford Carrier Strike Group included the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers the USS Winston S. Churchill, the USS Bainbridge and USS Mahan, with other ships joining and leaving over the course of its 326-day deployment. Nine squadrons make up Carrier Air Wing Eight, which returned home earlier this week.
According to the citation, the strike group played a varied and active role in combat operations, with units within it coordinating strikes on Iranian warships and land targets, as well as carrying out more than 1,700 air sorties. Notably, the citation says that the strike group did all of this while “under persistent threat from enemy missiles and one-way attack drones.”
The citation is the highest award given so far to the ongoing war with Iran. The conflict is still ongoing, with a temporary and fragile ceasefire in place as several ships including two other aircraft carriers, operate in the waters around the Middle East.