U.S. Air Force & Army Air Forces: Medal of Honor Recipients

Before the Air Force became an independent service on September 18, 1947, American military aviators served in the Army Air Service, the Army Air Corps and the Army Air Forces, and they received the Army Medal of Honor. This page gathers those early aviators together with Air Force recipients.

The Air Force’s own design, introduced in 1965, replaces Minerva with the head of the Statue of Liberty inside a green laurel wreath, suspended from a bar inscribed “Valor” and the thunderbolt from the Air Force coat of arms.