Sailors from the USS Truman carrier strike group will be able to place a “C” for combat on medals they received during their time in the Red Sea.
During the strike group's time in the region, U.S. forces were routinely under fire from drones and missiles from Houthi rebels in Yemen.
On Aug. 28, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle visited the aircraft carrier USS Truman for an all-hands meeting before several hundred sailors. On separate occasions, two sailors asked why they hadn’t received certain awards, including the combat designation, which is pinned to certain medals sailors earn.
“We recently returned from what has been documented as a historic deployment,” said one female sailor from the carrier, who was not identified by the Navy. “Do you believe that this will be looked at as a missed recruitment opportunity, and do you agree with this decision, sir?”
At the time, the new CNO told the sailors he would look into the situation. In a statement to WHRO, Caudle confirmed this week that sailors will now be able to place the “C” on medals they receive from their latest deployment.
The USS Truman Strike Group was in the Red Sea from December to May. The carrier returned to Norfolk June 1. During their time in the region, the carrier was targeted by Houthi rebels as the U.S. protected international shipping as part of Operation Prosperity Guardian. Navy leadership has publicly declared that the time after war in Gaza broke out in October 2023 to be one of the most active times for carrier strike groups since World War II.
“While the USS Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group was approved for the Combat Action Ribbon on June 1, 2025, the dates identified as the crew having operated under hostile fire and combat conditions were not verified until August 11, 2025,” Caudle said.
The Navy then took months to verify that the sailors and Marines in the strike group would qualify for the special “C.” By the end of August, word hadn’t trickled down to rank and file sailors on the carrier, who asked the CNO to intervene.
“Prior to August, 327 Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals and 23 Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medals were approved without the combat “C” device to avoid premature or inaccurate designation with the full intention to convert eligible awards to include the “C” device now that the dates are verified,” Caudle said.
The Department of Defense created the C designation in 2016 to show medals were earned during combat. In 2024, then-Secretary of Defense Carlos Del Toro declared that service in the Red Sea area would qualify troops for the Combat Action Ribbon, including the C for combat and V for valor in certain circumstances, retroactive to October 19, 2023, said Dr. Frank Blazich, curator of Modern Military History at the National Museum of American History, part of the Smithsonian Institution.
“You can grasp immediately why this matters to sailors. They want to say, ‘look, I accomplished this during a period of combat duress,’” Blazich said. “‘I achieved this during a period of conflict, not necessarily during a peacetime operation or a shakedown cruise or something like that.’ It’s something that they can wear with a great deal of pride.”
While these symbols of service are often kept by families for generations, the process of awarding medals is very opaque. A single commander can decide not to authorize an award and the sailor would never know why they hadn’t received a particular honor.
Blazich said he can understand why sailors would be concerned enough to ask the CNO for help.
“There is no protest mechanism,” Blazich said. “There's nothing you do about it. It's just, ‘well, okay, then, you know, we're not going to recognize the people who do this.’ And that's that, you know. And life goes on.”
