Navy Awards Crew Arctic Service Medals

The Navy has presented its newest honor, Arctic Service Medal, to the crew of a fast-attack submarine for its involvement in an international exercise near the North Pole. The USS Indiana took part in the five-week Operation Ice Camp 2024, in which all five branches of the military and forces from the UK, Australia, Canada, and France established and maintained a 60-person camp on a barren ice sheet last March in the Beaufort Sea, Task & Purpose reports. The officers and sailors of the Virginia-class submarine are the first to receive the medal, which was created last year to recognize "excellence and significant contributions to national security and maritime superiority in the Arctic region."

"Your three-week operation during Ice Camp advanced the lethality of our submarine force and showcased to the world that our Navy can operate anywhere and anytime—in any maritime environment," Adm. Lisa Franchetti, chief of naval operations, said at the ceremony in New London, Conn., per Stars and Stripes. The exercise includes a submarine surfacing rapidly through the ice so that the ship's tower extends above the surface. Crew members then set up command posts on the floe. The Navy said it has focused more on the Arctic as climate change has opened more sea routes there. (More Navy stories.)