New medal for drone pilots outranks Bronze Star

A combat medal for sitting in an air-conditioned trailer where when you f-up, you just spill your coffee?

New medal for drone pilots outranks Bronze Star - Marine Corps News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Marine Corps Times

New medal for drone pilots outranks Bronze Star


By Andrew Tilghman - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Feb 13, 2013 17:47:27 EST
The Pentagon is creating a new high-level military medal that will recognize drone pilots and, in a controversial twist, giving it added clout by placing it above some traditional combat valor medals in the military’s “order of precedence.”
The Distinguished Warfare Medal will be awarded to pilots of unmanned aircraft, offensive cyber war experts or others who are directly involved in combat operations but who are not physically in theater and facing the physical risks that warfare historically entails.
The new medal will rank just below the Distinguished Flying Cross. It will have precedence over — and be worn on a uniform above — the Bronze Star with Valor device, a medal awarded to troops for specific heroic acts performed under fire in combat.
The new medal is a brass pendant, nearly two inches tall, with a laurel wreath that circles a globe. An eagle is in the center. The ribbon has blue, red and white stripes.
“This award recognizes the reality of the kind of technological warfare we are engaged in the 21st century,” Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told reporters in Washington on Wednesday.
The new medal will be awarded for specific acts, such as the successful targeting of a particular individual at a critical time.
“Our military reserves its highest decorations obviously for those who display gallantry and valor in actions when their lives are on the line and we will continue to do so,” Panetta said.
“But we should also have the ability to honor the extraordinary actions that make a true difference in combat operations,” Panetta said. “The contribution they make does contribute to the success of combat operations, particularly when they remove the enemy from the field of battle, even if those actions are physically removed from the fight.”
The service secretaries will make the final determination for awarding the Distinguished Warfare Medal.
The order of precedence came as a surprise to Doug Sterner, a military medals expert and the curator of the Military Times Hall of Valor, the largest database of military medal recipients.
“It’s got me puzzled,” Sterner said in an interview Wednesday. “I understand the need to recognize the guys at the console who are doing some pretty important things. But to see it ranking above the Bronze Star [with] V?”

 

They want the drone operators hungry for victims, whoever hits the target first wins......who cares why they were to die? foreign.... or domestic?

 

If this is true, looks like military medals are going the way of the Nobel Peace Prize. What a disgrace that someone sitting behind a computer can even be thought of to receive a military medal above one for being in combat.

 

The Obozo Twidget Award ...... freakin' marvelous

 

I wonder if they will also make Carpal Tunnel Syndrome qualify for a Purple Heart...

 

People are getting sick and tired of liberal values:

Pentagon halts production of drone, cyberwarfare medal amid backlash | Fox News

 

Apparently their thought process failed to notice that you can get a Bronze Star for Valor as well as other reasons and the drone metal was supposed to fit between the two... Oh well such is their thought process back to the drawing board.... I expect a new version of the CIB called the Drone Warefare Badge (DWB) in the near future....

 

I have no problem with an award for effective use...I just see no reason why it cannot be something like the "Green Hornet" (Army Commendation Medal) or the commendation medals for the other services which are awarded for "distinguishing oneself by heroism, meritorious achievement or meritorious service" and can be designated as to whether they are for heroism or achievement by the presence or absence of the "V" device. Even a Bronze Star can be awarded for achievement with the absence of the "V".

While the Bronze Star ranks above the PH, an award of the Bronze w/V or better usually accompanies the PH unless the it was a result of wounds/injuries that were incidental (for example, a friend of mine who was a computer operator received a PH for being cut by a shattered mirror in a latrine at the USARV HQ barracks area when a rocket landed some distance away while he was shaving).

 

I have a friend who recieved one after getting an egg shell in his eye as a Cook... the medical report ead removed shell fragment from eye... so he automatically got a PH.... ain't bureaucracy wonderful...

 

And on a related subject...

Air Force Chaplain Awarded Bronze Star for PowerPoint Teaching Proper Sensitivity for the Koran - By Patrick Brennan - The Corner - National Review Online

 

"PowerPoint presentation on the proper handling and disposal of Islamic religious material"

Don't think a PP presentation is needed for this since it is so easy to remember: urinate, apply gas and light!!!

 

I find it strange that a Chaplin received a Bronze Star. I find it offensive that ANYONE received a Bronze Star for an "End of Tour" award.

Even the defense of this Chaplin receiving the award (attempting to correct the impression that the Bronze Star was awarded solely for the PowerPoint presentation), at the end of the article, contains no valid reason for the awarding of a Bronze Star. A Commendation Medal should be sufficient for an "End of Tour," and even then, only if he did a commendatory job. Just getting up in the morning, putting your pants on, and doing the job that you are being paid to do (to the best of your ability), should not entitle someone to a medal.

 

I think what bothers me is that (at least when I was there, and from what I can see now) the folks out on the pointy end where people bleed don't get "automatic" Bronze Stars, or really any medals, just for doing a tour and being a nice guy...they have to do something special enough to get noted in jobs where most everyone does special stuff on a regular basis just to get by.

Maybe it's just because I have become a grumpy old man with more memories than prospects, but I find myself looking at the young folks with their ribbons and pretty much discounting them unless they are headed by a CIB...or, at the least, the "new" CAB.

I got some "higher" stuff that I didn't then and don't now feel were justified, but the one award that I am truly proud of is that musket with the wreath around it...and anyone else I see with one gets my automatic respect.

 

As I was on my way to breakfast after my earlier post, I was somewhat shamed to remember that I had failed to mention the one "service" badge that gets even more respect from me than the CIB...

While the MOH is the only award that "rates" a salute from all ranks, the one award that will always receive a salute from me is the Combat Medical Badge (CMB) on an enlisted uniform...those guys are real heroes, every damn one of them.

 

Since we have a "Drone Pilot" medal, maybe we need a "Sky Pilot" medal for the Chaplins.

 

I wuz gonna ask this guy what he thought about drone medals, then, thought better of it.

 

Well . . . you know, with the recent changes in military regulations regarding women in combat, the CIB is now the Combat Infantryperson's Badge and looks like: