The Pentagon has created a new military award, the Distinguished Warfare Medal. AFAIK, it hasn’t been awarded yet. It is for services rendered since the 9/11 attacks, and it’s intent is to honor drone pilots and other “cyber-warriors”. Also, it’s not for general honorable duty, it’s for single, specific acts like flying a mission that results in blowing up some important Al Queda guy.
What has made this particularly controversial is it’s ranking among other military medals. Specifically, it is proposed to be ranked above the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star, which are medals for service while physically in a combat zone where the soldier is at least theoretically at physical risk. Here is a Stars and Stripes story about the controversy. Veterans groups are protesting and some politicians are looking into it as well. President Obama has promised to review the situation. My favorite thing is that it’s been dubbed “The Nintendo Medal” by critics. Always good to have a catchy phrase for your protest campaign.
My guess (without any evidence) is that might be ranked above the Bronze Star because of who can award it. According to the Wiki page on the Bronze, the intent behind the Bronze was that it could be awarded by lower level officers (captains are mentioned) to exemplary men under their command. Whether that became the reality I don’t know. And I haven’t seen any information on who will be able to green light the new medal, perhaps because they are still finalizing the criteria for it. But it’s the only substantive distinction I can think of – that a medal a general (for example) awards would rank higher than one a captain awards.
So, any thoughts about such a medal? In particular, what should its rank among other medals be?
I absolutely loathe this medal. I want to start a wethepeople petition against it but I just don’t have the time right now; probably once school gets out.
This medal was probably created to make drone operators feel better about myself. In my experience, they are mocked without mercy by those in the military who actually have wings.
These people who are never in any danger whatsoever (other than accidentally spilling coffee on themselves) should not be awarded a medal higher than or equal to medals given to those who actually put their lives in danger.
If you have the potential to be our finest pilot, I don’t want you hesitating about becoming a drone operator. I don’t want you basing your decision on being mocked without mercy; I want you to get the VIP treatment. I want our best people exploiting our best technology, wholeheartedly flying at speeds that would make mere mortals black out, getting the all-important payload from Point A to Point B in a streamlined-to-the-essentials craft.
Maybe there was a time when folks with the potential to be fighter aces were mocked into serving on the front lines like real men. I hope to God we nipped that in the bud. I hope to God we nip this in the bud.
I think it should be inscribed with a Patton quote: something about winning wars not by dying for our country, but by making dumb bastards die for the other one.
There are many types of awards. Some are for valor, some are for merit. You don’t have to be in danger to do something meritorious.
To answer something above, the approval authority for a Bronze Star certainly isn’t an Army Captain (company commander). Even the lowly Army Achievement Medal has to be approved by a battalion commander. Army Commedation Medal- brigade commander. The Bronze Star is approved by the commanding general of the combat area but he may designate a subordinate to do it.
How about a bas-relief of that great American hero John Wayne, for upholding his proud tradition? Killing your nation’s enemies on the screen, then going home after every shift to your wife and kids.
Some questions. Can you get a Purple Heart for carpal tunnel? Will permanently stained fingers from Cheetos be this war’s Agent Orange?
I don’t really get the argument that medals which take preciden cd over the Purple Heart should involve the risk of life or limb. It looks to me like there’s a few medals given for exceptional service - not bravery - that already do that. The Legion of Merit, the Distinguished Service Medal, and the Defense Superior Service Medal appear to meet that definition.
I think my own opinion of the medal would probably be helped if there were examples of what someone actually did that would qualify them for the medal.
Yes that’s where the argument falls apart. There are a number of medals that can be awarded for merit that are a lot high up the chain than the Bronze Star. The Bronze Star itself can be awarded for either merit or valor.
That’s more or less it. Medals aren’t awarded for doing your job - they’re supposed to be awarded for actions above and beyond the all of duty. So, let’s see what these operators have done that constitutes “above and beyond”.
You make a good point there. I’ll await that skeptically, not cynically.
For what it’s worth in context, James Jones noted that the only medal (WWII) soldiers themselves respected was the Combat Infantryman’s Badge. Everything else was just a pat on the head, usually from people who had avoided combat.
Meh, I thought this was about the proposal a year or so back — probably on AlterNet or Kos; and probably by the redoubtable Jacob Freeze, scourge of the old warmonger Obama — for citizens to adopt a drone or give it a medal.
Not a single soul that I know of thinks this medal is a good idea. Including me. There is little room for a UAV operator to do anything above and beyond, and what little room there is would warrant something akin to the Naval Achievement Medal. At most, something on the level of a Navy Commendation Medal. Anything above that is truly nonsensical.
Arguments like TOWP makes are premature, at best. We aren’t flying drones that make “mere mortals black out.” We are flying drones that fly a standard profile racetrack in the sky 99.9% of the time. I want my A-team in the jet, ready to take out other jets from any other country. I want my A-team landing on carriers and becoming proficient in evasive flying in a surface-to-air-missile environment. The idea that a UAV operator could get an award higher than a pilot or crew doing these things is crazy. I’m still hoping someone wakes up figures out how to fix this mess.
The argument is (not that I buy it) is that at the very least the Bronze Star recipient has to be in a combat zone where, even well behind the lines, there is some theoretical danger of an airstrike, suicide bomber or some such things.
The reason the argument doesn’t hold up very well is that until very recently the Bronze Star didn’t have this restriction either, and nobody was bitching about it. Also, the Air Force in particular was handing them out like party favors to behind the lines officers, which did get quite a number of complaints. It’s summarized on the Bronze wiki page in the OP:
