New Medal for Drone Pilots and Cyber Warriors

Military.com ^ | 2/14/2013 | Richard Sisk

[Sparky1776]

The Pentagon has created a new medal for drone pilots and cyber warfare specialists that will rank higher in the order of precedence for military decorations than the Bronze Star with Combat “V,” Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced Wednesday.

Called the Distinguished Warfare Medal, the new medal “recognizes the changing character of warfare” in the post-9/11 era in which servicemembers sitting at consoles in the U.S. can directly impact the outcome of engagements with an enemy overseas, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a statement.

[Sparky1776]

Above the Bronze Star, below the Silver Star.

[Gay State Conservative]

A local Boston talk host devoted an hour to this subject today.He had Colonel David Hunt on to comment.Colonel Hunt’s attitude is that these drone pilots do an important job and do it well but this particular medal is little bit overboard.Never having been ordered into harm’s way while in the Army I’m not qualified to comment but Colonel Hunt’s position seems to be pretty reasonable.

[doc1019]

Above Bronze Star with combat “V”?

And I guess these new medal winners will be eligible for purple hearts if their drone is shot down or their compute is infected.

I guess it is a new world.

[Newbomb Turk]

Col. Jessep: [contemptuously] You fuckin' people... you have no idea how to defend a nation. All you did was weaken a country today, Kaffee. That's all you did. You put people's lives in danger. Sweet dreams, son.

The are gutting out military's morale.

[Sparky1776]

I saw that Howie had the Colonel on today, missed the show and agree a medal may be in order but above the Bronze star, really?

[Thank You Rush]

WEIRD as is everything else that comes out of this administration. The drone operators are tucked away safe from harm..why any medals? When do they face the enemy?

How do they explain the killings at Fort Hood? They weren’t safe even on a military base and that was simple “work place violence.”

I, along with all of you, am so sick of this bozo and his clowns!!!

[onona]

Can’t wait to read those citations.

[Scrambler Bob]

My DAD, Timberwolf, WWII, Bronze Star (never talked about it), behind enemy lines in Battle of Bulge.

Compared to a hang nail, or a blistered trigger finger from drone controller??????

Not even close - (suppressing dry retching)!!!!

[shalom aleichem]

They were never in harm’s way.

Never an official medal or ribbon for the Cold Warriors, many of whom did go into perile and many not return.

[Timber Rattler]

This is a bunch of bullcrap. My uncle, who died last year at the age of 82, earned his bronze star (and a purple heart) for engaging in hand-to-hand combat with ChiCom "volunteers" near the Yalu River in December 1950. His recon platoon was ultimately overrun, and he was shot in the head and mistaken for dead by the ChiComs. After laying in a freezing foxhole for several days, surrounded by the enemy, he somehow crawled back to American lines. He recovered from the physical injury but never the psychological injury of seeing his buddies slaughtered.

No one way that the drone pilots can equal this.

[Vesparado]

Shouldn’t they just get a free game?

[centurion316]

The military awards medals for a wide range of actions, only a small number of which are for valor on the battlefield. This medal is clearly not in that category, but it has come to be because of how the Bronze Star and the Air Medal are awarded. These two medals were created during World War II to recognize achievement, service, and valor in ground and air combat. Valor awards, in order to distinguish them from the other varieties, were recognized with a small bronze “V” device. The use of that device was defined with some small differences among the services. But, the bottom line was that holders of these two medals had seen combat and so even though these medals dwelled at the lower end of the precedence scale, they were respected by soldiers. They knew the difference between these two and medals of a more ordinary sort. If you wore one, you were a combat soldier, sailor, Marine, airman.

However, as the nature of warfare changed, the original definitions were applied in ways that resulted in awards to some who never came anywhere near the sound of the guns. When the Air Force awarded some Bronze Stars to some who supported B2 combat operations, but who never left Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, a large controversy arose. Such awards were banned and the Air Force has had their nose out of joint ever since. While there were existing awards that could easily recognize important contributions to the war effort from outside the combat zone, these awards were also given for peacetime distinctions as well. This did not sit well with some who thought they needed a “special” medal to show that they were warriors too.

So we have the Distinguished Warfare Medal. What sticks in the craws of many is that it ranks below the Distinguished Flying Cross, but above the Bronze Star. I believe that the reason for this is that the award will end up on the chests of senior leaders more so than the Predator or Cyberwarrior crews. This will be an award for Squadron, Group, and Wing commanders, not the troops.

I believe that this whole thing will backfire. The people doing this work deserve to be recognized, but this particular award will not be very highly regarded by others in the service. We have too many awards already, and creating more, especially to one up the folks who are really dodging bullets will make it worse.

[shove_it]

Tough duty ... ... give 'em hazardous duty pay too.

[LuvFreeRepublic]

Not so fast. They are rethinking the new medal, as they should.

http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123339805