No it is NOT. You and others seem to forget just what these medals represent or entail - personal RISK of life and SACRIFICE in the face of real live combat. Now please tell me just what risk and sacrifice what an armchair drone operator might face?! Getting a hangnail maybe?!
These people want a medal then give them a rifle, a helmet and put them out in the field and do something that is actually deserving of any medal for valor. This issue leaves me livid, too many of my friends came back home in body bags or minus some limbs or minus their minds and here we have a bunch of armchair weenies wanting to lay claim to something they don't earn nor deserve. Give them a plaque they can hang on their wall but no medals.
As a recipient of the Purple Heart this makes me mad but also saddens me at the same time that we have someone wanting to cheapen the merits of the medal I received in combat for my wounds received (I was actually eligible for 2 more additional PH's but I refused them for personal reasons each time). This proposed medal is crazy.
Ron,
It saddens me - that anyone deserving decoration for valor, risk, and sacrifice should find it necessary to disparage their fellow servicemembers or gainsay the value of their contributions. Not everyone in the RE is an MF. For instance, I know of one airman drone operator who spotted very obscure IED placements, not once but twice, through diligence and skill that borders on heroic. Lives were saved. Such servicemembers are deserving of decoration. This one was (AFAAM). I agree completely with all of you who feel such decorations should order below the Bronze Star and Purple Heart.