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I know a group of six Marines who received the Navy Achievement Medal.

“The Achievement Medal is awarded for outstanding achievement or meritorious service not of a nature that would otherwise warrant awarding the Commendation Medal...it is generally only awarded to officers in the pay grade of O-4 and below and enlisted personnel below the grade of E-7.”

“For instance, in the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps, the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal is considered a somewhat high decoration reserved for Department Head level officers at the O-4 level, senior Navy CPOs and senior Marine Corps NCOs at the E-8 and E-9 level and, following a full career, as a retirement award.”

So, the Navy Achievement Medal ranks lower than the Navy Commendation Medal, which is often given “as a retirement award” (in lieu of a Gold Watch, perhaps?)

What did these six Marines do to earn their Navy Achievement Medals? Oh, they spent 11 days crawling through Vietcong tunnels. These tunnels were mostly three feet wide and three feet high and were infested with cockroaches, fleas, lice & large spiders and had been pumped full of CS gas. Since the VC had been trapped in the tunnels for several weeks, they had left “deposits” in various places on the floor of the pitch dartk tunnel. Part of the team managed to capture 41 VC while wandering around through the thousands of feet of tunnels. Since the VC were armed, the Marines were awarded the Combat “V” device to be worn with their medals.

Award the Drone Operators an Achievement Medal, with the “JS” device (JS=”Joy Stick”)... or a Gold Watch, if they had to spend more than 8 hours in their office chairs during stressful shifts.