Drone operators medal
 

Let me see if I have this straight, if you've been awarded a medal for piloting a drone and a Bronze Star and/or a Purple Heart, the display of those medals on your uniform the Drone Medal will be displayed above the Bronze Star or Purple Heart on todays Armed Forces uniforms.
When I was a kid, my dad, my brothers and I loved to play with the model airplanes in the back yard. It wasn't until I arrived "in country" that I was shot at and it took getting shot at to earn that Bronze Star.
Ray Carrol Banks was given a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star for the night he died, the night I kicked Ray out of a guard tower because he was in my way laying on the floor of the tower and I was getting shot at. It was because of that night that Both Ray and I were cited for the Bronze Star. Banks's mother got Rays Purple Heart and Bronze Star at his grave site but only after twenty-one guns were fired.
There are quite a few soldiers who EARNED that Bronze Star and/or Purple Heart who came home in a black plastic bag. They weren't even given a thirteen fold flag until they were carried off of the plane and put into the ground. They never were in a closed room with a TV screen in front of them showing the view from the camera mounted on the "drone" they were remotely opperating from that room. A model plane that they're controling while telling the troops on the ground where the bad guys are.
Where the heck has the value of "EARNED" honors gone?
Am I right or wrong, do you have to be in range to fly a toy in combat? Do you have to be shot at while a camera acts as you eyes? If not I'd go to the recruiter tomorrow but I'll have to carry my cane, the cane I earned "in country" while getting shot at. Of course the recruiter's only going to tell me that I'm too old and lame.
Put a model plane operator in front of me who's wearing his "Drone" medal above a Bronze Star and/or Purple Heart and he'll experience another reason I carry a "BIG STICK.":d:

Pilots that fly the drones may not be any happier than anyone else about this.

If the military thinks that quafied pilots will feel better about their job because they can earn a medal that is displayed above the Bronze Star, they may be surprised at the effect.

:(

More drone pilots and spouses in counseling.