New medal for drone pilots outranks Bronze Star

[sfc_darrel]

New medal for drone pilots outranks Bronze Star




By Andrew Tilghman - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Feb 13, 2013 16:37:27 EST

The Pentagon is creating a new high-level military medal that will recognize drone pilots and, in a controversial twist, giving it added clout by placing it above some traditional combat valor medals in the military’s “order of precedence.”

The Distinguished Warfare Medal will be awarded to pilots of unmanned aircraft, offensive cyber war experts or others who are directly involved in combat operations but who are not physically in theater and facing the physical risks that warfare historically entails.




The new medal will rank just below the Distinguished Flying Cross. It will have precedence over — and be worn on a uniform above — the Bronze Star with Valor device, a medal awarded to troops for specific heroic acts performed under fire in combat.

The new medal is a brass pendant, nearly two inches tall, with a laurel wreath that circles a globe. An eagle is in the center. The ribbon has blue, red and white stripes.

“This award recognizes the reality of the kind of technological warfare we are engaged in the 21st century,” Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told reporters in Washington on Wednesday.

The new medal will be awarded for specific acts, such as the successful targeting of a particular individual at a critical time.

“Our military reserves its highest decorations obviously for those who display gallantry and valor in actions when their lives are on the line and we will continue to do so,” Panetta said.

“But we should also have the ability to honor the extraordinary actions that make a true difference in combat operations,” Panetta said. “The contribution they make does contribute to the success of combat operations, particularly when they remove the enemy from the field of battle, even if those actions are physically removed from the fight.”

The service secretaries will make the final determination for awarding the Distinguished Warfare Medal.

The order of precedence came as a surprise to Doug Sterner, a military medals expert and the curator of the Military Times Hall of Valor, the largest database of military medal recipients.

“It’s got me puzzled,” Sterner said in an interview Wednesday. “I understand the need to recognize the guys at the console who are doing some pretty important things.

http://www.navytimes.com/news/2013/0...e-star-021313/

[sfc_darrel]

VFW slams Pentagon's drone medal, complains it would outrank Purple Heart

By Barnini Chakraborty
Published February 14, 2013
FoxNews.com

• 
  
  

WASHINGTON – America’s largest combat veterans group is worried the creation of a new medal for drone strikes and cyber-warfare could bestow higher honor on those using a joystick to kill terrorists than soldiers wounded on the battlefield.

The Distinguished Warfare Medal, announced Wednesday, would rank higher than the Bronze Star and Purple Heart, which is given to servicemembers killed or wounded in battle. The new medal would rank immediately below the Distinguished Flying Cross.

But to some, like the Veterans of Foreign Wars, creating a non-combat medal is turning into a major Pentagon misfire.

“It’s a boneheaded decision,” VFW spokesman Joe Davis told FoxNews.com. “This is going to affect morale and it’s sending troops in the field a horrible message.”

By Thursday afternoon, more than 800 responses had been posted on the VFW’s Facebook page. Many said the medal’s high ranking on the military medal hierarchy would hurt an already-bruised U.S. military morale.

One dubbed the medal the “Geek Cross” and suggested that the country was close to handing video-gamers Purple Hearts for animated wounds.
The Pentagon defended its decision and noted several medals rank above the newly created award.

'It’s a boneheaded decision'
- VFW spokesman Joe Davis

"Those furthest from the fight/risk are not eligible for a higher award than those engaging the enemy and risking their lives each day,” Defense spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Nate Christensen said. “There are several existing medals that may be awarded to members who incur risk associated with valorous acts (Medal of Honor, Service Crosses, Silver Stars).”

On Wednesday, outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced the creation of the medal to recognize “extraordinary achievements that directly impact on combat operations, but do not involve acts of valor or physical risks that combat entails.”

Panetta said the medal recognizes the reality that drones and cyber warfare “have changed the way wars are fought.” Under the Obama administration, drone strikes have become an integral part of America's counterterrorism strategy.

John Hamilton, the VFW’s commander-in-chief, said in a statement that his organization “fully concurs that those far from the fight are having an immediate impact on the battlefield in real-time,” but added that “medals that can only be earned in direct combat must mean more than medals awarded in the rear.”

The organization says that at a time when the Defense Department is being hit with budget cuts and entire military towns are bracing for the effects of the upcoming sequester, announcing a new medal that honors members who aren’t fighting on the front lines sends a bad message.

“It’s like, ‘Why am I slogging through the mud, dirt and sand when someone who can go home every night to their family gets recognized?’ Davis said. “The people in the Pentagon should ask themselves how this is going to play out. The government didn’t do this to the troops. The Pentagon did it to themselves.”




Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013...#ixzz2KztTqn6x

[reconeil]

Drone pilots receiving ribbons or medals or that are higher than some Actual Combat Valor Decorations is quite silly, stupidly pathetic and insulting to all having ever fought in combat (or not) during wartime, or just having honorably served in a combat units in general.

Historically very Many died or were wounded (both physically & mentally) to receive decorations.

Besides, where's ANY Valor at killing any enemy while Totally Safe and Many Miles Away?

Muslim Terrorists do such each and every day with IEDs.

Should Islam award them medals?

What's next?

Will Americans ALSO qualify being decorated merely for proficiency on video games or simulators?

Neil

[STYCK]

I think this should be the medal for DRONE PILOTS...




And speaking of PILOTS...evidently these DRONES are remotely operated...IIRC so they REALLY don't have a pilot...am I wrong..

[sfc_darrel]

Distinguished Warfare Medal is off to a rocky start

ByLeo Shane III

Stars and Stripes

Published: March 1, 2013




DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE



WASHINGTON -- Critics have dubbed it “the Nintendo medal” and “the Purple Buttocks.” Veterans groups are lobbying the White House against it. Lawmakers are working to downgrade it.

Pentagon officials, ignoring the criticism, are moving ahead with the new Distinguished Warfare Medal, designed to honor “extraordinary actions” of drone pilots and other off-site troops performing noteworthy deeds on far-away battlefields.

It’s months away from being awarded. The military has to mint the new awards, establish guidelines for processing nominations and find heroic operators to receive the honor.

That gives detractors time to wage their own war against the “distant warfare medal,” inside top military offices and from remote locations outside the Pentagon.

It will be a tough fight.

“This Pentagon, they’ve been immovable on fixes and mistakes in the awards system,” said Doug Sterner, military medals expert and archivist for the Hall of Valor awards database. “They’re closed-minded when it comes to outside criticism. They’re going to do what they’re going to do.”

Since the award was announced last month, veterans advocates have taken aim not at the creation of a new medal but at its placement in the order of precedence. Military planners have said the medal will rank immediately below the Distinguished Flying Cross – higher than the Bronze Star and Purple Heart, awards given for direct battlefield heroism.

American Legion National Commander James Koutz told his membership last week that a new honor for servicemembers serving safely from afar “should not outrank awards for troops’ serving in harm’s way.”

Officials from the Veterans of Foreign Wars broached the issue in their meeting with President Barack Obama this week, eliciting a promise from the commander-in-chief that he would review the issue.

And organizers at VoteVets.org have collected more than 5,000 responses to the medal -- most complaining about its position above the Bronze Star -- that they intend to share with new Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, a former enlisted soldier and a Purple Heart recipient.

“We think, with his background, he’ll want to take a look at this,” said Jon Solz, chairman of the group. “We’ve been his biggest supporters, and we’re bringing him what veterans are thinking about the issue right now.

We hope he’ll listen.”

A trio of Republican veterans in Congress -- California’s Duncan Hunter, Florida’s Tom Rooney and Pennsylvania’s Tim Murphy -- have introduced legislation to lower the new medal in the order of precedence, a move military officials say is overstepping lawmakers’ traditional roles.

A companion bill is under discussion in the Senate, and the provision is expected to be part of the annual defense authorization act.

That’s key because the authorization bill is one of the few pieces of legislation to pass through Congress every year, regardless of the partisan gridlock. Lawmakers will likely finalize that measure in November or December, possibly before any of the new defense warfare medals are awarded.

Hunter has been a vocal critic of the military medals system in recent years, particularly the low number of medals of honor and other high-ranking valor awards.

Military medals officials have countered that better equipment, better weaponry and the changing nature of warfare have made those close-combat honors harder to earn. The new medal fits with that narrative -- today’s war heroes are fighting farther and farther from the front lines and can’t be honored in the same ways as in the past.

Sterner disagrees.

He said existing awards like the Legion of Merit, awarded by the military for “exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services,” could be used for non-traditional combat roles without harming the value of battlefield honors. The decision to establish a new medal shows a disconnect -- and stubbornness -- among Pentagon bureaucrats.

Pentagon spokesman Lt.Cmdr. Nate Christensen said despite the uproar since the medal announcement, “there are no plans to change the medal right now.”

shane.leo@stripes.com


http://www.stripes.com/distinguished...start-1.210188