New "Distinguished Warfare" medal

[STM]

If you are military, or even perhaps not, no doubt you have heard about the new Distinguished Warfare medal which is going to be awarded to drone "pilots". Now as a retired US Army Infantryman and Sapper, I don't have a problem in the world recognizing someone for their contributions to the mission, but the thing about this that has chapped mine and untold numbers of veteran's butts is where the DOD wants to rank this medal in terms of precedence. They want to rank it ABOVE both the Bronze Star Medal and Purple Heart!!! That is unconscionable. I have both of these medals, in fact 2 of each, both BSM's with Valor V's. My second PH got me a 2 week, all expense paid vacation to the US Army Hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, the first 4 days in the ICU. And I earned them both in direct engagement with the enemy. I did not earn them sitting in an air conditioned building, thousands of miles away from any harm. The worst that could happen to these drone "pilots" is that they dump some piping hot coffee in their laps. There has been enough of a furor, in fact, that the DOD is suspending the medal for right now.

Anyway, so Secretary Hagel called me this morning and asked me, in light of the furor surrounding this medal, if I would be so kind as to redesign it for him. Being a good veteran of course I agreed

Below is a picture of what the medal looked like before and after my redesign. In case you are wondering what that is above the eagle, it is a Sony X-Box controller, an essential tool for any drone "pilot". I even added a coveted "Combat Coffee Cup" device (first award) for all those "pilots" who can't "fly" their drones before their first cup of morning coffee!

 

[TedG954]

I'll be willing to bet the medal is never awarded...... to anyone, ever. Anyone that doesn't understand the sacrifices required for the Bronze Star and Purple Heart, will probably never understand why this proposal is ridiculous. There's a huge difference between an M4 and a Bic.

In any case, no matter what position is served, whether it be SPECOPS or clerk, I thank every serviceman for his contribution to my safety and well being.

Chuck Hagel Orders Review Of Distinguished Warfare Medal For Drone Pilots

 

[STM]

I'll be willing to bet the medal is never awarded...... to anyone, ever. Anyone that doesn't understand the sacrifices required for the Bronze Star and Purple Heart, will probably never understand why this proposal is ridiculous. There's a huge difference between an M4 and a Bic.

In any case, no matter what position is served, whether it be SPECOPS or clerk, I thank every serviceman for his contribution to my safety and well being.

Chuck Hagel Orders Review Of Distinguished Warfare Medal For Drone Pilots

And I severely doubt any would ever be awared posthumously, as many, many BSM's and PH's have.

But on the other side of the coin, I would not be at all opposed to a medal for them, I am sure they have saved several Soldier's or Marine's butts when they got jammed up in a crack and the drones were on station but they could not get Apache's (always our beloved Guardian Angels) or Cobra's inbound in time, but it needs to be far more appropriate in terms of precedence. I don't think it should be ranked any higher than any "________ Achievement Medal" in precedence.

 

[Don Kuykendall_RIP]

My son served 15 months in Iraq and 12 months attached to a Special Forces unit in Afghanistan. He was not happy about this medal when he told me about it.

 

[Rick M]

I think it is appropriate for these new types of warfare, but certainly below any combat zone medal.

 

[STM]

My son served 15 months in Iraq and 12 months attached to a Special Forces unit in Afghanistan. He was not happy about this medal when he told me about it.

I'm sure, but like I said I really don't have a problem with a medal for them, it just has to be placed appropriately in precedence. To put it above the BSM and PH is absolutely ludicrous.

I got put in for an SSM, which got downgraded to a BSM with V by BN, when I was taking one of my squads on patrol in Sector 17 of Baghdad, which was the worst of the worst when it came to da rags in da hood. We got shot at nearly every day, but most of the time it was just one of the local rags taking a few potshots at us. This day was different. We started taking small arms fire from three directions. I got the guys set up in a hasty security "wagon wheel" and looked for a place for us to get out of the "rain". I found an abandoned two story building about 50m away and got everyone in there. It had a flat roof, where I set up as a hasty OP with one of my machine gunners and 203 gunners. We always carried at least one claymore with us so I had the guys emplace one facing the front door, which we had barricaded with an old delapidated couch. If the rags exercised the very bad judgment to rush it, they were going to get their asses EVAPORATED. When the first RPG hit the building I knew we were really in deep shit. I turned to my RTO and grabbed the handset called for our Guardian Angels, the Apache's on the SINCGARS. I told them we were surrounded and taking small arms and RPG fire from three directions and all of a sudden I heard in a loud voice "clear the net, all available gunslingers buster to (whatever our grid was)". It was not 5 minutes before I heard them off in the distance. 4 of them showed up and tore that entire neighborhood a new sphincter. Once the shooting stopped I got in the net again and asked for 3 M113's to exfil us. I don't think my heart went back down to a normal heart rate for about 3 hours. When we got back to the CP, the 1SG tracked me down and told me "I heard you had an interesting afternoon, why don't you let me buy you a drink so you can fill me in on it!" so we went into his office and broke out the scotch. I honestly could have cared less about any medal, I was just doing what any PSG should be doing, and seeing to that to the best of my abilities none of my guys got hurt in the process. We didn't take any casualties but by the time the Apaches were done that place looked like the floor of a slaughterhouse. Sucks to be them, that is what happens when you bring a beard to a gunfight ahmed!

 

[gqtuazon]

I know how you feel.

However, most of the combat in this modern era requires the use of robotics which cost less than flying a F/A 18 or any of the stealth bombers for covert ops since they cost less to operate. Squadrons have less funding now with the sequestration which means less flight hours.

The medal was mainly designed for the Air Force and I'm not too concerned about it. There are other more important issues that concerns me including unemployment issues, maintenance funding, and other benefits for veterans. This sequestration might even affect my next orders or if I will even be allowed to transfer or just extend me due to lack of funding. Just my two cents.

 

[Eduard]

As a USAF vet who served in intelligence in a few hotspots including Korea, I have no problem with the awarding of a medal for the drone pilots and/or cyberwar troops. They might not be personally in the line of fire, but they are indisputably interacting with the enemy. Their actions both save and protect lives and significantly contribute to the overall mission. They are not REMF's because they are directly involved in combat.

As far as order of precedence, IMHO I would have to rank it below the Purple Heart.

 

[Eye-level]

I wonder what they gave the dude that landed that weird drone in Iran a while back? A court martial maybe?

Just wait another couple years until the FBI gets well versed with their domestic models and let's see what everyone thinks about them then...I hear they will be rewarding pilots who turn in 200 of their fellow countrymen with the Presidential Medal of Freedom (from Tyranny)

It makes me sick to my stomach what the US government has become...

 

[STM]

I wonder what they gave the dude that landed that weird drone in Iran a while back? A court martial maybe?

Just wait another couple years until the FBI gets well versed with their domestic models and let's see what everyone thinks about them then...I hear they will be rewarding pilots who turn in 200 of their fellow countrymen with the Presidential Medal of Freedom (from Tyranny)

It makes me sick to my stomach what the US government has become...

I think we should all go up on our roofs and paint EFF YOU FEDS in big white letters. i wonder how much it would cost to get some military surplus STINGERS or Russian made SA-7's? They will both make light work of those drones

 

[Dave_W]

I think we should all go up on our roofs and paint EFF YOU FEDS in big white letters. i wonder how much it would cost to get some military surplus STINGERS or Russian made SA-7's? They will both make light work of those drones

This would work with the surveillance drones but would be utterly useless against the modern predator drones. They typically launch 4 to 5 miles away from their targets and the only way you'll know a predator drone is attacking you is when things start blowing up around you.

It's quite ironic that the two things we do better than anyone else on this planet - highly effective ways of killing people and the ability to keep people alive that should otherwise die - are polar opposites of each other.

 

[Eye-level]

The thing that America does better than anyone else on this planet and in all of world history is to line certain peoples pockets at the expense of all of the rest of us. Everyone one from Caesar to Hitler has tried it again and again with no real success in the end...guess what will happen to America?