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<blockquote data-quote="STM" data-source="post: 125155" data-attributes="member: 12827">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 &quot;pilots&quot;. 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.&nbsp; 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 &quot;pilots&quot; 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 agreedBelow 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 &quot;pilot&quot;.&nbsp; I even added a coveted &quot;Combat Coffee Cup&quot; device (first award) for all those &quot;pilots&quot; who can't &quot;fly&quot; their drones before their first cup of morning coffee!<img src="http://i1338.photobucket.com/albums/o690/photodotnet/combatcoffeecupaward2_zpsbef54fa0.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></blockquote>

[QUOTE="STM, post: 125155, member: 12827"] 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[B][I] ABOVE both the Bronze Star Medal and Purple Heart[/I][/B]!!! 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 [I]direct engagement with the enemy[/I]. 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 [I]Sony X-Box controller[/I], 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! [IMG]http://i1338.photobucket.com/albums/o690/photodotnet/combatcoffeecupaward2_zpsbef54fa0.jpg[/IMG] [/QUOTE]

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