All right, you're right. It isn't a video game-- for the guys that the pilot, sitting in an air conditioned room, with no chance of being injured himself, is flying cover for. For the pilot behind the stick though, it's certainly not equal to the risk involved, or deserving of any award equal to or greater than, the guys who are placing their lives on the line physically.
If it's not a video game, it's the next best thing. Plenty of personal security, literally no personal physical consequence to one's actions, and the ability to walk away from it at any time if you become unable to continue. Again, the guys on the ground can't just look over at their replacement and ask him to step in for a minute while they take a leak.
I agree that the stakes are high. For who? Sure, if you screw up you can end up with PTSD, heck, even if you don't screw up you can end up with PTSD. But again, the guys on the ground can end up with PTSD, brain damage, missing limbs, or just dead. Surely the two are not equal. Surely the guys taking the real risks don't deserve to have their awards placed below that of someone who is flying a drone five thousand miles away?
Awards at and above the level of the Bronze Star with the V should only be awarded if one's physical well being is at stake. Because it is being given to those who aren't risking their lives for others means this new award has downgraded mine to mean jack doodly. How is that NOT insulting?
It goes against the very reason the Bronze Star was created in the first place:
Quote:
The Bronze Star Medal was conceived by Colonel Russell P. "Red" Reeder in 1943, who believed it would aid morale if there was a medal which could be awarded by captains of companies or batteries to deserving people serving under them. Reeder felt another medal was needed to be a ground equivalent of the Air Medal, and proposed that the new award be called the "Ground Medal".[4]
The idea eventually rose through the military bureaucracy and gained supporters. General George C. Marshall, in a memorandum to President Franklin D. Roosevelt dated 3 February 1944, wrote
The fact that the ground troops, Infantry in particular, lead miserable lives of extreme discomfort and are the ones who must close in personal combat with the enemy, makes the maintenance of their morale of great importance. The award of the Air Medal has had an adverse reaction on the ground troops, particularly the Infantry Riflemen who are now suffering the heaviest losses, air or ground, in the Army, and enduring the greatest hardships.
The Air Medal had been adopted two years earlier to raise airmen's morale. President Roosevelt authorized the Bronze Star Medal by Executive Order 9419 dated 4 February 1944, retroactive to 7 December 1941. This authorization was announced in War Department Bulletin No. 3, dated 10 February 1944.
Again, I don't have anything against you receiving an award for piloting a drone. But not one higher than the lowest one earned for people who are in close personal contact with the enemy. It is absolutely demeaning to those who do. Of course, the AF acts like the Bronze Star is an AAM, so why not dump this new award on top of it? It was never meant to be anything but an award for front line duty, but the V device was later added so that REMFS could get it too, and act like what they had done was somehow comparable to front line service, where again, one can die. The military has long had a history of devaluing awards by making up new ones to reward the good old boy network, sounds to me like this is just another example of it.
Quote:
In 2012, the U.S. Air Force alleged that two of its female airmen were subjected to cyber-bullying after receiving Bronze Star Medals for meritorious non-combat service. The two airmen had been finance NCOICs in medical units deployed to the War in Afghanistan and received the medals in March 2012. The awards sparked a debate as to whether or not the Air Force was awarding too many medals to its members, and whether the Bronze Star should be awarded for non-combat service.[5] This prompted the Air Force to take down stories of the two posted to the internet, and to clarify its criteria for awarding medals. The Air Force contended that meritorious service awards of the Bronze Star outnumber valor awards, and that it views awards on a case-by-case basis to maintain the integrity of the award.[6]
However, this is not the first time that the USAF has come under fire in the past for offering this award. The Department of Defense investigated the award of the Bronze Star Medal (BSM) by the USAF to some 185 individuals after operations in Kosovo in 1999. All but 25 were awarded to officers, and only 1 in 10 of those awarded were actually in the combat zone. Five were awarded to officers that never left Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. During this campaign, the Navy had awarded 69 BSMs, and the Army with 5,000 troops in neighboring Albania (considered part of the combat zone) awarded none.[7] In the end, there was a Pentagon review and decision by Congress to stop the awarding of Bronze Stars to personnel outside the combat zone.