New military medal

[jazyd]

Pancetta announced a new medal, The Distingquished Warfare Medal. To 'pilots' of unmanned aircraft, offensive cyberwar experts, or others directly involved in combat operations but not physically in theater and facing the physical risks that war historically entails.

Not only that but that medal is to be worn above the Bronze Star with Valor. The medal will be awarded for specific acts such as successfully targeting a specific individual at a critical time...

Needless to say it wasn't accepted well by many. So a guy that risks his life on the battlefield gets a medal that doesn't mean as much as the guy at a desk with a joystick? A pilot who flies thru flak to take out a target gets a slap on the back and the guy with the joystick gets a medal high on his chest.

When you have far left liberals running the military this is what you get. I am waiting for Obama and Kerry to announce our seals are only allowed 3 bullets in their guns, all they needed to take down OBL. And maybe Kerry can come up with a new medal, for the ones who can duck under water the longest in combat and a star for the biggest scratch.

[KeithKSR]

:Christz_pillepalle:

[dan_bgblue]

Similar to participation trophies hands out to all the kids on a T-ball team

[KeithKSR]

Medals usually come due to self-sacrifice or extreme acts of bravery. I'm trying to figure out how programming the GPS coordinates into a computer exhibit those traits.

[suncat05]

Similar to participation trophies hands out to all the kids on a T-ball team

The Army already does that one........ it's called the Army Service Medal, awarded to every soldier that graduates from Basic Training. Or at least it used to be, don't know if they've changed that since I was in the Army.
This is just more of the left's political correctness b.s., nothing more.

[bigsky]

"Participation medal"

[cattails]

I am by no means demeaning the contribution these joystick jockeys make, they are very skilled pilots. But let's be clear, they are not in harms way. I received a hand full of medals (have to get my DD-214 out to remember them), I have 3 bronze stars (none for valor LOL, I can't remember what they were for), I have expect sharp shooter metal, I could knock out quarters from 50 yards, got that on firing range, got metal/rating for 45 as well. Just because I was a marksman doesn't mean I should have gotten a metal for valor. Have Vietnam Campaign metal, doesn't mean I was a hero, just means I was there. Sure give these joystick jockeys a metal for exceptional service, but let's don't confuse it with the men and women that risk their lives to save other. Those are the ones that should be honored. For a non com to get the bronze star with valor you can believe they put themselves in serious harms way, to get the silver star is not that short of the medal of honor and most of those didn't make it home. Not knocking the joystick jockeys, they do a great service at little risk to themselves. They should get a metal of recognition, but it should not be attached to valor.

[dethbylt]

The Army already does that one........ it's called the Army Service Medal, awarded to every soldier that graduates from Basic Training. Or at least it used to be, don't know if they've changed that since I was in the Army.
This is just more of the left's political correctness b.s., nothing more.

ASM are given out like Pez candy. Army Commendation Medals are a little harder to get but sometimes are given to award darn near any accomplishment not including valor.

The issue I have with the new medal is that it supposedly is placed ahead of some valor medals. Not cool IMO. When they came out with the GWOT (Global War on Terrorism) medal they made two versions: the expeditionary medal for deployments and the service version for just being in the service at the time. It is a service to the country but come on.... I got a service medal BTW.

[CitizenBBN]

The Army already does that one........ it's called the Army Service Medal, awarded to every soldier that graduates from Basic Training. Or at least it used to be, don't know if they've changed that since I was in the Army.
This is just more of the left's political correctness b.s., nothing more.

Yep. I have no problem with them being awarded a ribbon. There are numerous ribbons given for various non-life threatening achievements. that's perfectly normal.

I could live with it being a "medal", it is more of an accomplishment than being range qualified expert or something similar, but I cannot live with it being above medals that require direct personal risk of life. It cannot outrank a combat medal.

Also, snipers and special forces often target single individuals and do not get a specific medal for hitting the target. So a medal for overall accomplishment is fair, but it doesn't outrank combat medals (no non-combat medal should) and it should be for a reasonable level of accomplishment.

[jazyd]

It just more of what this country is becoming, liberal do gooders, don't get a trophy for winning, get one for showing up.
the joystick guys do a service, get that, but give them a ribbon and not a true medal. Especially one that high on the pole. If I was in now, I would not accept anything they handed out for anything done on the field of battle.
They ought to call it the Kerry Medal of Honor.
Obama, Kerry, Biden, Hillary, Panetta, Hagel, the whole bunch is nothing but a bunch of liberal idiots that have the media totally on their side helping to spread their lies, propaganda, insults, crap like these 'medals', obamacareless, financial ruin, the whole 9 yards. Throw in this gun control mess and we have nothing more than a bunch of pansie ass politicians who have figured out we also have a bunch of morons that believe all the crap they are throwing against the wall and laughing their butts off because so much of it is sticking.



Yep. I have no problem with them being awarded a ribbon. There are numerous ribbons given for various non-life threatening achievements. that's perfectly normal.

I could live with it being a "medal", it is more of an accomplishment than being range qualified expert or something similar, but I cannot live with it being above medals that require direct personal risk of life. It cannot outrank a combat medal.

Also, snipers and special forces often target single individuals and do not get a specific medal for hitting the target. So a medal for overall accomplishment is fair, but it doesn't outrank combat medals (no non-combat medal should) and it should be for a reasonable level of accomplishment.

[cattails]

Yep. I have no problem with them being awarded a ribbon. There are numerous ribbons given for various non-life threatening achievements. that's perfectly normal.

I could live with it being a "medal", it is more of an accomplishment than being range qualified expert or something similar, but I cannot live with it being above medals that require direct personal risk of life. It cannot outrank a combat medal.

Also, snipers and special forces often target single individuals and do not get a specific medal for hitting the target. So a medal for overall accomplishment is fair, but it doesn't outrank combat medals (no non-combat medal should) and it should be for a reasonable level of accomplishment.

Chuck I have friends that were snipers and at great risk, have a disabled vet friend that we served in Chu Lai at the same time in the TET, he was a sniper, tunnel rat and forward recon, he is messed up to this day. He deserves a medal for what he did (of which he got none), I could not have done what he did, no way. Snipers are at great risk, a tunnel rat, I think they would have to shot me to go down there with a flash light and a 45. It is just 2 different worlds, one is face to face combat with great risk of life, the other highly skilled pilots with no risk.

[CitizenBBN]

cattails no doubt they deserve them. That's my issue here. If anyone gets a medal for successfully carrying out a single targeted kill it's guys who spend 2 days crawling up to a target in the middle of a war zone, not the guy with the computer screen who can kick your but at Halo. No problem acknowledging their accomplishment, but how many soldiers have done more with someone shooting back? A million?

How many guys have saved their squad by taking out that one guy he had to hit, one chance or your friends die? How can hitting the target with a drone where you take breaks and get sodas from the machine in the break room compare to that?

It deserves a ribbon maybe, I'm highly dubious on a medal, and I'm outright offended it goes ahead of any combat commendation. Flying drones is still a support position, not a combat position.

Tunnel rat? he has 1000x more guts than me. I cannot imagine doing it much less coming out of it "OK". Not sure how you'd sleep right ever again. Yes, those are the men who should have more medals than they can put on the uniform. It's fine to recognize other accomplishments, they're important and deserving, but they don't outrank combat medals. Nothing does, military or otherwise.

[CattyWampus]

So, the military brass has decided to give a medal to an individual who successfully killed a key target via a joy stick and a monitor. In other words, the typical 14 year-old who spends time on a computer playing video games already possesses the skill needed to win a medal in the military. That makes perfectly good sense/.

Face it folks, I think the left has won the Velvet Revolution. They've infiltrated the military. They've infiltrated the schools. They've infiltrated the courts. They own pop culture. They control the major internet search engines. They've completely taken over most of the media. Yeah, I think we're no longer in a fight to "keep" our country. That country defined by our Constitution is gone. We need to wage a war to take it back. The war doesn't start at the top. It starts in the local school boards, the city commissions, and the state houses. It starts in the Congressional districts. And, we don't do it by electing moderate squishes who "just want to get along".

[cattails]

cattails no doubt they deserve them. That's my issue here. If anyone gets a medal for successfully carrying out a single targeted kill it's guys who spend 2 days crawling up to a target in the middle of a war zone, not the guy with the computer screen who can kick your but at Halo. No problem acknowledging their accomplishment, but how many soldiers have done more with someone shooting back? A million?

How many guys have saved their squad by taking out that one guy he had to hit, one chance or your friends die? How can hitting the target with a drone where you take breaks and get sodas from the machine in the break room compare to that?

It deserves a ribbon maybe, I'm highly dubious on a medal, and I'm outright offended it goes ahead of any combat commendation. Flying drones is still a support position, not a combat position.

Tunnel rat? he has 1000x more guts than me. I cannot imagine doing it much less coming out of it "OK". Not sure how you'd sleep right ever again. Yes, those are the men who should have more medals than they can put on the uniform. It's fine to recognize other accomplishments, they're important and deserving, but they don't outrank combat medals. Nothing does, military or otherwise.


Chuck I had one friend that was a tunnel rat that tried to take his life twice after he got out, I guess he couldn't stand the nights. I didn't want to bring this up and I don't mean to offend anyone that served as an officer in the service, but officers get special treatment from each other in combat medal rewards. During the TET offensive we engaged the VC with the Army and Marines at our side, I was a in the CBs. Our officers were in bunkers with flak jackets and helmets while directing the action, we had non coms driving jeeps or running to get ammo under fire to our brothers who were running low, this went on all night. We didn't have people dragging bodies back because we didn't lose a man. But we saved lives by just getting fire power to where it was needed. Next morning we had a body count of something like 580 kills and we did not lose a man, they just came at us in mass. Would you like to know who got recommended for bronze stars? Officers took care of their own, non coms were just pawns. Don't get me wrong, we had some great officers, more so the ones that came up through the ranks, Warrant Officers and so forth. And this is by no means saying there were not a lot of officers that stood toe to toe with their men and lost their lives and deserve medals for what they did. But there clearly was a pecking order and while the joystick jockeys themselves may not be behind this, it again shows the pecking order. I mean not to offend any officer, thank you for your leadership and service, but it is what it is.

[dan_bgblue]

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Monday cancelled the production of a new military medal for service members involved in drone attacks and cyber warfare (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/04/15/hagel-cancels-creation-new-drone-cyber-medal/)

[PedroDaGr8]

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Monday cancelled the production of a new military medal for service members involved in drone attacks and cyber warfare (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/04/15/hagel-cancels-creation-new-drone-cyber-medal/)

Good, this was incredibly ill conceived. First, off to group drone pilots with cyber-warfare was stupid. The only relation these two positions have is that they use a computer. Cyber warfare is much more like an applied science, while being a drone pilot is much more like applied video games.


Cyber warfare involves people that are highly intelligent. One only has to look at Stuxnet/Flame/Duqu/Gauss/Wiper strains of computer viruses. These are some of the most impressive viruses ever written and they were written either by us or the Israeli's. Wiper was so good that at this time no security firm has ever recovered an actual data file from this program. They just see its signature in damaged computers (it overwrites its payload files to render them unrecoverable).

[jazyd]

Thanks Dan, good to hear

QUOTE=dan_bgblue;80068]Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Monday cancelled the production of a new military medal for service members involved in drone attacks and cyber warfare (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/04/15/hagel-cancels-creation-new-drone-cyber-medal/)[/QUOTE]