The Pentagon has created a new medal to adapt to a new era of technological warfare — and reward drone operators for well-placed strikes.
The Distinguished Warfare Medal will be awarded to service members whose extraordinary achievements, regardless of their distance to the traditional combat theater, deserve distinct department-wide recognition.
“I have seen first-hand how modern tools like remotely piloted platforms and cyber systems have changed the way wars can be fought,” said Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. “We should also have the ability to honor extraordinary actions that make a true difference in combat operations, even if those actions are physically removed from the fight.”
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey said the criteria for the medal “will be highly selective and reflect high standards.”
“This new medal recognizes the changing character of warfare and those who make extraordinary contributions to it,” he said.
The Distinguished Warfare Medal will sit directly below the Distinguished Flying Cross. It may be awarded for actions in any domain but not involving acts of valor.
Panetta also stipulated that it will not be awarded for actions prior to Sept. 11, 2001.
“The member’s actions must have resulted in an accomplishment so exceptional and outstanding as to clearly set the individual apart from comrades or from other persons in similar situations,” Panetta wrote in a memo to DoD employees.
Directly impacting operations, according to the guidelines, means “hands-on employment of a weapons system, including remote employment, or other activities in any domain, that had direct, immediate, and on-site effects on the outcome of an engagement or other operation intended to have an effect upon the target.”
Really? We need a new medal for that? From the description, the Air Medal would work fine.
A stupid stupid idea. Somebody who isn’t at the slightest bit of risk is awarded a medal for doing what? Staying awake? Being good at video games. I’m not knocking the servicemen who do it, but they certainly don’t deserve any special recognition. It would be far better to award medals to exceptional designers of military equipment, but even that shouldn’t be anything close to a medal awarded to a person who puts his life at risk in combat.
Only a leftist who spent every waking hour figuring out how to undermine the country could come up with such a harebrained idea.
So obviously, it’s the obamabots’ way of glorifying everything their adolescent wonder and his bloodthirsty tyrannical handlers come up with.
I’m guessing this is an Air Force mentality idea which was warmly received by the left leaning types in the Administration. That way they can give medals to people to help them get past the uncomfortable ethical considerations that drone operations sometimes involve.
“the uncomfortable ethical considerations that drone operations sometimes involve”
Gotta wonder, these would be different from ethical considerations for any indirect fire like artillery, MLRS, or bomb dropping how?
I wanna be a chairborne ranger!
The REMF Star!
I hope anyone who wears that thing gets laughed at.
No offense – they are still our troops and if I never ask a uniformed serviceman what his job was before I buy him a round and shake his hand but seriously people work up more of a sweat playing Call-of-Duty. Does the award come with a lifetime supply of Redbull and Hot-pockets? Seriously though I can only hope that anyone that ‘wins’ such a medal will accept it with all the embarrassed humility it deserves. It’s been said above. Sorry, nice work gang, proud of all of you, you are a team. There are thousands of necessary but riskless jobs in the military service and they aren’t the ones that get the medals. I’d bet our service people are okay with that. …Hmm now I have tragic visions of Obama & Biden publicly outing the drone fliers just like they did ST6. Word of advice drone teams — Once you’ve been outed at your medal ceremony — don’t let yourselves get sent on random helio rides over Afghanistan.
They could call the medal the Geek Cross.