DefDog: Air Force Creates Valor Medal for Video Kills UPDATED 18 Feb 2013

Cultural Intelligence, Military
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DefDog

UPDATED 18 Feb 2013 to add Reactions

This is absolutely insane….ranks higher than a Bronze Star for Valor and cannot be awarded for serving in a combat zone. The Air Force pushed it in an effort to control the Drone and Cyber environment….Air Force would not let any comments from Afghanistan….payoff for the homage of the Air Force Generals? Most likely………

Pentagon creates new medal for cyber, drone wars

WASHINGTON (AP) — They fight the war from computer consoles and video screens.

But the troops who launch the drone strikes and direct the cyberattacks that can kill or disable an enemy may never set foot in the combat zone. Now their battlefield contributions may be recognized with the first new combat-related medal to be created in decades.

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Click on Image to Enlarge

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced Wednesday that the Pentagon is creating a medal that can be awarded to troops who have a direct impact on combat operations, but do it well away from any combat zone.

Read full article.

One comment online:

Thought at first it was a hoax but it’s not and it’s precedence sits just below the DFC. It was bad enough when NATO suggested the Courageous Restraint Award but this worse. This is Panetta’s going away slap in the face to our Nations warriors.  There are plenty of rewards available for support billets without insulting/degrading front line troops.  What’s next? Purple Heart for monitor eye strain or the dreaded carpal tunnel syndrome?

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Click on Image to Enlarge

Phi Beta Iota:  There is something to be said for the medal, because done right, drone killer operations do eat away at the soul and there is a need to recognize those who do this strange job that kills from afar.  To rank it above the Bronze Star is completely unacceptable and should be remediated by the incoming Secretary of Defense, the current Secretary having clear lost his mind along with his spine over Benghazi.  The moral disengagement, intellectual shallowness, and craven treason of the Joint Chiefs of Staff probably deserves a medal of its own — perhaps one shaped as a toilet seat, with crossed turds.  An accurate investigation of drone operations would find that they are ten times more expensive than in-theater pilot operations; that they kill ten times more people than a more discriminating situationally-aware pilot would kill; and that the “signature sets” are so screwed up we are using Hellfire missiles to kill truck drivers taking a dump at the side of the road.  Catch-22?  On steroids.  The only honest people in this war on the US side are the grunts on the ground.

See Also:

2012 Robert Steele: Reflections on the US Military — Redirection Essential — and a Prerequisite to Creating a 450-Ship Navy, a Long-Haul Air Force, and an Air-Liftable Army + Sanity RECAP

Berto Jongman: Brennan Set Petraeus and CIA Up in Benghazi, CIA 7th Floor Also Betrayed Him, Dual Chain of Command in Africa + Brennan/Drone RECAP

Graphic: New JCS Medal — We Who Sit, Serve

Marcus Aurelius: Letter from Joint Chiefs to Senate Armed Service Committee — Comment by Robert Steele + DoD Transformation RECAP

Mini-Me: John Brennan, Drones, Killing Children + Drone Meta-RECAP

Mongoose: Is General Patraeus Slated for “Suiciding?” + Meta-RECAP on No Rule of Law in USA

Owl: Confirmation of John Brennan at CIA Equals Congressional Approval of Open Season on “So-Called Americans” — Without Due Process, At Home or Abroad — And Thousands More Extrajudicial Killings of Foreigners

Winslow Wheeler: Will Chuck Hagel Stand Up to Drone Lobby?

UPDATED to add  Reactions

New medal for modern warfare sparks strong reaction

Purple Heart group: New medal ‘insulting’

VFW Upset Over Pentagon’s New Drone Warfare Medal

 

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