Drone pilot medal to outrank Bronze Star....

[Shokr21]

Honestly unless the Bronze Star has the V device it's rather pointless itself.

It's been posted above how the BSM is typically a "thanks for showing up" award for anyone e-7 above and 0-3 above.

Absolutely disgusting that we give "participation" awards.

Hell while I was overseas a kid in our rear det got a Army Commendation for walking a dyke on the Missouri River, I got a battalion coin for 9 months service in AFG. I don't know that I deserved more than what I got, but I was on 54 combat missions with over 12,000 miles, the rear det mouthbreather was on duty for 2 weeks.

[ezthumper]

So the AC-130 gunners deserve a medal for their bravery to board an airplane, but the drone operators are just jerks.

Have you ever flown in one of those AC's.....holy crap, make sure you skip your meal as part of your pre-flight.

[TCinVA]

Honestly unless the Bronze Star has the V device it's rather pointless itself.

I think that's the real issue. The award has been passed out like candy...so now an award for guys who are actually doing something combat related like shooting a hellfire at some Taliban fighters need to have something to recognize going above and beyond the expected duty to distinguish apart from the "You've been a relatively good boy for a long time, now here's your lollipop" award.

Something done initially to boost morale (we should give Jones a medal for this outstanding work!) eventually completely defeats the purpose.

[Jay Cunningham]

I'm sorry, did I say they were jerks?

No, you didn't use those words. You did however insinuate that they weren't deserving of recognition. You used derisive terminology (didn't offend me, it's humorous) and talked about undermining troop morale and desk jockies and such.

I'm not saying they deserve a Medal of Honor, but they certainly are contributing to the war effort.

[Tamara]

You did however insinuate that they weren't deserving of recognition.

No, I insinuated that such recognition should not be higher on the totem pole than that shown to someone who was in at least theoretical danger. (And I fully acknowledge everything Sean M wrote above.)

As I noted elsewhere

That's right: Private Snuffy, who stopped two Taliban AK bullets while dragging his buddy to safety and spraying covering fire from the hip with his SAW one-handed, gets a Bronze Star with a "V" for "Valor", while the pilot of the drone watching the whole thing through a camera overhead is sitting in a cubicle farm in Vegas in danger of nothing more serious than mixing up the regular and decaf pots, and he gets a bigger, shinier, better medal.

Which doesn't mean that Private Snuffy wasn't glad to have that drone overhead, or that maybe the drone operator was even crucial to saving Snuffy's bacon, but it still seems a little out of whack to my no-dog-in-this-fight civvie eyes.

[Jay Cunningham]

Private Snuffy and his squad mates would probably love to award some drone operators some beer, I'd imagine.

I can only see CAS going more and more drone in the future.

[JMS]

What's the *essential* difference between a drone operator killing enemy personnel and an AC-130 gunner killing enemy personnel?

Infantryman's POV: Nothing, they're both POGs....



EDIT: Personnel, of any stripe, rate awards for their work/achievments/acts, regardless of commodity-area. The idea that we need YET ANOTHER individual award, when there already exist awards that can satisfactorily provide such regognition, is riduculous. More "unique and special snowflake" nonsense, that the ones we have are somehow insufficient for the task.

[Jay Cunningham]

Infantryman's POV: Nothing, they're both POGs....

Right.

[CMG]

I found this pretty funny in regards to how people treat the drone pilots.

[seabiscuit]

Okay, robot jockeys and hackers.

And people whose "distance to the traditional combat zone" is 0 miles.