RPA/Cyber has their medal on the way

[17D_guy]

Got an email today from a vets organization soliciting input (i.e. complaints) about the DWM to be packaged and sent to the SECDEF. Here's my question...nothing in the description of the medal says you have to be remote/cyber/whatever. Wondering if CCs could start putting dudes in for the DWM for actions that rank below a DFC but are still one-off major contributions to the war effort...I guess above the rarely-given single-mission AM? Just spitballing here...agreed that the hierarchy is a little screwed up.

So.... it's for people who contribute more than the Bronze Star for Service rates? Is that a deployment/PCS O5 medal, or an O6 medal. I need to update my chart.

directly involved in combat operations but who are not physically in theater

AOC commanders rejoice!

[HU&W]

Award to retain order of precedence.

[ATIS]

UTSanDiego.com

March 5, 2013

More In Congress Want To Demote New Medal

Davis, Issa sign letter about medal for drone pilots, cyber operators

By Jeanette Steele

Adding voices to the call to downgrade a new medal for drone pilots and cyber warriors, Rep. Susan Davis, D-San Diego, and 48 others from the House of Representatives dispatched a letter Monday to the new Secretary of Defense.

The letter asks Secretary Chuck Hagel – who earned two Purple Hearts as an enlisted soldier in Vietnam -- to reconsider the position of the new Distinguished Warfare Medal.

On Feb. 13, outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced the decision to create the award, which recognizes “extraordinary achievement” related to a military operation but does not require the recipient to risk his or her life to get it.

The announcement caused a furor among combat veterans because the new medal is positioned above the Bronze Star and Purple Heart.

The Bronze Star is awarded for merit and, when carrying a V, acknowledges valor in combat. Ranking below the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart is awarded for being wounded or killed in action.

On Feb. 26, Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, and two other military veterans in Congress proposed legislation that would demote the Distinguished Warfare Medal below the Purple Heart.

Davis, who serves on the House Armed Services Committee, said in a released statement that Hagel should “take a hard look” at the new medal’s placement.

“We also feel it is a disservice to our service members and veterans who have, or who currently are, serving overseas in hostile or austere conditions,” said the letter, signed by a bipartisan group, including Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista.

In other medal news, the Pentagon announced recently that it has expanded its online valor database to include Medals of Honor bestowed before Sept. 11, 2001.

Previously, the online listing only included medals awarded since Sept. 11. The database, at valor.defense.gov, provides the name of service members awarded the Medal of Honor, service crosses or the Silver Star.

The Pentagon said it intends by March 31 to add pre-Sept. 11 recipients of the Navy Cross, Air Force Cross and the Distinguished Service Cross.

That leaves the Silver Star, which ranks below the others but above the Bronze Star. Adding pre-Sept. 11 recipients of the Silver Star will be more difficult, the Pentagon said.

Many more Silver Stars have been awarded, and historians have done less research on recipients. Also, the authority to award the medal was delegated below a service’s headquarters, and award documents didn’t always reach the higher headquarters or make it into a service member’s personnel record.

[17D_guy]

Well done, Congress! You might be ######ing everyone in the military over the budget, but you're doing a great job fixing our awards and decs.

perhaps they can get to our evaluations next?

[HU&W]

Cancelled

[ChiefSlapahoe]

"Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing...after they have exhausted all other possibilities." -Winston Churchill

So true.