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Petition Against Distinguished Warfare Medal - Please Read!

muskymojo

muskymojo

This new medal will be awarded to drone pilots, who are often thousands of miles from any actual combat, and the risks associated with it. Wait, that's not the bad part. The bad part is this new medal with hold pecedence over The Bronze Star with Valor, and the Purple Heart. Basically that means a soldier that sits in front of a computer eating Cheetos could be held in higher honor than a soldier that displays heroic conduct on the actual battlefield, as well as those injured in battle. I find it truly disgraceful to our real heros that risk, and have risked their lives for our country.

Link to story - http://www.usatoday....-medal/1928833/

Link to petition - https://petitions.wh...-medal/5KdnkBBN

I urge all red blooded Americans to sign this petition. Also, please pass this along to friends, family, other forums, and social media.

Below is the petition as it reads:

Lower the precedence of the new Distinguished Warfare Medal

The Pentagon is introducing a new medal to recognized the service of pilots of unmanned drones during combat operations. This medal will be placed in precedence order just below the Distinguished Flying Cross and just above a Bronze Star Medal. Bronze Stars are commonly awarded with a Valor device in recognition of a soldier's service in the heat of combat while on the ground in the theater of operation. Under no circumstance should a medal that is designed to honor a pilot, that is controlling a drone via remote control, thousands of miles away from the theater of operation, rank above a medal that involves a soldier being in the line of fire on the ground. This is an injustice to those who have served and risked their lives and this should not be allowed to move forward as planned.
 
signed-
 
atwar_dronememe-blog480.png




No, this is not what the new medals look like, but it would be funny.
 
Signed

Granted these new pilots may be facing different kinds of stress but it seems that it's just not the same as having live fire coming at you.
 
I respectfully disagree. Deployed, nearly every "leader" in my unit received a bronze star despite not actually being in "real" combat. -- They were as involved in the combat as I was -- 0 .. hearing combat does not make you involved in combat. . my point - when normal people begin receiving the bronze star just because they were loosely associated with combat - it waters down the true meaning and value we place on certain medals. Depending on the career field, most active duty are aware of this problem, but it only gets discussed behind closed doors. Were this fixed I would totally agree with you..

However, the pilots who qualify for this new medal show significantly higher rates of PTSD than other pilots. They fly missions year round unlike most pilots who get breaks for 6 months. At the end of the day, they go home to their family - sounds good right, ... go killing by day, burp baby by night -- after a while it does get to you.

I'm sure I'll come back from work an enemy on here, but I firmly believe there is some merit to this discussion rather than just falling in line.
 
I signed the petition but slpknt103 make a valid point. I just don't think that medal should be above a valor medal. Before my computer crashed I use to have a site saved that had the order of medals---need to go and find it again.
Anyway not trying to piss people off.....having served it is just my humble opinion. Not sure if they need to create a new medal ?????
 
slpknt10l03 said:
I respectfully disagree. Deployed, nearly every "leader" in my unit received a bronze star despite not actually being in "real" combat. -- They were as involved in the combat as I was -- 0 .. hearing combat does not make you involved in combat. . my point - when normal people begin receiving the bronze star just because they were loosely associated with combat - it waters down the true meaning and value we place on certain medals. Depending on the career field, most active duty are aware of this problem, but it only gets discussed behind closed doors. Were this fixed I would totally agree with you..

However, the pilots who qualify for this new medal show significantly higher rates of PTSD than other pilots. They fly missions year round unlike most pilots who get breaks for 6 months. At the end of the day, they go home to their family - sounds good right, ... go killing by day, burp baby by night -- after a while it does get to you.

I'm sure I'll come back from work an enemy on here, but I firmly believe there is some merit to this discussion rather than just falling in line.
Click to expand...

I respect your opinion, and certainly don't think any less of you because of it. I agree with a lot of what you said. Especially about the true meaning and value of certain medals being watered down over time because they are handed out more frequently now days. I just think this new one waters them down even more. I'm also not saying drone pilots don't deserve recognition. It's the order of precedence that really bothers me. I'm not a big fan of the name they chose for it either...
 
Signed.

Sure, they deserve recognition for distinguished service... all who serve do. But the guy that runs out into incoming fire with no regard for his own life to drag a fallen buddy to safety is in a class of his own. Just my opinion. However, I didn't serve, so my opinion may not be worth that much, and I accept that.
 
There is a great deal wrong with the Air Force's medal/personnel reviews system, and I agree with you, Musky, in principle about the precedence.

The Air Force, in my experience, has many unwritten rules about how medals are awarded and to whom they will be rewarded. There are "officer's medals" and there are "enlisted medals". Now, like I said, these are unwritten rules, you won't find it anywhere in the "Regs". An enlisted person will almost NEVER receive anything higher than Bronze Star in the AF, and if they do, sadly, it is probably going to be posthumous. Officers, on the other hand, routinely receive them for the most trivial of things. Pilots are a whole other story, more on that later.

For many situations in the AF medals are seen as obligatory, for example, I did two tours in Iraq and one tour in Germany, I received 3 AF Achievement medals for those three tours. Did I "achieve" anything? In my opinion, not really! But each time my supervisor was obligated to submit me for a medal because I didn't "screw up" enough to be denied a medal. I actually attempted to refute my 2nd and 4th AF Achievement Medals due to the medal packages being full of lies. Needless to say, that paperwork never got further than my CO because it would "reflect poorly on the AF". The AF has a culture of perfection and entitlement.

When it comes to personnel reviews, the AF review is on a scale of 1-5. If you read the regulations, a "5" means "no room for improvement". "3" means "average, satifactory". I never received anything lower than a "5", but I tried to refute every one of them. I never saw myself as a "perfect" Airman, and I felt dirty knowing that there were some really outstanding Airmen that would never get the recognition since practically everyone got a "firewall 5" on their reviews. I actually had a SMSgt (E-8) tell me that anyone that receives a 4 on a review should be given extra duty, and anyone who receives a 3 should be kicked out! Remember, a "3", according to regulation, means "doing the job up that is expected, satisfactorily".

Both of these things all come back to promotions. Each medal, and each review, is figured into this asinine, convoluted system for determining who is eligible for promotion. For enlisted folks, at least up to E-6, it is pretty straighforward and noncompetitive. Officers have a different system which is very competitive, and 1 or 2 points can be a very big deal and mean you don't see a promotion for a LONG time. Pilots are traditionally promoted fairly fast due to the fact that they are the "bread and butter" of the AF, without them, there is no AF, no mission. It really boils down to monetary compensation. A 1st Lieutenant doesn't really make a ton of money, but a Major does, enough to keep him from walking away with his multi-million dollar training to the civilian sector. The same goes for this Distinguished Service Medal, it is just another way to keep these pilots from walking away from the AF, before the AF gets their money's worth.

I understand the need for this medal. A drone pilot is not going to eligible for many of the other warfighter medals, because he never steps foot "in-country", where a C-130 pilot gets a mission in country twice a year. Now all of the sudden, these drone pilots are getting passed over for promotion because all the other pilots have more "medals points". A few years go by, and you have drone pilots who see guys they "flight trained" with making Colonel and they are still Captains. The Air Force created this medal to even out the promotions.

Was it the right way to resolve the situation? Nope!

Do I feel like it should be demoted in the medal ranking? Nope!

I don't feel like this medal is going to take away from the Army and Marines, the boots on the ground guys that get hurt and killed and deserve the purple hearts and the bronze stars. These two medals are almost NEVER awarded to AF enlisted due to the lack of combat roles that AF has for enlisted people. It doesn't effect how the Army, Marine Corp or Navy promote. The AF really does its own thing, for better or for worse. The better thing for the AF to do would be to lose its culture of perfection, give airmen HONEST feedback, award medals according to merit and not according to obligation, and bring themselves in line with the rest of the military.

Thanks for bringing the petition to everyone's attention Musky, as taxpayers we should have a say, no matter what your individual views on it are!
 
I'll sign it.

Ghostpepperstore has a lot of valid points, specially the rating system used now. Don't know if he's been in long enough but it used to be a one through 9 scale. If you didn't receive an overall nine it cost you a few points for promotion. I do have to disagree about enlisted promotions up to E-6 not being competitive. At least it was back in my day. There were only so many slots open for promotion and along with your record you were required to take two different tests, one on your career field and one on overall military/Air Force way of life.

When I first came in enlisted promotions rates were under 10%. When I retired rates had climbed to over 25%.. As for officers being more difficult I have to disagree with that too. Right now nearly 100% of all officers make it to Captain, 0-3, 80% to 0-4 Major, 70% to 0-5 Lt. Colonel and over half make it to 0-6 Colonel. http://www.google.co...4,d.aWc&cad=rja

TGPS I agree 100% with your thinking the USAF needs to lose it's "culture of perfection" and give enlisted folks an honest feedback. We were saying the exact same thing back in the early 80's when I first came in. When we transitioned from the 0-9 system to the 1-5 system some supervisors tried being honest. When they started adding up points for WAPS, Weighted Airmen Promotion System, they found that nothing had changed. Anyone with a four rating lost just enough points that they could not get promoted unless SKT and PME scores were way above the average. Within two years of the new system it was worthless, straight fives or you didn't get promoted. There is too much human ie, emotional bias in the current system.

Anyway none of this matters. The drone guys should get something for their effort but it shouldn't rank above or be worth more points toward promotion than any medal given to folks "on site". Anyone who doesn't get to go home every night deserves something more valuable than someone who does.
 
I agree - not terrible to give those who serve honorably recognition. But putting this award over the awards that combat veterans receive is way out of line. That's the part I'm outraged over.
 
I was enlisted from 2003-2007. These were the days of the USAF "Force Shaping" which was a program designed to get rid of a lot of NCO's from certain career fields. Unfortunately they opened it up too widely and the AF lost a lot of NCOs from career fields that didn't have any to spare. This made promotion rates, especially for E-5 skyrocket. I literally went out of my way to fail the "Air Force way of life" portion of the promotion test, and still only missed promotion by 2 points.

I am still torn on whether or not it is ok for the new medal to be above some of the others, I wonder if they could demote it but keep the number of promotion points it is worth? I think that might be the way to go.
 
I retired in 2000. The changes the USAF went through in the time I was in was crazy. We used to have commander's calls in the NCO club, drinking was darn near mandatory. When I retired alcohol was considered an evil thing.
 
Just FYI

I tried to copy & paste to where I went and searched US Medals and this is what Wikipedia says in order of medals.

They start out with personal, then units and so forth.

1) Medal of Honor---Awarded for "Gallantry and intrepidity at risk of life above and beyond the call of duty"


Service Cross medals. Awarded for "Extraordinary heroism"

2) Distinguished Service Cross (Army)
3) Navy Cross
4) Air Force Cross

Distinguished Service Medal:

5) Defense Distinguished Service Medal
6) Homeland Security Distinguished Service Medal
7) Distinguished Service Medal (Army)
8) Navy Distinguished Service Medal
9) Air Force Distinguished Service Medal
10) Coast Guard Distinguished Service Medal

11) Silver Star Awarded for "Gallantry in action"
12) Defense Superior Service Medal
13) Legion of Merit
14) Distinguished Flying Cross
15) Distinguished Warfare Medal----The NEW Medal, note: If a drone pilot is considered in "combat" then look right above this
medal. If not then they should be at the Airman's Medal. Either way
they are still listed ahead of the Bronze Star & Purple Heart.
Maybe this medal is awarded to the other branches of service too ??


Medals for non-combat heroism:

16) Soldier's Medal
17) Navy and Marine Corps Medal
18) Airman's Medal
19) Coast Guard Medal

20) Bronze Star Medal
21) Purple Heart
22) Defense Meritorious Service Medal
23) Meritorious Service Medal
24) Air Medal
25) Aerial Achievement Medal

Commendation medals

26) Joint Service Commendation Medal
27) Army Commendation Medal
28) Navy & Marine Corps Commendation Medal
29) Air Force Commendation Medal
30) Coast Guard Commendation Medal

Achievement medals,
Unit Awards---Presidential Unit Citations
Meritorious Unit Commendations
Efficiency Awards
Service awards---Prisoner of War Medal, Combat Readiness Medal
Good Conduct medals---Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps & Coast Guard

Then it goes into Reserve Medals.

So for non combat heroism the Air Force has 3 medals they can already award--Airmen's medal, Air medal & Aerial Achievement medal. So I don't see a need for a 4th one myself. But I didn't know a Bronze Star was in the NON-Combat section. Guess one can learn something. So much for history lesson....
 
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