The news that a medal has been created to honor the
"extraordinary actions" of drone pilots and other servicemembers acting far
from the battlefield has triggered strong reactions about medals and their
value.
In one of his last official acts, outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta
on Wednesday announced the creation of the Distinguished Warfare Medal, to
recognize "extraordinary achievements that directly impact on combat
operations, but do not involve acts of valor or physical risks that combat
entails."
The medal will rank immediately below the Distinguished Flying Cross --
and higher than the Bronze Star -- in order of precedence, according to a
Defense Department chart. It can be awarded for any actions after Sept. 11,
2001.
"Our military reserves its highest decorations, obviously, for those who
display gallantry and valor in actions where their lives are on the line, and
we will continue to do so," Panetta said. "But we should also have the ability
to honor the extraordinary actions that make a true difference in combat
operations."
Drones and cyberwarfare "have changed the way wars are fought," Panetta
said.
Critics quickly pounced on the idea that medals for trigger-pullers would
now be outranked by a medal for joystick-manipulators.
The Veterans of Foreign Wars voiced its displeasure in a statement
Thursday, declaring that the 2 million-member organization "is in total
disagreement" with the decision to have the new Distinguished Warfare Medal
outrank the Bronze Star and Purple Heart, adding that it could "quickly
deteriorate into a morale issue."
"The VFW fully concurs that those far from the fight are having an
immediate impact on the battlefield in real-time," said John E. Hamilton, VFW
national commander and a combat-wounded Marine Corps rifleman in Vietnam. "But
medals that can only be earned in direct combat must mean more than medals
awarded in the rear."
Those who fight remotely using technologically advanced weapons of war
have often been dismissed; some scoff at military awards when there is no
immediate, tangible risk to life and limb.
Others ridiculed the idea outright.
"So medals would be awarded for sitting safely ensconced in a bunker on
U.S. soil and launching bombs with a video joystick at human beings thousands
of miles away," wrote commentator Glenn Greenwald for Salon.com in a July
2012, column, when talk of the medal first surfaced.
Critics also have derided the medal as redundant, given that awards for
technical expertise and/or meritorious service outside war zones exist in the
array of medals the services already offer.
Yet some see merit in the idea, questioning the current definition of
"war zone."
Air Force Maj. David Blair, writing in the May-June 2012, issue of the
Air & Space Power Journal, noted that through the ages the users of new
technology -- from catapults and crossbows to nuclear submarines -- have
always been dismissed as somehow less praiseworthy than traditional warriors.
Blair asked how much difference there is in terms of risk "between 10,000
feet and 10,000 miles," if "combat risk" is to be weighed as a factor in
awards.
A "manned aircraft ... that scrapes the top of a combat zone, well
outside the range of any realistic threat" is deemed in "combat," Blair
writes, but a Predator firing a missile is considered "combat support."
According to the Distinguished Warfare Medal award criteria, a
servicemember must have accomplished something "so exceptional and outstanding
as to clearly set the individual apart from comrades or from other persons in
similar situations" to earn the medal, and it cannot be awarded for valor in
combat.
Panetta made the announcement at what he said will likely be his last
news conference as secretary of defense.
The medal is a recognition of evolving 21st Century warfare, in which
troops fight wars from computers and video screens, The Associated Press
noted. The medal could go to servicemembers who never set foot in a combat
zone, but launch drone strikes or cyberattacks that can kill or disable an
enemy.
For its part, the Air Force was apparently not eager to allow
servicemembers in Afghanistan to express their thoughts about the new medal.
The Air Force Public Affairs Office would not allow a Stars and Stripes
reporter to gather comments from airmen at Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan.
Stars and Stripes' Jennifer Hlad contributed to this report.
