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DoD Award To Recognize Drone Operators (securityweek.com)
wiredmikey writes: According to a Pentagon memo due out today, the US military will create a new way to recognize drone operators and other service members who contribute to America's fighting efforts from afar. The military is set to introduce a new "R" designation — known as a "device" — that can be attached to medals given to drone operators and other non-combat troops, such as cyber warriors who hack enemy networks. Former defense secretary Chuck Hagel nixed a proposed new combat medal for US troops who launch drone strikes or cyber attacks, after a torrent of criticism from veterans and lawmakers. Drone pilots have complained of low morale, long hours and of the psychological impacts stemming from killing people remotely.
Aren't military medals supposed to be for noble things like bravery, heroism, or honour?
I served in the military, and was awarded several medals. None of them were for bravery, heroism, or honour. Most of them were for being in the right place at the right time, such as the SASM and the NDSM. I also got a NAM, or "atta boy medal" for doing my job during a peacetime deployment.
I don't see any reason drone operators shouldn't get a medal of their own. They are doing more to earn it than I did.
Actually, incorrect. While some awards (e.g. the Bronze Star, Medal of Honor) are given for unusual behavior (e.g. heroism), the military has the worlds' original badge system. There are badges for everything. For example, you can get the Silver Chevron if you've served in a war but stateside for at least six months (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...).
So it's entirely reasonable to say "there's something distinctive about this group that merits its own device" -- most devices have nothing to do with heroism.
Medals are for recognition - sure you might be hiding in a control room, but there are circumstances where what you did deserves recognition.
Drones are often deployed in support roles - providing an eyes in the sky view for the ground team, for example. While out on patrol, the ground team gets pinned because of an unknown shooter. So while their lives are in danger, the drone operator flies around and then sports the shooter and relays their coordinates to the ground team so they know where to look and try to take it out.
At the end of the mission, those guys on the ground are thankful for the drone operator to provide support - it could've ended very badly. Perhaps the guy in the air conditioned control room stateside should get a little recognition for that? Because I'm sure that team doesn't care about the drone operator's working conditions, but they're damn appreciative he was there.
For what?
Aren't military medals supposed to be for noble things like bravery, heroism, or honour? What's honourable about taking out an opponent from so far away that the risk to yourself is nonexistent?
Which is exactly why their morale is so low - which in turn is what military medals are for...to raise the morale of someone doing a shit job well so that they keep doing it well.
blindly antisocialist = antisocial
Just because you have a history of some people in your family getting medals for doing some real combat doesn't change the fact that medals are given out for a wide variety of reasons, not all of them to do with combat, and in some cases given out without even being at war, or for just being deployed in the correct country not necessarily doing any combat.