Pentagon Considers Awarding Drone Pilots Combat Medals

[jimmy olsen]

Fucking disgusting, an insult to all those servicemen who have served with valor in combat. Death to the Air Force, bring back the Army Air Corps.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/in-the-loop/post/drone-pilots-to-get-medals/2012/07/09/gJQAF2PhYW_blog.html

Drone pilots to get medals?
By Al Kamen

The Pentagon is considering awarding a Distinguished Warfare Medal to drone pilots who work on military bases often far removed from the battlefield.

Pentagon officials have been briefed on the medal's "unique concept," Charles V. Mugno, head of the Army Institute of Heraldry, told a recent meeting of the Commission of Fine Arts, according to a report in Coin World by our former colleague Bill McAllister.

Mugno said most combat decorations require "boots on the ground" in a combat zone, but he noted that "emerging technologies" such as drones and cyber combat missions are now handled by troops far removed from combat.

The Pentagon has not formally endorsed the medal, but Mugno's institute has completed six alternate designs for commission approval.

The notion of greater recognition for drone pilots has been percolating for some time. Air Force Maj. Dave Blair, writing in the May-June issue of the Air & Space Power Journal, asked how much difference there is in terms of risk "between 10,000 feet and 10,000 miles."

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."

The proposed medal would rank between the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Soldier's Medal for exceptional conduct outside a combat zone.

[The Brain]

A medal that isn't for valor is an insult to people who receive other medals which are for valor?

[Josquius]

Fucking disgusting, an insult to all those servicemen who have served with valor in combat. Death to the Air Force, bring back the Army Air Corps.

How?
Are modern tank crews who blast their enemy from over a mile away less deserving of medals than 19th century cavalrymen who had to get up close and dirty?
Drones are just a natural evolution in removing the pilot from the bloodyness.

[jimmy olsen]

Fucking disgusting, an insult to all those servicemen who have served with valor in combat. Death to the Air Force, bring back the Army Air Corps.

How?
Are modern tank crews who blast their enemy from over a mile away less deserving of medals than 19th century cavalrymen who had to get up close and dirty?
Drones are just a natural evolution in removing the pilot from the bloodyness.

That crew can be killed by other tanks, by artillery, missiles, antitank weapons etc. The drone pilot can't possibly be killed unless the conflict escalates to global thermonuclear war. 

[Syt]

ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED

[Martinus]

It's funny when a mentally retarded cripple is offended by stuff like this.

[Brazen]

Drone pilots are fully-trained pilots with as much influence over the life-or-death outcome of a conflict as manned pilots. They have shifts flying in a dark room far longer than sorties undertaken on manned aircraft and suffer from more combat stress, possibly because of the position they find themselves in, not directly being in the line of fire. But who's to say terrorists wouldn't target their location?

This is from an interview on combat drone ethics I did with technology ethicist Blay Whitby:
"I was at a dinner for retired RAF officers last year and the [drone Commander] talked about his boys and girls in Nevada flying these things and said it was a very stressful posting. The old pilots there at the dinner were very unimpressed by this claim of stress, especially as we had a Battle of Britain hero there who had seen his friends burned to death in front of him.

"Compare this to flying in a shed completely out of harm's way, why is it stressful? I can't deny that it does seem to be stressful, and that might be another argument for getting humans more remote from the process [by further automating drones]. I would guess that the commanders on the base are also going to be unimpressed by the claim of combat stress.

As an ethicist I'd say we don't know why this is stressful and we should investigate before we go any further. It's a new sort of stress and it may be for the very reason that you said, it puts tremendous ethical responsibility on someone without them putting themselves at risk. "

Not all medals are for valour, combat medals are for contributing directly to the outcomes of a conflict to the best of your abilities.

[mongers]

I think people in my company deserve a medal when I'm droning on.

[FunkMonk]

ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED

[CountDeMoney]

Fucking disgusting, an insult to all those servicemen who have served with valor in combat. Death to the Air Force, bring back the Army Air Corps.

The proposed medal would rank between the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Soldier's Medal for exceptional conduct outside a combat zone.

And how exactly is a medal for "exceptional conduct outside a combat zone" an "insult to all those servicemen who have served with valor in combat"?

Or wait, I know:  because you're a fucking moron retard assfuck.

[Ed Anger]

Even more fun, UAS classes are being given by Community Colleges.

http://uas.sinclair.edu/index.html

Sinclair.

[Brazen]

Even more fun, UAS classes are being given by Community Colleges.

http://uas.sinclair.edu/index.html

Doe sit consist of a XBox and Ghost Recon: Future Soldier?

[The Minsky Moment]

So Jimmy,

I sent your OP to the 432d Air Expeditionary Wing for comment.
They didn't respond, other than to mention that you might want to keep a look out up in the sky the next time you go outside.

[Valmy]

ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED

[Darth Wagtaros]

Fucking disgusting, an insult to all those servicemen who have served with valor in combat. Death to the Air Force, bring back the Army Air Corps.

How?
Are modern tank crews who blast their enemy from over a mile away less deserving of medals than 19th century cavalrymen who had to get up close and dirty?
Drones are just a natural evolution in removing the pilot from the bloodyness.

That crew can be killed by other tanks, by artillery, missiles, antitank weapons etc. The drone pilot can't possibly be killed unless the conflict escalates to global thermonuclear war. 

Well they are blasting bad guys.  That means they are competent and dedicated to what they do. That warrants some distinction doesn't it?