The military has stopped production of a new medal for remote warfare troops, drone operators and cyber war fighters as it considers complaints from veterans and lawmakers over the award, a government official said Tuesday.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has ordered a review of the Distinguished Warfare Medal, which was to be awarded to troops who operate drones and use other technological skills to fight America’s wars from afar. Announcement of the review is expected at a Pentagon news conference later Tuesday.
Lawmakers and veterans groups have complained that although troops can get the new medal for work far from the battlefield, it has been ranked above medals for those who served on the front line in harm’s way, such as the Purple Heart given to wounded troops.
If the review agrees with that complaint about the medal, it would likely have to be renamed and new medals manufactured, the government official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record.
In ordering the new look at the medal, Hagel said Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey would lead a review of how the medal is ranked among others — where it is in what the military calls “the order of precedence” of the medal, according to talking points obtained by The Associated Press.
John Bircher, a spokesman for the Military Order of the Purple Heart, has said the veterans groups are not objecting to the medal — just the ranking. He said some medals ranked ahead of the Purple Heart are achievement medals that can be earned outside of war time.
What bothers many veterans is that the new Distinguished Warfare Medal appears be a war-time medal that trumps acts of valor, which he finds insulting.
The backlash to the Pentagon’s announcement included an online petition to the White House signed by thousands of people. The petition called the medal “an injustice to those who served and risked their lives” and asked that it not be allowed to move forward as planned.
No comments:
Post a Comment