Originally Posted by
LivingInMEM
Gunship,
Want an example as I envision it? How about the crew that, through ultimate SA, knows that what the JTAC/Grd CC is telling him is wrong and he holds fires though cleared hot until it's confirmed that those guys actually are friendlies. Given your screen name, I thought maybe you could relate to that; if required, perhaps I could point you in the direction of instances that started out like that but didn't turn out so well.
As far as what I scoff, I scoff the watering down of medals that people used to have to either die for or at least be better than their peers for. I also scoff you and others saying that this new medal will be an insult to those who deploy when there are now more AMC crewmembers wearing Air Medals than there are AMC crewmembers wearing small arms expert ribbons. There is nothing distinguishing about an award that everyone gets for just doing their job.
Nice speech at the end, save it for someone who hasn't participated, and gotten the awards that come along with participation (devaluation and all). You see, I recognize the also played end game result of having one award for all contributions and I recognize the attempt at least to create an award appropriate for the level of contribution.
You scoff at the recognition of our armed service members' actions (or the process, now), you derisively dismiss my acknowledgment of gratitude for those who died in action as "nice speech", and you use a friendly fire incident in which a U.S. service member died and a gunship crew has to live with for the rest of their lives to belittle a serious question. Are you proud of yourself for your pathetic and hateful attempts to make your point?
The main point I and others are trying to make is that deciding to create a new medal for a service member's actions that does not require they even be present in a combat zone, but is yet the 4th highest ranking combat action medal is probably a poorly conceived idea. But I'm no longer interested in trying to explain my opinion to you, for you sir have shown yourself to be of poor character from what I've read from you here.