Originally Posted by LivingInMEM

Gunship, I was referring to an RPA fratricide incident that went down poorly under the circumstances I laid out; my reference to your background was to indicate that your are well aware that global SA that saves a frat is worthy of an award more valuable than a Bronze Star awarded to a guy at Bagram who processes award packages. Your response confirms your recognition of whether that's a recognizable achievement.

Moby, who said the Bronze Star is a combat based medal? It's not. The medal is routinely awarded for "meritorious service" which may include being a public affairs officer, running a FSS, or processing awards packages. The requirement to even be in a combat zone was imposed in 1999.

So, should the RPA driver who saves a fratricide above get a lesser medal than a deputy public affairs NCO who never leaves Balad AB? Should that deputy PAO get an award more valuable than a Purple Heart?

There is a lot of complaining about the first case potentially happening, but there sure hasn't been a lot if complaining about the second case that DOES happen almost daily.

PS: why is the fratricide issue such a worthy concern for a gunship crew but not for an RPA crew that is dropping GBU-12s and AGM-114s with half the SA building tools (or less) than a manned platform? They're just RPA guys, right?