Originally Posted by
Deuce130
Strat nuke folks never killed an enemy combatant (WWII excluded, but I don't think that's what you meant), never saved a life, never turned the tide of a TIC, never killed a terrorist. Again, the medal isn't supposed to be for simply showing up. It's supposed to be for something above and beyond. If deterrence is your only criteria, then let's give everyone in the military a medal and be done with it. No one is getting carried away, except for the irrational opposition to this. There's always someone who has done something harder and more dangerous than the next guy. An Army grunt could laugh at some of the DFCs handed out to aircrew - how much danger were they REALLY exposed to compared to the Jarhead on the ground in Fallujah? How does this medal truly affect anyone not in the RPA community?
You seem to have an irrational opposition to the idea of recognizing the role and accomplishment of strat nuke folks. Good thing RPA guys eventually got weapons on their aircraft, or it would appear from everything you cite you don't value that role of their mission.
The disagreement here is on giving out a medal that is the 4th highest ranking combat medal to someone who never had to leave the safety of their U.S. based squadron. What if the value of this medal had been put above the Silver Star--would that be enough to get you to say, "Well, maybe that's a bit too much."???? And then I could argue back with a sad story of how bad the UAV guys have it...no one respects them, their parents are disappointed they aren't actually in an aircraft and look down my nose at you for daring to even question the idea that this medal should be the third highest combat medal. Yes, that rebuttal would sound pretty weak. So give them a special medal, sure. SAC crews didn't need one, but maybe others do.