For those that hang it out in air conditioned trailers near the Coke machine:

Pentagon creates new medal for cyber, drone wars - Business - Boston.com

The Bronze Star might be the 4th highest COMBAT medal; but it has turned into an administrative/staff medal during recent actions.

The UAV "pilots" deserve a medal.....for the mindnumbing hours of boredom they have to tolerate if nothing else.

To be considered higher than Bronze Star! ***?

What say you, combat veterans?

I've got no problem with them getting a medal. They have contributed much to the effort no doubt. The placement of the award in my opinion is not appropriate - if it is considered a "combat" award. If so - it should be below any award that actually involves direct participation.

They do get a medal, it's called the Good Conduct Medal.

Boredom is a staple of military life.

Good points all around and I agree they should not be placed above "combat" awards...However, they already have MSM's, AFCOM's, and Achievement Medals in place to properly recognize the cyber/RPA folks who do a vital job in a non-lethal enviornment. IMHO, this is nothing more than pandering to the RPA lobby so they can have a "Look at me I'm a combat warrior" award.

Considering the Air Force hands out BSM's like candy for achievement (perfectly legal, but diminishes the award), there is nothing that suprises me about this move. More bragging rights for the RPA lobby. They deserve to be recognozed for the vital job they perform, but to rate it higher than awards earned personally in combat is kind of a slap in the face..

Everyone gets a trophy.

For a moment I thought I might have mistakenly run across an article on The Onion. But no, this new "Distinguished Warfare Medal" appears to be real.

The article says it "will be considered a bit higher in ranking than the Bronze Star, but is lower than the Silver Star." My guess--too many UAV (or whatever they're going by these days) commanders weren't getting the recognition they felt they deserved and this is the result. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe a sharp drone pilot will deadstick his pred in for a life saving....errrr...safe landing and get a ride to D.C. for the honor of getting the first one of these.