As some know by now, Chuck “2P” (two Purple Hearts) Hagel has just revoked the Drone Service Medal, that being the one recently being of higher merit that a Bronze Star with “V” device for Valor or even a Purple Heart.

After numerous complaints from every Veterans’ quarter,  Leon “the pants” Panetta took a flyer on it and retired. Chuck had been on board with it for about a month but finally pulled the plug. I can understand the retrenchment. Any trooper who has ever been shot at knows the desire to curl up into as small a target as possible but is taught to resist this primal urge and to return fire. No wonder we get bent brains. I’m a firm believer in mathematics. When someone determines there is an average of 40% casualties, common sense dictates your actions but training often turns you into one of the 40. I can see where 2P Hagel might see it from our point of view seeing’s as he obviously has been tagged twice.

What concerns me this evening was the realization of why we are even having this  discussion. Put another way, why would anyone of a military persuasion ever put a medal for ingesting flat 7 Up® and stale Twinkies® above a Bronze Star-let alone one with a V device? They wouldn’t, which leads to the question of who planned this out?

The REMF crowd (look it up) is fond of these kinds of things. They like medals. They all have a lot more than the guys out on the front lines. Desk jockeys always look like they were in the thick of it. Similarly, the upper echelons at Fort Fumble are now largely civilian and they have no conception of the sacredness of a Silver Star or an Air Force Cross in the pantheon of military heraldry. They do understand the CMOH to their credit but it all gets unworkable and confusing below that level. They leave that to the little people.

So somewhere down the line, someone made a momentous decision to put this X-box Operator’s medal above the BSw/V. To put that in perspective, back when the Army was just getting back into the swing of things at the beginning of WW2, my Uncle Jay did the Bataan 63 KM fun run with a bullet through his ankle and drank his buddy’s urine. His reward? Why a BS w/ a V device. He already had one so this was his second. He wouldn’t get them for 40 more years because he was too shy, but that’s what he got. Well, that and a George Washington Purple Certificate but the important thing is that it illustrates the value of what you do against what they reward you with.

We should never have had to have this reach a discussion because the concept is ludicrous. This isn’t neanderthal, male chauvinist thinking. It is simple, common sense. To even propose a higher ranking, let alone announce this as a fait accompli, shows very little respect for our prior fallen who gave their all. It reeks of REMF.  And that’s all I’m going to say about that.

Bataan Fun Run with Oak leaf cluster for doing it on one leg.

P.S. Great Humor–while we’re on this subject.