Martin Michaels
This award means a lot to me,” said Kenneth Peck, an Army sergeant injured by rocket and mortar fire during combat in Afghanistan. “But it’s not my award. I’m only the custodian of it. I wear it to honor all my fallen brothers and sisters, and those who came before me,” said Peck during his Purple Heart acceptance speech in 2010.
The Purple Heart, a prestigious award for those who were injured during combat, could have been overshadowed were it not for a decision by the Pentagon Monday reversing plans to create a medal for drone pilots and cyber warriors that would have outranked other prestigious awards for veterans wounded in combat.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced the decision this week, rolling back the biggest proposed change in military awards since the end of World War II.
The Distinguished Warfare Medal was proposed by former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta two months ago. The medal was to be awarded to drone pilots and cyber warriors who fight remotely, far away from a battlefield setting. After an outcry from veterans and current soldiers, Hagel nixed the medal but agreed with the need to recognize the contributions of men and women who do not serve on the ground in front line roles.
“I agree with my predecessor, Leon Panetta, that such recognition is justly warranted for these men and women and thank him for raising the level of awareness of their hard work and critical contributions,” Hagel said.
As an alternative, drone pilots will now be awarded a “device” that can be affixed to existing medals as a way to recognize those who fly and operate drones, whom Hagel described as “critical to our military’s mission of safeguarding the nation.”
At the time of Panetta’s announcement, veterans and their families lined up in opposition because the proposal would have elevated the prestige of drone pilots above those who were awarded Purple Hearts for sustaining an injury in combat. Brian Jopek, whose 20-year-old son, Ryan, earned a Bronze Star when he was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq in 2006, described Panetta’s decision a “slap in the face.”
Hagel assuaged some of the anger with his decision, receiving praise from the Veterans of Foreign Wars, a leading veterans organization that had been critical of the medal.
“This decision will clearly keep medals that can only be earned in combat in their high order of precedence, while providing proper recognition to all who support our warfighters regardless of their distance from the fight,” John E. Hamilton, the head of the veterans’ group, said in a statement.
Beyond the ranking of medals, drone attacks continue to be the source of controversy as human rights organizations decry their use in missions abroad, most frequently in the Middle East and South Asia. The London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism reports that since the beginning of drone missions in 2002, the allegedly “precise” method of killing enemy combatants has resulted in the deaths of more than 1,000 civilians. The use of drones has continued to expand under President Obama as there are now 1,100 Air Force pilots flying remotely piloted aircraft for missions in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.