UAVs anybody???

[nocal80]

I am indeed weeping. yeah, just like an emergency in any other airplane.... except his ass wasn't strapped to it.

 

[zab1001]

Read it and weep...

UAV 'pilot' receives air medal

by Airman 1st Class Monica Munro
Air Warfare Center Public Affairs
NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. (AFNS) -- An 11th Reconnaissance Squadron unmanned aerial vehicle operator was recently awarded the Air Force Aerial Achievement Medal for safely landing a UAV after its engine seized 150 miles from the ground control station at Mostar Air Base, Bosnia-Herzegovina.

not the Air Medal...apples and oranges

 

[HeyJoe]

USAF Aerial Achievement Medal

not the Air Medal...apples and oranges

May well be true. Although title says "Air Medal", the text says "Aerial Achievement" which is a unique USAF medal one notch below Air Medal. Navy/Marine Corps usually award an Air Medal without the "V" for an aircraft save: http://members.aol.com/warlibrary/display/usaf.htm

 

[zab1001]

Yeah, standard PAO BS, no one idiot-checking the accuracy of the wording used. I just recall a many years back when some folks nowhere near an airplane were awarded "real" Air Medals for Bosnia ops conducted while they were in fact in Germany. The details escape me, but I know a lot of Zoomies who get riled up when you mention it.

 

[HeyJoe]

Yeah, standard PAO BS, no one idiot-checking the accuracy of the wording used. I just recall a many years back when some folks nowhere near an airplane were awarded "real" Air Medals for Bosnia ops conducted while they were in fact in Germany. The details escape me, but I know a lot of Zoomies who get riled up when you mention it.

From NNS http://www.newhousenews.com/archive/wood082704.html...of course Napoleon said it best (see quote near end)

During the air war over the former Yugoslavia, the Bronze Star, intended to recognize heroism or meritorious achievement in combat against an enemy, was awarded to four Air Force officers working in the Pentagon and by the Navy to officers working in desk jobs in Naples, Italy, according to the military newspaper Stars and Stripes. And after the 1983 U.S. invasion of Grenada, the Army handed out more combat medals than there were soldiers who actually landed on the Caribbean island.

But critics of the military's penchant for handing out too many medals tend to be outside the military.

"Within the brotherhood," said Scales, "we know who the warriors are."

Still, medals are awarded, and worn with pride, to reflect something of the heroism and courage and honor of combat -- even if battlefield reality cannot be fully appreciated outside the circles of combat veterans.

"A soldier will fight long and hard," Napoleon observed to a French naval officer in 1815, "for a little bit of colored ribbon."

 

[zab1001]

During the air war over the former Yugoslavia, the Bronze Star, intended to recognize heroism or meritorious achievement in combat against an enemy, was awarded to four Air Force officers working in the Pentagon and by the Navy to officers working in desk jobs in Naples, Italy, according to the military newspaper Stars and Stripes.

Any idea if they were for meritorious service, or for valor? I've seen plenty of Bronze Stars given for little to nothing to do with actual combat (therefore they were "vanilla", without the "V"). Not arguing, just curious.

edit: While procrastinating studying for yet another checkride, I did some research of my own, appears they were all for "meritorious service"...

 

[HeyJoe]

Any idea if they were for meritorious service, or for valor? I've seen plenty of Bronze Stars given for little to nothing to do with actual combat (therefore they were "vanilla", without the "V"). Not arguing, just curious.

As I recall (because I remember when this came out in press in 83), the guys on Grenada got the V and staff guys in Pentagon and on divisional staff in the rear got the vanilla version. In Desert Storm, almost every CO/XO got vanilla versions for their staff work even if they were flying or driving ships firing Tomahawks.