The Chair Force Combat Medal

I wish this was a joke from Duffel Blog. But it isn't. Now, some frakking gamer who is sitting in a comfy chair in Nevada can get a medal for killing people on the other side of the world.

The Pentagon is expected to announce today the creation of a medal that can be awarded to drone operators as well as to individuals fighting in the cyberwar trenches.

This would be a first. The Distinguished Warfare Medal, a nearly two-inch-tall brass pendant below a ribbon with blue, red and white stripes, will be handed out to people judged to have racked up "extraordinary achievement" directly tied to a combat operation but at a far remove from the actual battlefield.....

That's right, a "combat" medal for some REMF whose biggest on-the-job risk is getting a paper cut, or possibly eye strain from watching a monitor. No risk to themselves, no bravery under fire is called for. Hell, the only risk they have of getting shot is if they cheat on someone else's spouse or if they walk into a liquor store that's being robbed.

And it gets even better! In order of precedence, the Chair Force Attaboy Gong is higher than the Bronze Star, a medal that, when awarded with a "v" for valor,* is typically given for bravery in the kind of combat where the enemy is shooting at you.

This is bullshit. This frakking "combat" medal cheapens the medals that are given to the real fighting men and women, the people who perform real acts of bravery. There is no "combat" involved in playing cybergeek or sitting at a drone control station near Vegas. The actor in the Barbasol commercial** came closer to actual combat then the Chair Force "soldiers" who would be eligible for this new medal.

What's next, a medal for neocon chickenhawks?

UPDATE:  The Duffel Blog's suggested design for this Combat Gamer's Medal:

____________________________________
* Without the "v for valor", the Bronze Star has been given to Fobbit/garritrooper officers who could hear gunfire way off in the distance.
** I can't tell what rifle he's carrying. There is something roundish at the back of the receiver and the barrel looks too short for a Garand.