Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel called for a review of the status of the new Distinguished Warfare Medal May 12, citing concerns that it is ranked too high. Production of the medal has been stopped. To date, no one has been nominated to receive it. Criticism of the award has come from many fronts. Most significantly, the Veterans of Foreign Wars is calling for Congress to reconsider the decision to grant the Distinguished Warfare Medal a higher ranking than the Purple Heart. The VFW’s chief complaint is that the drone operators and cyber specialists who qualify for the medal are not exposed to enemy fire. "You don’t have to go to war to earn it," the VFW said in a March 8 announcement. "This is a policy disagreement over the placement of the new medal, not whether drone operators, cyber warriors, and others don’t deserve to be properly recognized for the tremendous impact they are bringing to the battlefield in real time." The organization is urging its members to write to Congress in support of H.R. 833 and S. 470, which would lower the new medal’s ranking accordingly. Both pieces of legislation are pending.
