Soren Dreier: Drone Wars: The Bravery of Being Out of Range

The Pentagon is considering awarding a Distinguished Warfare Medal to drone pilots who work on military bases, often far removed from the battlefield. Army Institute of Heraldry chief Charles Mugno said most combat decorations requite "boots on the ground" in a combat zone, but he noted that "emerging technologies" such as drones and cyber combat missions are now handled by troops far removed from combat. The Pentagon has not formally endorsed the medal, but Mugno's institute has completed six alternate designs for commission approval. The proposed medal would rank between the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Soldier's Medal for exceptional conduct outside a combat zone. So medals would be awarded for sitting safely ensconced in a bunker on US soil, and launching bombs with a video joystick at human beings thousands of miles away. Justifying drone warfare requires pretending that the act entails some sort of bravery, so the US military is increasingly taking steps to create the facade of warrior courage for drone pilots: The Air Force has been working to bridge the divide between these two groups of fliers. First off, drone operators are called pilots, and they wear the same green flight suits as fighter pilots, even though they never get in a plane. Their operating stations look like dashboards in a cockpit, and drone pilots themselves are propagating boasts of their own bravery more and more: Luther Trey Turner III, a retired colonel who flew combat missions during the gulf war before he switched to flying Predators in 2003, said that he doesn't view his combat experience flying drones as "valorous." "My understanding of the term is that you are faced with danger, and when I am sitting in a ground-control station thousands of miles away from the battlefield, that's just not the case."