U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has abolished the Distinguished Warfare Medal, a Pentagon news release said citing DoD officials on Monday.
Instead, the U.S. military will recognize service-members who directly affect combat operations without being present through distinguishing devices that will be affixed to already existing awards, it added.
Soon after being sworn in as Defense Secretary in February, Hagel had asked Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Martin E. Dempsey to lead a review of the medal.
"The Joint Chiefs of Staff, with the concurrence of the service secretaries, have recommended the creation of a new distinguishing device that can be affixed to existing medals to recognize the extraordinary actions of this small number of men and women," Hagel said in a release.
"I agree with the Joint Chiefs' findings, and have directed the creation of a distinguishing device instead of a separate medal," Hagel said.
Noting that the "servicemen and women who operate and support our remotely piloted aircraft, operate in cyber, and others are critical to our military's mission of safeguarding the nation," he acknowledged that distinguishing devices will serve to recognize these service members' achievements.
Incidentally, the DoD had announced creation of the Distinguished Warfare Medal on February 13. Since then, veterans' service organizations and others have been objecting to the medal's order of precedence, which was to be just below the Distinguished Flying Cross and just above the Bronze Star.
Some of them even argued that the order of precedence of the Distinguished Warfare Medal would rank higher than the Purple Heart, which is awarded to those wounded or killed in action.
"When I came into office, concerns were raised to me about the Distinguished Warfare Medal's order of precedence by veterans' organizations, members of Congress and other stakeholders whose views are valued by this department's leadership," Hagel said in the release.
According to officials, the under-secretary of defense for personnel and readiness will now develop the award criteria in close coordination with the services and the Joint Staff. They also revealed plans to attach the distinguishing devices to awards at different levels, like affixing a device to an Army Commendation Medal would be different than those for the higher Meritorious Service Medal.
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