{"id":163313,"date":"2024-11-19T07:00:35","date_gmt":"2024-11-19T12:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=163313"},"modified":"2024-11-17T15:28:39","modified_gmt":"2024-11-17T20:28:39","slug":"recent-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=163313","title":{"rendered":"Recent awards"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

I see a couple of recent awards in the news.<\/p>\n

Harriet Tubman was named a Brigadier General in the Maryland National Guard this Veteran’s Day for actions during the Civil War.<\/p>\n

Tubman escaped slavery herself in 1849 and settled in Philadelphia. Intent on helping others achieve freedom, she established the Underground Railroad network and led other enslaved Black women and men to freedom. She then channeled those experiences as a scout, spy and nurse for the Union Army during the Civil War, helping guide 150 Black soldiers on a gunboat raid in South Carolina.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I am sure her establishing the Underground Railroad would be a bit of a shock to Philadelphia Quakers, who had already set up a network before 1810 – Ms. Tubman was born in 1822.Matter of fact:<\/p>\n

The Quakers are considered the first organized group to actively help escaped enslaved people. George Washington complained in 1786 that Quakers had attempted to \u201cliberate\u201d one of his enslaved workers.History.com<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But let’s not let facts get in the way of a good narrative. Besides, I suspect a Maryland general probably rates right up there with a Kentucky Colonel, or a Minnesota National Guard Command Sergeant Major.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Moving on to another award:<\/p>\n

\n

The Air Force has awarded the Silver Star to a female airman for the first time following her role in the shootdown of more than 80 Iranian drones that were part of Iran’s large missile and drone attack on Israel in mid-April.<\/p>\n

Capt. Lacie “Sonic” Hester, an F-15E instructor weapons systems officer, is the first Air Force woman to receive the Silver Star and only the 10th female service member ever to receive the award. Also receiving the Silver Star on Tuesday was her pilot, Maj. Benjamin “Irish” Coffey, for his role in coordinating the shootdowns from their two-seat fighter and then using all of their missiles and their fighter’s Gatling guns to bring down some of the drones.<\/p>\n

Tuesday’s award ceremony at Hester’s and Coffey’s home base of Royal Air Force Lakenheath in the United Kingdom honored the men and women of the 494th Fighter Squadron and the 494th Fighter Generation Squadron with two Silver Stars, six Distinguished Flying Crosses with the valor device, four Distinguished Flying Crosses with the combat device, four Distinguished Flying Crosses, two Bronze Stars, seven Air and Space Commendation Medals and seven Air and Space Achievement Medals.\u00a0 ABC News<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Thirty-two awards – reminds me a bit of, what was it, a Bosnian raid when more awards were handed out by the Air Force than participated? According to the article:<\/p>\n

\n

One of those commanders was Lt. Col. Timothy “Diesel” Causey, the commander of the 494th Fighter Squadron.<\/p>\n

“We all fell into an execution rhythm: Call, shoot, and confirm the target was destroyed before we moved on to the next task we had to accomplish to keep everyone safe,” Causey said in a U.S. Air Force story about this week’s ceremony.\u00a0 ABC News<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Good for the folks who shot these drones down – it says 300 missiles and drones were fired at Israel and our folks helped knock out a bunch of ’em. Only one thing I see missing, and perhaps one of you Air Force folks can correct me – I see no evidence of enemy fire other than drones and missiles designed to hit the ground. No\u00a0 one actually aiming at, firing at, or engaging our planes.\u00a0 Am I just being a curmudgeon? I really have a hard time getting behind what, our nation’s fourth highest combat award, for a ‘combat’ situation where our guys weren’t being shot at. Help me, please.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I see a couple of recent awards in the news. Harriet Tubman was named a Brigadier … Recent awards<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":668,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[187,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-163313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-air-force","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/668"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=163313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163313\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=163313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=163313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=163313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}