{"id":34350,"date":"2013-03-01T06:08:38","date_gmt":"2013-03-01T10:08:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=34350"},"modified":"2013-03-05T13:53:05","modified_gmt":"2013-03-05T17:53:05","slug":"the-1999-kosovo-bsm-fiasco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=34350","title":{"rendered":"The 1999 Kosovo BSM Fiasco"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a couple of earlier comments and\u00a0a previous article<\/a>, I\u2019ve referenced something I\u2019ve called the \u201c1999 Kosovo BSM Fiasco\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 However, it occurs to me that many regular readers of TAH – especially those who are younger – might not know the history of that little escapade, and might have also missed the references.\u00a0 So I decided to write and post a brief summary of what happened and what resulted afterwards.<\/p>\n

Background<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1999, the US found itself engaged in hostilities with Serbia as part of NATO.\u00a0 The primary hostile actions were US and NATO airstrikes against targets in Serbia and Kosovo.\u00a0 The NATO operation was called Allied Force; the US operation was called Noble Anvil.<\/p>\n

USAF and USN forces participated in this air campaign.\u00a0 Since the campaign involved hostilities, the Bronze Star Medal (BSM) was an authorized award for those participating in the operation.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the USAF and, to a lesser degree, the USN decided to interpret the phrase \u201cin connection with military operations against an armed enemy\u201d inanely loosely.\u00a0 The resulting fiasco severely cheapened the BSM.<\/p>\n

The Fiasco<\/span><\/p>\n

The USAF awarded a number of . . . well, rather questionable BSMs during this operation.\u00a0 They awarded one to a Lieutenant Colonel commanding a squadron at Whiteman AFB, MO<\/em> \u2013 because his squadron’s aircraft had bombed Kosovo.\u00a0 They awarded the BSM to three Colonels in Ramstein AB, Germany – <\/em>because they’d been involved in planning.\u00a0 The Civil Engineering commander at Aviano AB, Italy<\/em>, also received one for supporting combat operations by setting up a tent city.\u00a0 Obviously, none of these are in Serbia, Kosovo, Albania, or the rest of the combat zone for this operation.\u00a0 These individuals apparently never even entered the designated combat zone.<\/p>\n

All told, the USAF awarded 185 BSMs for participation in these operations.\u00a0 Few of the personnel receiving them seem to have actually set foot in Serbia or Kosovo.\u00a0 None of the pilots flying over Serbia and Kosovo received one \u2013 the BSM cannot be awarded for actions involving aerial flight.\u00a0 In fact, the majority – if not virtually all – \u00a0USAF BSM recipients for Serbia\/Kosovo seem to have served at safe, peaceful locations CONUS, Germany, or Italy.\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019ve only been able to find information showing 5 that actually set foot in Serbia or Kosovo.\u00a0 They were USAF enlisted personnel who participated in operations to rescue downed aircrews; four of these individuals deservedly received the BSM with \u201cV\u201d device for valor, the fifth a BSM sans “V”.<\/p>\n

The USAF’s justification at the time?\u00a0 According to a USAF Lieutenant Colonel, \u201cThe Air Force has its own philosophy” (regarding awards), and that the awards were not at the time prohibited by existing law or regulation.\u00a0 And at the time (1999-2000), that Lieutenant Colonel was exactly correct.<\/p>\n

The Navy also participated in the fiasco, albeit to a lesser extent.\u00a0 The USN and USMC awarded 70 BSMs for participation in these operations.\u00a0 One went to the Navy Captain serving as Executive Assistant to the Commander of the US contingent to the NATO operation – serving in Naples, Italy<\/em>.\u00a0 Indeed, per then-Brig. Gen. James Amos, USMC, of the 5 members of that US component commander\u2019s staff who received the BSM only one apparently actually served in the designated combat zone.<\/p>\n

To be fair, in the Navy\u2019s case things aren’t quite so blatantly bad.\u00a0 Many of the other BSMs awarded by the Navy were awarded to personnel serving on ships that supported operations from within sea areas designated as part of the combat zone.\u00a0 Thus at least a significant fraction of the Navy and USMC BSMs awarded during Kosovo were \u201chonest\u201d ones.\u00a0 But not all.<\/p>\n

As is normally the case, the award of USAF and USN BSMs for Kosovo\/Serbia was rank-skewed.\u00a0 Well, it is the equivalent of a MSM when awarded for service vice heroism, so that’s somewhat to be expected.\u00a0 But here it seems to have been somewhat more rank-skewed than usual.\u00a0 The references discuss that in detail.<\/p>\n

In contrast, the Army \u2013 which had the majority of forces present on the ground in Albania and Kosovo, easily within Serbian artillery range \u2013 took a different tack regarding the BSM for Allied Force.\u00a0 The Army awarded precisely zero<\/em><\/strong> BSMs in conjunction with operations in Serbia\/Albania\/Kosovo during the operation.<\/p>\n

The Army had over 5,000 boots-on-ground at the time.<\/p>\n

Aftermath<\/span><\/p>\n

When all of this became publicly known there was substantial outcry.\u00a0 And in a rare case of Congress actually fixing something via passing a new law, the 2001 Defense Authorization Act introduced a new requirement for the BSM.\u00a0 Henceforth, the BSM could only be awarded to individuals for actions performed while entitled to hostile fire or imminent danger pay.\u00a0 <\/em>That statutory restriction remains in effect today and is found at 10 USC 1133<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Further details concerning this fiasco can be found here<\/a>.\u00a0 The articles detailing the situation are from Stars and Stripes<\/span> in mid-2000; full-text versions of the original Stars and Stripes<\/span> articles are included\u00a0at the link as references 1, 2, and 3 and follow the initial commentary there.\u00a0 They\u2019re still rather disturbing today, more than a decade after the problem has been fixed.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re still wondering about why the USAF reputedly was the driving force behind the new \u201cDistinguished Warfare Medal\u201d (DWM), perhaps the above might help you understand.\u00a0 The new abomination that is the DWM is not<\/em> the first time the USAF has tried to legitimize giving combat decorations to those who never came within a thousand miles of a combat zone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a couple of earlier comments and\u00a0a previous article, I\u2019ve referenced something I\u2019ve called the \u201c1999 … The 1999 Kosovo BSM Fiasco<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":623,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,84,118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-historical","category-military-issues","category-veterans-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34350","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\/623"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34350\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}