To The Editor:

In the Feb. 19, 2013 Daily Courier Observer I read where former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta wants to create a medal that can be awarded to troops who have a direct impact on combat operations but never steps into actual combat. These troops sit thousands of miles away from the actual fighting and killings, and fly the drones now being used in combat.

The people that a medal should be awarded to are the women and men who fought in the Cold War and saw actual combat and got killed, wounded and disabled for life. We only received a sheet of paper stating that we were in the Cold War.

According to the Pentagon criteria, which the article states, the medal gives the military a way to recognize a single act that directly affects a combat operation; must be the actions of the Cold War veterans does not meet this criteria.

I guess my time and the time of all veterans that served in the Cold War, doesn’t amount to anything by the standards created by the defense secretary. If I had known this was the way I was going to be treated and I am sure other veterans that served doing the Cold War feel the same, we would not have volunteered to serve our country.

Paul Charleston

Winthrop

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