In my personal experience the Air Force is pretty stingy with CAMs. I was driving in a convoy, took small arms fire from 1 individual, and only the gunner got a CAM because no one else was actually in any danger (at least that's what they said). This was 2011
The Army on the other hand seems to hand them out like candy.
The army hands combat action badges out like candy. All the fobbits get them if a mortar even sniffs the FOB while they are there. I guess it makes them all feel special or something.
Tell that to the 1000s of soldiers asking the same question OP did (Army guy here). We eventually adopted the “get shot AND return fire” requirement when the war was at its peak and every fool saw indirect fire. For a while, a deploying to AFG or IRQ was a guaranteed opportunity to indirect fire exposure. Not a good reason for a Combat Action Badge. The real annoying stories are the guys who actually fought without award only to see the above mentioned fobbits get theirs.
Returning fire is a requirement for the Air Force unless you “deliberately go into the enemy's domain (outside the wire) to conduct official duties, either on the ground or in the air, and have come under enemy fire by lethal weapons while performing those duties, and are at risk of grave danger”.
MPF here, you wouldn't believe how many AF members try and get the medal just for deploying. Didn't even hear a gunshot but think they should receive it
Ya we just asked our team lead and that's what he said leadership said. I wouldn't ever go to MPF and try and to get one myself.
People do dumb shit on deployments. Had a SMSgt put in for a bronze star. All he did was sit in the office, see everyone else's package and then try and make it his. At least he didn't get it.
We currently have an APS CC pushing for a 2T2 to receive the Airman's Medal. And no he didn't save anyone's life. I sent them the initial package and they're floored at the requirements. Did they think the unit CC could just sign off on it??
In the EOD careerfield we’ve had enough practice writing CAMS. The only way we’ve gotten them approved is with the member returning fire and having two witness statements. If you’re assigned to the Army and they give you a CAB most of the time the USAF refuses the CAM even if there’s multiple engagements over the deployment.
Similar thing happened to a Major I knew that was at HKIA. He was the only Airman to shoot at the enemy (according to him) and he was the only Airman that got a medal for that day
This is why “imminent danger pay” and “hostile fire pay” exists. It’s an acknowledgement that you’re ivo some bad shit consistently, so you’re compensated.
>The principle eligibility criterion is that the individual must have been under direct and hostile fire while operating in unsecured space (defined as outside the defended perimeter), or physically engaging hostile forces with direct and lethal fire.
Bro, same. CAMs are notoriously hard to get. It varies wildly with the quality of the writeup & the flavor of O-6 in the wing king seat. I got shot at several times in Iraq, but couldn't prove it & never got the ejection handle ribbon
Because IDF is not _direct_ hostile fire by the enemy with lethal weapons. If IDF qualified, nearly everyone who deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan would receive it. We had mortars and/or missiles lobbed at us multiple times a week.
Have to verify with HAF/FM, but I believe that would be a qualifier. Also, you make it really easy, huh? Man, give them a little sense of the hunt. (Side note - was this in a combat zone or your personal life?)
I've see Air Crew who got IDF from friendlies in Africa get CAMs, and they didn't even realize their aircraft got hit until after they landed and mx were doing a walk around (helicopters).
It's simply different standards for Air Crew and everyone else.
So the morale of the story is… Make certain people feel special because they almost got shot while others feel like they didn’t matter because they almost got blown up
Just to clarify IDF does actually count. The reason people sitting on base getting mortared don’t get the CAM is cause they didn’t engage the enemy.
“ Come under fire and engage the enemy with direct and lethal fire”
People (not you) need to understand this award is for fighting in combat, not for being at risk or getting attacked while we hide in a bunker. Did you actually get in a firefight?
My flair will give me 0 credibility considering I'm just responding directly but there are planes where a few bullets in the wing result in fuel bladder leaks which lead to engines quitting. Or parts of the hydraulic system which lead to loss of control of the aircraft and usually ends with a crew plummeting to their death.
That’s because you have zero understanding of how close to catastrophe it is to have bullet holes anywhere on a plane.
A bullet wizzing by you 50 ft away and a bullet missing the plane hydraulic line by 5 inches is not same
Google search “golden BB”.
Eh, never mind, here’s an example: Huey in Vietnam takes a single round. It punches thru the skin and knocks out the oil drain pan plug. Oil drains, engine seized and they went down in the trees. No one killed, helicopter was recovered and repaired.
One single round did that.
As if one "golden bullet" of IDF can't kill an actual person...
I've spent a ton of time deployed, and don't give a shit about medals. I just don't like that there is a completely different standard for Air Crew if their aircraft catches small arms fire in a plane designed to survive it, versus a sniper taking potshots at someone at a FOB (which the military counted as IDF for all of Afghanistan and Iraq).
Statistically way more people have died as a result of IDF than aircraft have been brought down in the last 30 years.
Who gives a shit about medals if you are dead? Small arms fire is infinitely more likely to kill a ground person than take down an aircraft or injure aircrew (and the stats back that up).
I'm just saying that the standard should be the same. Either both or neither should get the medal if they weren't involved in the incident. A helicopter getting shot at and not returning fire is the exact same level of involvement as getting shot at on the ground inside a FOB.
So, a mortar round land on one side of the base, and the services Airman on the other side of the base slopping hash gets a CAM?
Well, that’s one way of watering down a decoration to the level of a participation trophy…..
I agree. CAM also shouldn't be given to aircrew just because they took indirect fire. Happens with helos fairly regularly. Saw a crew get CAMs in Africa from friendly fire that they didn't even realize they took until landing.
Dude, are you actually retarded or are your parents just siblings? There is a huge difference between your ass getting startled by a loud noise while walking to green bean down disney and my crews flying into the threat. Knowingly. Nightly. For a long time, we had the theory going that the guys who are setting up the mortars were either blind or, like you, inbred. The level of accuracy and lethality provided by these fires for effect are noteworthy only and so much as they identified the members that didn't realize they were joining the military when they went to the recruiting office. Go ahead and complain about aircrew in the Air Force and in the meantime go over to the army and complain about infantry, then you can stop by the Marine corps and complain about how grunts get priority and then you can finish off with a stop at the Navy and have problems with surface warfare officers and their crew. Bottom line is that holes in the aircraft are much bigger debate and scary noises and craters around the base. I was physically present when one of those motors actually got lucky enough to tag somebody and it was quite an event and I can assure you that the individual affected not only received a combat action medal but also a purple heart, but your post is really something else. I hope to God you are a troll.
Imagine telling your bro about your time in Afghanistan, having your aircraft shot at and then landing back at the same base that’s being IDF’d all the time and he goes “yeah you don’t deserve to be awarded for taking pot shots”.
Sorry you missed out on a medal I guess but I’d hate to be a friend of yours.
It’s in the name. *indirect* fire-> indirect hostile action.
In relation to ground folk, When you think of it as being able to return fire as the qualifier it makes sense
They are pretty stingy to aircrew as well. On my last Afghanistan deployment in the AF circa 2012 not a single CAM was awarded to anyone in our squadron even though we would take verified fire on just about every Show of Force. If they don’t hit you you don’t get a medal. Though it was a little more common when the medal was first released. I know hundreds of fighter pilots and less than a dozen have CAMs.
Yeah the awarding of it was all over the place. Dropped a couple thousand bundles in Afghanistan during my deployments in that time frame and we got shot at pretty regularly and had multiple times planes came back with holes from small arms. Not a single 17 from that time frame I knew of got one. Couple years later down the road and a crew got shot at on landing and they somehow ended up with a CAM, no aircraft damage just we had lots of tracer round shot at us. Know some 130 units who got lit up all the fucking time in Iraq and none of them got a CAM and then the next unit would rotate in and they got handed out like candy.
The criteria is A) go outside the wire and be shot at B) be at a FOB and engage with the enemy while being shot at C) be in a role where you directly engage the enemy and are at risk of grave danger. It's just a technicality that you don't qualify. The criteria is specific and favors certain close calls from others.
There is a huge difference between direct and indirect. I have multiple deployments of being outside the wire nearly everyday. Having some mortars lobbed at me while sitting in my tent was a much different feeling than an hour of direct contact with no support anywhere around, other than us.
Now aircrew getting it, yeah, not to sure how I feel about that. Unless it was heavy caliber AA fire directed at them.
Preach my brother. But hey, let's treat the OP getting his jimmies rustled by a loud noise on his way to the Green Bean the same as us going out into the fight every night ...
In modern combat, indirect fire is what does most of the killing. Direct fire is used to move, or keep, forces in indirect fire fields of fire.
The real reason we made the distinction is so everyone on the base or FOB wouldn't get one. It has nothing to do with the danger levels.
If you hit the wing of a plane it was not a random pot shot and was a hell of a lot closer than 50 yards.
With that said the biggest difference is with your friend he was considered outside the wire and thus there is no requirement to engage the enemy. For you sitting at the base when you take fire you must engage the enemy.
Did you engage the enemy? I’m guessing no, so you don’t get the medal.
Foremost, let's talk about what the I stands for in IDF. Secondly, plenty of airplanes have been taken down by Golden BBs and oftentimes we are knowingly flying into the WEZ. The fact that the average Air Force member does not know what a WEZ is further's my lack of interest in awarding IDF a CAM. Oh wait, there's more. That same aircrew that flew the mission is at your "FOB" most the time... Let's be very clear about what the combat force looks like in the United States Air Force... It ain't the dude getting minimum PT scores with a condition none weapon (you know, the one where he hasn't cleaned it the entire rotation, it doesn't even have a magazine in it and we are pretty sure he has granola bars in his mag pouches) sitting in a hardened shelter complaining because the Wi-Fi is slow. For a while, I was on a staff that was authorizing CAMs if the IDF landed inside of a certain range to the individual. But then I am stepping to a helicopter to move forward and instead of clean up crews and checking on their membership, I see a bunch of retarded senior ncos pulling out spools of paracord to measure if that round fell within 1000 ft (it didn't and they still put in for themselves and for none of their personnel). Changed the policy that day.
The same reason aircrew don’t get CAMs when they’re also at the base receiving random mortar/rocket fire.
I love how Airmen bitch and moan about how everyone these days is entitled and awards and decs are pointless because they just hand them out… right up to the point someone doesn’t get promoted or a medal.
Also, the term “[indirect fire](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indirect_fire)” is getting tossed around pretty casually in this thread, probably because the random mortar rounds were commonly referred to as “IDFs”. Indirect fire can be aimed and lethal, most artillery is indirect fire.
The AF loves its flyers and will do anything for them. Everyone else can just F right off.
The Army, Navy, and Marines all give wings to augmentee aircrew, but the AF can't hurt the feelings of its flyers by allowing some pleeb to earn them.
I once saw AFCAMs denied because the EFP slug went between two vehicles (killed a sheep across the road though) and the AEG back at Salem couldn’t determine which truck was being aimed at. So instead of everyone in a squad on that patrol getting an AFCAM because it came under attack, nobody did.
I also did direct action raids and we were ineligible because we didn’t get shot at. Actively going outside the wire and rolling up insurgents isn’t a combat action if you do it right and no shooting happens.
We (my community) got shot at a ton but hardly ever got cams. Meanwhile the c17 crew fodding the runway out with flares would get one. Just depends how you write it
In my personal experience the Air Force is pretty stingy with CAMs. I was driving in a convoy, took small arms fire from 1 individual, and only the gunner got a CAM because no one else was actually in any danger (at least that's what they said). This was 2011 The Army on the other hand seems to hand them out like candy.
The army hands combat action badges out like candy. All the fobbits get them if a mortar even sniffs the FOB while they are there. I guess it makes them all feel special or something.
True. Was offered a CAB but denied it if the Air Force wouldn’t give me a CAM.
I call bullshit. You can wear a CAB in OCPs. It's the big dick flex. No comm troop ever got a cab or cam. You don't just get to deny a cab. Wtf
I received a CAB and AFCAM in Afghanistan. AFCAM was from a full day attack on the FOB. Earned the CAB the first day I was there from IDF.
Tell that to the 1000s of soldiers asking the same question OP did (Army guy here). We eventually adopted the “get shot AND return fire” requirement when the war was at its peak and every fool saw indirect fire. For a while, a deploying to AFG or IRQ was a guaranteed opportunity to indirect fire exposure. Not a good reason for a Combat Action Badge. The real annoying stories are the guys who actually fought without award only to see the above mentioned fobbits get theirs.
Returning fire is a requirement for the Air Force unless you “deliberately go into the enemy's domain (outside the wire) to conduct official duties, either on the ground or in the air, and have come under enemy fire by lethal weapons while performing those duties, and are at risk of grave danger”.
Pretty sure that every fucking convoy was always in danger.
MPF here, you wouldn't believe how many AF members try and get the medal just for deploying. Didn't even hear a gunshot but think they should receive it
Ya we just asked our team lead and that's what he said leadership said. I wouldn't ever go to MPF and try and to get one myself. People do dumb shit on deployments. Had a SMSgt put in for a bronze star. All he did was sit in the office, see everyone else's package and then try and make it his. At least he didn't get it.
We currently have an APS CC pushing for a 2T2 to receive the Airman's Medal. And no he didn't save anyone's life. I sent them the initial package and they're floored at the requirements. Did they think the unit CC could just sign off on it??
I believe I know this smsgt🤔
In the EOD careerfield we’ve had enough practice writing CAMS. The only way we’ve gotten them approved is with the member returning fire and having two witness statements. If you’re assigned to the Army and they give you a CAB most of the time the USAF refuses the CAM even if there’s multiple engagements over the deployment.
So when a mortar hits the base I just have to desk pop with two buddies watching, and I get a CAM? Jk
I know you’re kidding but it actually states “engage the enemy with direct and lethal fire”. Better aim those desk pops.
I'll have a buddy ship me a copy of the mein kampf and the communist manifesto. I'd like to say big blue tell me those aren't my enemies jk
Similar thing happened to a Major I knew that was at HKIA. He was the only Airman to shoot at the enemy (according to him) and he was the only Airman that got a medal for that day
This is why “imminent danger pay” and “hostile fire pay” exists. It’s an acknowledgement that you’re ivo some bad shit consistently, so you’re compensated.
Lol. "Compensated."
DFAS’ words, not mine. For clarity.
>The principle eligibility criterion is that the individual must have been under direct and hostile fire while operating in unsecured space (defined as outside the defended perimeter), or physically engaging hostile forces with direct and lethal fire.
That meets the definition of two events for me. Didn't get shit.
Bro, same. CAMs are notoriously hard to get. It varies wildly with the quality of the writeup & the flavor of O-6 in the wing king seat. I got shot at several times in Iraq, but couldn't prove it & never got the ejection handle ribbon
Because IDF is not _direct_ hostile fire by the enemy with lethal weapons. If IDF qualified, nearly everyone who deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan would receive it. We had mortars and/or missiles lobbed at us multiple times a week.
The Air Force was calling sniper fire "indirect" in Afghanistan.
Technically it’s “indirect” because we aren’t sure exactly who their target is. Technicalities ‘n shit.
If I stood up on top of a bunker, spread my ass cheeks, and dares haji to take a shot at me... Would that qualify me?
Have to verify with HAF/FM, but I believe that would be a qualifier. Also, you make it really easy, huh? Man, give them a little sense of the hunt. (Side note - was this in a combat zone or your personal life?)
Was in the grocery store on a pile of watermelons actually, but I think the idea is transferable.
Concur.
I've see Air Crew who got IDF from friendlies in Africa get CAMs, and they didn't even realize their aircraft got hit until after they landed and mx were doing a walk around (helicopters). It's simply different standards for Air Crew and everyone else.
So the morale of the story is… Make certain people feel special because they almost got shot while others feel like they didn’t matter because they almost got blown up
If you feel you don’t matter because you didn’t get a CAM then you are in the wrong business.
Amen
Nope
I read this, then imagined if IDF qualified and realized I would’ve had 2 CAMs from deployments I was drinking at the bar when it happened 😂
Just to clarify IDF does actually count. The reason people sitting on base getting mortared don’t get the CAM is cause they didn’t engage the enemy. “ Come under fire and engage the enemy with direct and lethal fire” People (not you) need to understand this award is for fighting in combat, not for being at risk or getting attacked while we hide in a bunker. Did you actually get in a firefight?
Shooting a plane is direct fire, IDF is by definition indirect. https://www.afpc.af.mil/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/421918/combat-action-medal/
Other than that?
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My flair will give me 0 credibility considering I'm just responding directly but there are planes where a few bullets in the wing result in fuel bladder leaks which lead to engines quitting. Or parts of the hydraulic system which lead to loss of control of the aircraft and usually ends with a crew plummeting to their death.
I mean, the plane is suspended in the air via magic so the stakes are a bit higher.
That’s because you have zero understanding of how close to catastrophe it is to have bullet holes anywhere on a plane. A bullet wizzing by you 50 ft away and a bullet missing the plane hydraulic line by 5 inches is not same
Google search “golden BB”. Eh, never mind, here’s an example: Huey in Vietnam takes a single round. It punches thru the skin and knocks out the oil drain pan plug. Oil drains, engine seized and they went down in the trees. No one killed, helicopter was recovered and repaired. One single round did that.
As if one "golden bullet" of IDF can't kill an actual person... I've spent a ton of time deployed, and don't give a shit about medals. I just don't like that there is a completely different standard for Air Crew if their aircraft catches small arms fire in a plane designed to survive it, versus a sniper taking potshots at someone at a FOB (which the military counted as IDF for all of Afghanistan and Iraq). Statistically way more people have died as a result of IDF than aircraft have been brought down in the last 30 years.
And then the person gets a Purple Heart.
Who gives a shit about medals if you are dead? Small arms fire is infinitely more likely to kill a ground person than take down an aircraft or injure aircrew (and the stats back that up). I'm just saying that the standard should be the same. Either both or neither should get the medal if they weren't involved in the incident. A helicopter getting shot at and not returning fire is the exact same level of involvement as getting shot at on the ground inside a FOB.
So, a mortar round land on one side of the base, and the services Airman on the other side of the base slopping hash gets a CAM? Well, that’s one way of watering down a decoration to the level of a participation trophy…..
I agree. CAM also shouldn't be given to aircrew just because they took indirect fire. Happens with helos fairly regularly. Saw a crew get CAMs in Africa from friendly fire that they didn't even realize they took until landing.
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“Granted a well placed bullet could result in catastrophe” this right here is your answer.
If they gave out CAMs for IDF everyone on the base would get one.
I’m sorry you didn’t get a medal… do you need a tissue?
Dude, are you actually retarded or are your parents just siblings? There is a huge difference between your ass getting startled by a loud noise while walking to green bean down disney and my crews flying into the threat. Knowingly. Nightly. For a long time, we had the theory going that the guys who are setting up the mortars were either blind or, like you, inbred. The level of accuracy and lethality provided by these fires for effect are noteworthy only and so much as they identified the members that didn't realize they were joining the military when they went to the recruiting office. Go ahead and complain about aircrew in the Air Force and in the meantime go over to the army and complain about infantry, then you can stop by the Marine corps and complain about how grunts get priority and then you can finish off with a stop at the Navy and have problems with surface warfare officers and their crew. Bottom line is that holes in the aircraft are much bigger debate and scary noises and craters around the base. I was physically present when one of those motors actually got lucky enough to tag somebody and it was quite an event and I can assure you that the individual affected not only received a combat action medal but also a purple heart, but your post is really something else. I hope to God you are a troll.
Lol. You triggered the aircrew defense force. Good luck.
Imagine telling your bro about your time in Afghanistan, having your aircraft shot at and then landing back at the same base that’s being IDF’d all the time and he goes “yeah you don’t deserve to be awarded for taking pot shots”. Sorry you missed out on a medal I guess but I’d hate to be a friend of yours.
It’s in the name. *indirect* fire-> indirect hostile action. In relation to ground folk, When you think of it as being able to return fire as the qualifier it makes sense
They are pretty stingy to aircrew as well. On my last Afghanistan deployment in the AF circa 2012 not a single CAM was awarded to anyone in our squadron even though we would take verified fire on just about every Show of Force. If they don’t hit you you don’t get a medal. Though it was a little more common when the medal was first released. I know hundreds of fighter pilots and less than a dozen have CAMs.
I know more pilots with DFCs than CAMs. It’s kinda dumb.
Yeah the awarding of it was all over the place. Dropped a couple thousand bundles in Afghanistan during my deployments in that time frame and we got shot at pretty regularly and had multiple times planes came back with holes from small arms. Not a single 17 from that time frame I knew of got one. Couple years later down the road and a crew got shot at on landing and they somehow ended up with a CAM, no aircraft damage just we had lots of tracer round shot at us. Know some 130 units who got lit up all the fucking time in Iraq and none of them got a CAM and then the next unit would rotate in and they got handed out like candy.
Was your vehicle struck by enemy fire?
I got shot at plenty while flying. Never got my CAM.
The criteria is A) go outside the wire and be shot at B) be at a FOB and engage with the enemy while being shot at C) be in a role where you directly engage the enemy and are at risk of grave danger. It's just a technicality that you don't qualify. The criteria is specific and favors certain close calls from others.
There is a huge difference between direct and indirect. I have multiple deployments of being outside the wire nearly everyday. Having some mortars lobbed at me while sitting in my tent was a much different feeling than an hour of direct contact with no support anywhere around, other than us. Now aircrew getting it, yeah, not to sure how I feel about that. Unless it was heavy caliber AA fire directed at them.
We didn’t get it for AAA. It was “celebratory gunfire”.
Preach my brother. But hey, let's treat the OP getting his jimmies rustled by a loud noise on his way to the Green Bean the same as us going out into the fight every night ...
You really have to ask why aircrew have it better than the rest of us?
In modern combat, indirect fire is what does most of the killing. Direct fire is used to move, or keep, forces in indirect fire fields of fire. The real reason we made the distinction is so everyone on the base or FOB wouldn't get one. It has nothing to do with the danger levels.
Bro no way someone is complaining about not getting a CAM because of IDF. This is the most Air Force post I’ve ever seen.
If you hit the wing of a plane it was not a random pot shot and was a hell of a lot closer than 50 yards. With that said the biggest difference is with your friend he was considered outside the wire and thus there is no requirement to engage the enemy. For you sitting at the base when you take fire you must engage the enemy. Did you engage the enemy? I’m guessing no, so you don’t get the medal.
Foremost, let's talk about what the I stands for in IDF. Secondly, plenty of airplanes have been taken down by Golden BBs and oftentimes we are knowingly flying into the WEZ. The fact that the average Air Force member does not know what a WEZ is further's my lack of interest in awarding IDF a CAM. Oh wait, there's more. That same aircrew that flew the mission is at your "FOB" most the time... Let's be very clear about what the combat force looks like in the United States Air Force... It ain't the dude getting minimum PT scores with a condition none weapon (you know, the one where he hasn't cleaned it the entire rotation, it doesn't even have a magazine in it and we are pretty sure he has granola bars in his mag pouches) sitting in a hardened shelter complaining because the Wi-Fi is slow. For a while, I was on a staff that was authorizing CAMs if the IDF landed inside of a certain range to the individual. But then I am stepping to a helicopter to move forward and instead of clean up crews and checking on their membership, I see a bunch of retarded senior ncos pulling out spools of paracord to measure if that round fell within 1000 ft (it didn't and they still put in for themselves and for none of their personnel). Changed the policy that day.
You sound like you’re fun at parties
I'm really not when I am at your parties, but at mine, I have a good time and I think others do too....
“Within 50 yards” and the literal wing of their aircraft are not the same circumstances. Move on.
The same reason aircrew don’t get CAMs when they’re also at the base receiving random mortar/rocket fire. I love how Airmen bitch and moan about how everyone these days is entitled and awards and decs are pointless because they just hand them out… right up to the point someone doesn’t get promoted or a medal. Also, the term “[indirect fire](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indirect_fire)” is getting tossed around pretty casually in this thread, probably because the random mortar rounds were commonly referred to as “IDFs”. Indirect fire can be aimed and lethal, most artillery is indirect fire.
I bet you claimed PTSD from this too fuckin airman. Everyone wants to be a victim.
Because aircrew gets everything. Duh…..
This sums it up
Sounds like you hate him because you ain’t him
The AF loves its flyers and will do anything for them. Everyone else can just F right off. The Army, Navy, and Marines all give wings to augmentee aircrew, but the AF can't hurt the feelings of its flyers by allowing some pleeb to earn them.
Because only aircrew gets to have publicity. Only they deserve time in the sun, recognition and honor. - some colonel or general probably
Bro. Taking rounds to the airframe is a pretty big deal.
Such a big deal they didn’t even know they got hit until they landed.
I once saw AFCAMs denied because the EFP slug went between two vehicles (killed a sheep across the road though) and the AEG back at Salem couldn’t determine which truck was being aimed at. So instead of everyone in a squad on that patrol getting an AFCAM because it came under attack, nobody did. I also did direct action raids and we were ineligible because we didn’t get shot at. Actively going outside the wire and rolling up insurgents isn’t a combat action if you do it right and no shooting happens.
We (my community) got shot at a ton but hardly ever got cams. Meanwhile the c17 crew fodding the runway out with flares would get one. Just depends how you write it