The new Distinguished Warfare Medal, dubbed the "Geek's Cross" by detractors, ranks above the Purple Heart, which is awarded to those wounded in combat.
The award recognises "extraordinary achievement" by troops "who may not even be on the same continent as the action" and is intended for practitioners of cyber warfare or pilots of unmanned vehicles.
Joe Davis, a spokesman for the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), America's largest combat veterans group, said it was a "boneheaded decision".
"Being on the front lines has to count for something because you're not just going home after work," Mr Davis told The Daily Telegraph. "You have to think about this from the perspective of the guy in the fox hole: they're questioning the leadership of the Pentagon".
Mr Davis said that the VFW had heard from active duty personnel and warned that the row over the medal could quickly turn into a "morale issue".

Agreed. It the rank (for want of a better word) of the medal.
Ranking it higher than the Purple Heart just seems silly.

The drone pilots need the equivalent of a Purple Heart for injuries sustained during action, e.g. carpal tunnel syndrome.