America’s Frontlines is off to a great start. We’ve had some great interviews and discussions and there’s no shortage of topics that we need to discuss. I welcome your input on interviews we’ve done or ones we should do. Feel free to contact me at Denny@AmericasFrontlines.com.

Valor awards are presented to, yes, members of our military who perform heroically in dangerous situations. Most of those situations are in combat with an armed enemy. Just being in battle requires bravery, but when someone acts above and beyond normal combat actions, we have awards for them.

There are three categories of valor awards.

The first is composed of our nation’s top three valor awards. They are awarded only for heroism against one of our nation’s enemies. The top award is the Congressional Medal of Honor. While the ribbon is the same, the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force each have their own versions of the medal itself.

Second is what the Army calls the Distinguished Service Cross; the Navy calls their similar award the Navy Cross; the Air Force calls theirs the Air Force Cross.

Finally, there is the Silver Star. All the services use this medal and ribbon without modification.

The second category is for heroism not involving combat with an enemy of our nation. The Soldiers Medal is awarded for heroism such as saving lives during a fire or wreck or dealing with an irate or out-of-control person who is not an enemy soldier.

The third category is a series of medals that can be awarded for heroism or other reasons, such as meritorious service or meritorious achievement. The Air Medal is such an award. So is the Bronze Star, though it may only be awarded in a combat region.

In future Newsletters we will be featuring, one at a time, all of the awards in Categories 1 and 2, and some in Category 3.

There is not currently a war between the US and Venezuela, but significant military tensions have recently escalated due to a large deployment of our warships to the Caribbean and a deadly strike on a Venezuelan speedboat alleged to be involved in drug trafficking. We say our military presence aims to combat drug cartels, but Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro claims it is a precursor to an invasion and a threat to his country’s sovereignty, accusing us of extrajudicial killing following the speedboat strike.

Regarding this event, a good friend of mine, a fellow Army vet, called me about a news article stating that as a consequence of this strike our Navy’s recruitment has gone way up since we’re now going back to our roots to blowing up pirates. Once a fearsome force against armed hostile vessels attempting to reach American shores, the article, said, the Navy had spent the last few decades focusing on monkey pox. That all changed overnight, when the Navy annihilated a vessel of armed men attempting to land in America while sailing under no country’s flag. One teenager was quoted saying, “Oh, man, sign me up.” Our navy is back to bombing pirates.

“That looks friggin’ sweet. I hand no idea killing pirates was an option on career day.”

I could go on with this article, but I was laughing too hard. I do have to admit that, after laughing with my friend and checking out the article, I found it was from the Babylon Bee. But it’s too funny not to share.

Our nation has a large number of challenges and some very good people at the top of our government, but we have a lot to do to maintain our nation as the world’s finest country.