Quote Originally Posted by Bob's World View Post
The primary point the commander was conveying was that under the new tactical directives we are asking the soldiers to assume much more personal risk in order to preserve and advance the larger strategic goals of the operations; and that leaders needed to do a more effective job of recognizing those who did so.
Ah, but in order to recognize we have to quantify.

It's so much easier to write an award for Cpl Jones, who killed XXX number of insurgents, than for Cpl Smith, who held fire because of the danger of killing noncombatants.

That said, I've seen awards for valor presented in the past for acts that did not involve an enemy body count. One of my Marines received a Navy Comm with V for pulling an Iraqi family out of the line of fire in 2003 (I take no credit for the writeup, he was in another battalion at the time of the action). Like others have said, there is no need to create another medal to recognize these acts, but leaders need to understand, appreciate, and recognize when their Soldiers or Marines go above and beyond the call by showing judgment and restraint.