I know damned well I had enough hours to get one and so did every other guy in my AO. None of us cared about any of that. All WE cared about was doing our damned jobs. Unlike the John F'n Kerrys of the world.
@Bigun They really didn't mean much if you had an infantry MOS unless you were going before a promotion board for E-7 or higher rank,or were an officer. Even little doo-dahs like Good Conduct Medals and campaign ribbons helped more if you had some sort of "ground pounder" MOS. Let's face it,for promotions to E-6 or below the promotions were handled by local commanders who knew you personally,and stuff like Air Medals didn't mean diddly-squat to them. If they wanted to give you a Bronze Star or lesser award,they gave it to you. It got "stickier" when you were put in for a Silver Star or higher award because it would be getting looked over by Corps or/and higher commanders,and for all these people knew you could be your CO's nephew. They wanted more that the recommendation of a single proposed award,they wanted to look at your award history. LOTS of people who never heard a single shot fired in combat earned multiple Air Medals from doing stuff like flying mail flights daily. The mail helicopters I saw didn't even have door guns mounted on them,never mind rocket pods on the skids. Hell,they had doors to keep the mail dry when it was raining.
BTW,I am not ridiculing those whose duty was pulling "gravy jobs" like flying mail. I once hitchhiked a ride on a mail chopper to visit a friend while on stand-down,and damned if the mail chopper I rode in on get shot down while flying away from the airstrip. I watched it crash and burn. Those guys were just as dead as any other KIA.
They were also pretty much sitting ducks. I asked around and found out they flew in and out of that camp every day at the same time,with no escort gun ships,and no machine guns or rocket launchers. Other than the pistols carried by the pilot and copilot,they were unarmed and couldn't shoot back even if they had the chance.
Low-hanging fruit ALWAYS gets picked sooner or later. I sincerely hope the officer in charge of their flight schedule got hammered over this.