Bronze Star v. Combat Infantry Badge

If I may, I have a war story about what people are really fighting for:

There was a rule (don't know if it still exists) that said if you flew
through two meal periods, and were TDY, that you got full per-diem
for the day. There are generally four meals a day, in defined periods
of time (breakfast, lunch, dinner, and midnight chow). If you launch
before, or during one meal, and land after another, you track that
data on a "missed meal" form.

We never really missed a meal, as we had what were known as
IF-10's back then (In-Flight C rations), and later we had the "three
big lies"--"Meals", "Ready", and "To Eat".

If you really wanted to **** a crew off, it was to deny a missed meal
credit, which denied them full per-diem, which cost them a bunch of
bucks, that their wives already spent.

The Bronze Star, and CIB pale in comparison.