Hey yall Quick question.  Why is it the air medal seems to not have just rhe same requirements. Why didn't they just make it so each group followed the same. For example my great grandfather flew as a tail gunner 50 missions. First 25 with the 5th in the pacific then 25 with the 15ht in Italy. He only got 3 air medals. One with two OLC. But I see pilots or other crew members of similar units or in the UK or even pacific again that got them like crazy up to 5 sonetimes or 6. I know his first one was for 100 hours of air where enemy combat was expected. It just seems like the pilots got more medals for example even the DFC got handed out like candy it seems on almost every pilots uniform I see it has one ore more. 

You may find this to be an informative read:

 

https://www.dafhistory.af.mil/Portals/16/documents/Timelines/World War II/WWIIDFCandAirMedalCriteriaChronological.pdf?ver=2016-09-16-111147-907

 

 

Oh wow that seems to help my answer. Thank you for your help

Yup. Though it does seem wierd my great grandfather didn't get a DFC for flying in 50 missions. Though 44 counted as combat ones. 6 for some reason didn't. Could that be why