During the Balkans an MT driver that never left Sicily (mostly running people to and from Palermo Airport) got his medal, whilst none of the MPA aircrew (flying in theatre with live weapons) did. Several crews did 2 tours in theatre and have nothing to show for it except log book entries.
Allegedly it was because the Lords and Masters (ex-FJ world) determined the qualification as being X months (6?) on the ground in the designated theatre (Sicily qualified) or Y number of flights in theatre. They didn't take into account that some crews flew very long sorties and didn't attain the high number of flights even though they almost certainly flew more total hours than some flying other types.
Hey-ho, that's the way the cookie crumbles.