Why doesn't Chewbacca get a medal?

It was a big day on Saturday in the That Guy household.  That Kid had finally earned the viewing of the Original Star Wars movie ("A New Hope," or "Episode IV" if you want to acknowledge that crap that Lucasarts put out a few years ago).

Now, That Kid is going to be turning 5 in a few months.  He is a bit younger than I was when I saw the movie in theaters.  But, after seeing some of the junk that they put out as 'kids movies' these days I decided that this would be OK.

He freaking loved it.  I had to skip a couple of things (Obi-on cutting off a dude's hand in the cantina for example) just to make it less PG and more G.  Unfortunately, the only version of the movie you can find now is the new "Greedo Shot First" version with unneeded CGI and the added scene with Jabba the Hut.  Sad, but in my son's mind, that is going to be the 'right' version of the movie.  Sad...  But, back to the story.

Leading up to this, That Kid was CONSTANTLY asking questions about who was in the movie, what they did, and I fed the excitement a lot by showing him snippets of the movie off of starwars.com.  he knew that R2D2 was Luke's co-pilot, and Chewbacca was Han Solo's co-pilot.

Then at the end of the movie, after the Death Star is destroyed, there is the medal presentation to Han and Luke.  That Kid watches, then turns and look st me and asks:

"Why didn't Chewbacca get a medal?"

That is a darn good question, Kid.  He was up in the Millennium Falcon, risking his life, was probably flying while Han fired the shots that knocked Vader off of Luke's tail.  But he has to stand back, not even up on the Dias with the droids, three steps down and away from the group.  Strange I never noticed that, but it took a 4 year old to point out the lesson.

History always remembers the Quarterbacks, and not the Linemen that make the spectacular plays possible.