In the Star Wars battle of Yavin why didn't all the survivors get medals?

It would turn the medals into “participation trophies.” This was the 70’s and we couldn’t have that shit back then.

They probably did get ample acknowledgement, and maybe some sort of ribbon, medal, and/or award. But Luke, Han and Chewie were directly responsible for blowing up the freakin’ Death Star, and saving the lives of almost everyone on the Rebel Base, so they freakin’ deserved special awards.

You mean Wedge? Like was there anyone else who survived? He got drafted into Rogue Squadron, and got to be in the sequels, sorry Porkins. That’s reward enough for just being the boy who lived.

@Smashley Wedge Antilles and an un-named Y-Wing pilot were shown to have survived. There may also have been another 8 Y-Wings which went into the attack, but were not shown destroyed, so some of those pilots might have survived too.

A later games and a book which introduced new characters who were supposedly likely to be involved (in their own contexts that didn’t exist when the first film was made) have suggested that the known surviving Y-Wing pilot is either Keyan Farlander (if you believe the computer game X-Wing from LucasArts, published in 1992) or Evaan Verlaine (if you believe the book Star Wars: Galactic Atlas, a reference book that was published by Egmont UK Ltd on November 3, 2016.).

@Smashley Yes Wedge. Was he a coward? It isn’t clear to me.

Funny how Chewie did not get a medal in the film.
Bloody rebels, racist against Space Yetis.

Wedge wasn’t a coward at all. He survived a trench run, but one of his engines was blasted by Darth Vader. Luke told him to hold off since he wasn’t going to be able to do any good with a damaged fighter, and Luke still had his two wingmen.