prolly all for servicing the Happy Fat Ball...
Posted on 04/25/2016 7:36:14 AM PDT by glorgau
Time to reform the Pentagon’s award system
There has been a jarring addition to U.S. military uniforms since the end of World War II. Seventy years ago, high-ranking officers wore relatively few ribbons or medals — and awards for valor were rare. Go back farther to the Civil War, and it was common for officers to not wear military decorations at all.
But for the modern officer, it’s now possible to perform one’s duties without being a hero and still have a chest full of ribbons that are indecipherable to all but the most dedicated students of phaleristics.
Most of all, the typical 21st-century American general is a walking wall of multi-colored “great job” ribbons, none of which are awards for valor.
The ribbons have spread so widely that it has become difficult to differentiate heroes from bedecked bureaucrats, assignment-junkies and dedicated self-improvement types — which, I suppose, is partly the point.
The bureaucrats who added the great-job ribbons have ensured that some of these ribbons rank higher than do most medals for actual, individual acts of heroism.
(Excerpt) Read more at warisboring.com ...
To me, the strangest and almost embarrassing medal was the NDSM. I was ‘awarded’ it for merely being on active duty during the first Gulf War.
I also remember at the time, the combat service medals for the gulf war included people who had been in country many months after the shooting stopped - I saw people making up every excuse in the book to spend a few days in Saudi or Kuwait, just to get a combat patch and campaign ribbon. Ticked me off, because I knew people who had actually been in the fight...didn’t seem right that they wore the same medals as the late comers.
That is exactly the photo I was thinking of when I read this story. Medals down the pants.
prolly all for servicing the Happy Fat Ball...
One reason why so few civil war officer wore medals is because they weren’t issue. The only medal issued during the Civil War by the United States Government was the Army and the Navy Medals of Honor. Officers were not eligible fore MOH until 1963.
One reason why so few civil war officer wore medals is because they weren’t issue. The only medal issued during the Civil War by the United States Government was the Army and the Navy Medals of Honor. Officers were not eligible fore MOH until 1863.
Good for you!
And God Bless you for your service! Brother was a Marine in the 3rd out of Kaneohe, deployed 3 times to Afghanistan and once to Iraq.
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