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"In addition to suggesting the Air Force was subject to the draft, it also said the good conduct medal was created back in the sixties, during the Vietnam war."

Here's what the article says..."One must look at the history of why the medal was created in the 1960s. The military was using the draft and involved in the Vietnam War. The Air Force didn't have any other method to recognize Airmen." And according to this site ( http://www.gruntsmilitary.com/afgood.shtml ) the medal was authorized by Congress on 6 July 1960, and the medal itself was not created until 1963. I'm not sure how you got one in 1959 unless it was awarded retroactively. Interestingly, the medal design is the same as the Army's Good Conduct Medal, which again raises the question (which nobody seems to be able to answer)....why is the Air Force receiving ridicule on this topic? Is it because it has the same medal as all the other services, or because it is getting rid of it?

Is it because it has the same medal as all the other services, or because it is getting rid of it?

The Air Force now believes that Good Conduct is an expected acceptable behavior and there is no need to award a medal for it. I figure sometimes in the late 70's it lost it's meaning of Good Conduct and became a place marker for serving three years without screwing up. Before I retired it was a hassle to not award it to an Airman. It pretty much denied them the chance to re-enlist

I believe the General and the current CMSAF have too much faith in the current rating system, which in itself is a very flawed system.

Maybe you had to have been there. I am looking at this moment at a DD214. It says, Good Conduct Medal, 21 Feb 59. Since this DD214 was dated 20 February 1960 It could not have been postdated.

Now you can sit there in your arm chair and pontificate all you want, but it seems as if your research and the author of the article could use some improvement.

I received my first USAF AGCM in 1958 - It was called the Army Good Conduct Medal. The next one I received was in 1961 but was awarded as the Good Conduct Medal. The Air Force dropped the Army name from the medal. Over my career I received 9 Good Conduct Medals with only one named Army Good Conduct Medal. Funny the basic medal did not change only the name. Back in 56 SAC had us doing setups, push-ups, and pull-ups. Had to do them every three months. Then added a three minute run in place to the items above. You did the test in fatigues (utilities) and brogans (work boots). This went to the way side and was replaced by a timed running in place. Then 1.5 timed mile was added along with a weight check in. You could do either the run or the in-place thing. In the 70's while in Korea our Commander a Maj ran the 1.5 mile right along side of us EM's. He was also your catcher for the softball team. In the 80's for the 1.5 mile you had the option of walking, running in-place or actually running plus the weight check in. All events had a specific time limit and weight limit.