Always?
Posted on 09/26/2013 1:06:28 AM PDT by markomalley
Edited on 09/26/2013 6:40:29 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
A Pentagon investigation into how a Medal of Honor nomination was
(Excerpt) Read more at stripes.com ...
A friend of mine, now deceased,received a Purple Heart in Vietnam. He flew air support for the Navy. He told us not to be impressed with his medal, that he wasn’t wounded and that it was only for making his CO look good.
At the end of World War II, it was typical to see a sailor who had served for three years in the Pacific and been in countless battles to have a total of three ribbons. In Vietnam we had to fly 300 hours of combat support to earn one air medal. Today, look at Bradley Manning. A PFC with row upon row of ribbons. Of course, my favorites are the 100-year-old North Korean generals with so many medals that they have to be sewn onto the legs of their trousers.
The crisp fatigues gets to me since the guys wear them out in the field for training.
Chainmail,
We used to have 2 terms. Careerman described a man whose career was in the military. Lifer was a careerman who was an a-hole about it.
Back in the day (my day at least) we had three terms:
Career Soldier, more or less described previously.
Lifer, someone who stayed in because it was relatively easy compared to civilian life: you got three slops and a flop, you had someone to tell you what to do and you were ok as long as you did what you were told, you didn’t have to think all that much, just hit the marks that were given you.
Lifer Pig, someone who enjoyed being able to bully, lord it over, etc those with less authority or rank.
Since then, in my own mind, I’ve added the category of Professional, the Duty-Honor-Country type who’s willing to put it on the line for Duty-Honor-Country.
Part of the problem is that each medal requires slightly different paperwork, so when turned down, a new set of paperwork must be created.
Better would be a single uniform document “citation” of an event, with the level of the medal being decided upon by a review board using the uniform citation.
British Army in WWII: Lions led by donkeys.
Always?
I'm sure Ike earned everyone of them, but to post a pic of him not wearing his ribbons is dishonest.
It’s a situation often complicated by the best intentions. My experiences in the Navy are illustrative of that. I received my first Navy Achievement Medal for service rendered in a damned shipyard. Did I work my butt off? Yeah. Did I perform duties above my rank and outside of my rate? Yeah. Did I earn the award that just 40 years before was almost only given with a Combat V on it? Not really.
My 2nd Navy Achievement Medal (no Combat V) was earned behind a 25mm Chain Gun in the PG in 87-88. I earned that sumbitch.
My 3rd personal award was a Navy Commendation, earned at my first and only shore duty after 3 Sea Tours. As an E-6 I was a division Officer at a Naval Training Center. Did I work my butt off? Yeah. Was it worthy of a Navy Comm? I did not think so.
I do not point these out for any reason but to say that in the case of the two that I thought were not justified, the command awarded them for a number of reasons. Of course they want to award those who perform. They want to help those who perform to advance on their next exam. They often also do so to groom hotshots to seek commissions.
This discussion kind of dovetails with the evals discussion that creates so much controversy.
To address the initial topic of the thread. Commands that jerk combat veterans’ awards around because of politics should be cleaned out to the last officer.
Amen, Marine.
OK, OK...maybe always was too strong a word. It’s been that way since I first was in over 30 years ago.
The Jessica Lynch medal.
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