[pepsionice]

I was at a military ceremony around 2004. They had this guy get up to get some award from his old unit in South Korea. The guy had already been at our unit (in Germany) for four years and was set to leave in six months. The old unit had written up a medal...had it turned down....reapplied....lost the paperwork....then resubmitted a third and I believe even...a fourth time. The guy was embarrassed by this....over four years after he left the unit, and almost ready to leave the present unit.

There’s something broke with the entire system over medals. I think most are bogus in nature, and half the folks probably need some status symbol of sorts for what they did at some unit...but to say a medal....is just not worth it.

[markomalley]

There’s something broke with the entire system over medals.

Agreed...particularly for medals given for "meritorious service" (MSM, Commendation Medals, Bronze Stars (without "V"), etc.)

It is a byproduct of the hyper-inflated performance evaluation system that has always existed in the services.

[rawhide]

Hey, John Kerry got his medals! /s

[Chainmail]

Like I've said a bunch of times, this generation of soldiers and Marines are the best I've ever seen but the leadership is the worst, ever.

We've had several generations of biased selection boards that screen out anyone with guts and talent and only the careerists who never make a ripple get to the top.

No surprise then, that a real hero's medal package was deliberately "lost" - the careerists hate genuine heroes with a passion.

[oh8eleven]

There’s something broke with the entire system over medals. I think most are bogus in nature ...
A local sports writer has admitted many times that as an office clerk in some Army unit in VN, he was "forced" to write up awards for events that never took place.
That was around 1970 and you know it's gotten worse, rather than better.

[elpadre]

The few medal awards for valor I personally know of from the Korean war were truly justified.