BTW, those “ribbons” are mostly participation trophies. As in, I worked on this project, I was at this camp, etc.
My brother in law is about to be promoted to General... We were teasing him about all the ribbons on his uniform. He came back with, “I got this one for wearing clean socks for two months in a row” and went on from there... I respect his sense of humor more than his political beliefs. The last time we saw him he told us, “diversity is the military's greatest strength.” The primary way you make it to General these days is by being a brown nosing boot licker.
Sadly that describes my Brother-in-Law. He didn't start out that way. He enlisted when he was 18 and took advantage of every educational opportunity that came his way. He became an electrical engineer and then went to OCS. I have known him for over 30 years and his decent into mediocrity started during the Obama years.