[stand watie]

NOPE. i personally know of at least one O-1 who was awarded the GCM upon being directly commissioned, after only 10 MONTHS of honorable service.

WO's in the army warrant officer flight program sometimes (i'm NOT sure about ALL of the time) received the GCM at the same time as they received their warrants, with about a YEAR of total enlisted service.

free dixie,sw

[muawiyah]

Basic was two months, and AIT was two months ~ that's FAR LESS TIME than that ten months you cite.

Only award I recall that got handed out early in your career as a trainee was the National Defense Service Medal. I got my Good Conduct after I'd been out of active duty for about a year although my final orders (after two years of service) said I'd gotten it. Apparantly it had simply not been sent to me for some reason.

Looking at the criteria for the National Defense Service Medal I suspect the folks at Fort McClellan were in error when they started awarding it to NG and Reservists (summer 1967).