Medals?

muscogeemike

Active member
In this Sunday's Parade Magazine there is a story about an Army SSG who has 19 Ribbons with the highest being an Army Commendation Medal.
What in the hell, they must be giving Medals for Brushing your teeth!
 
I felt like a fraud on our Remembrance parade stood there with my solitary Northern Ireland medal, whilst the young lads had a chest full of gongs. It was very humbling.
 
Weapons intelligence? Thats an oxymoron if I've ever heard one.:mrgreen:

I was 2 and 1/2 years in the Far East, the poor buggers when I left got their tour lengthened to 3 years
 
Its pointless putting a pongo in plain clothes, their haircut gives the game away.:neutral:

I was in a pub years ago when a young fella walked in wearing civi's, I took one look at him and he was obviously serving, so I bought him a pint. He asked how I knew he was a serving pongo.:roll:
 
Living like a terrorist, you couldn't tell I was old bill, I was non recognisable, even to the point of going home on leave - my parents didn't recognise me. ;)
 
In this Sunday's Parade Magazine there is a story about an Army SSG who has 19 Ribbons with the highest being an Army Commendation Medal.
What in the hell, they must be giving Medals for Brushing your teeth!


Or they're campaign/service medals in foriegn theatres. If the guy has served in Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, and Bosnia that's 9 or 10 ribbons right there by themselves. He could have been a member of another branch and switched over to the Army. There's a number of things that could have happened but I can tell you if his highest is an ARCOM then the rest have to be service ribbons of some sort. Which just mean the guy has done a lot of down range time...makes sense doesn't it? The more time you spent in the box down range the more crap you accrue to put on your chest...
 
Or they're campaign/service medals in foriegn theatres. If the guy has served in Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, and Bosnia that's 9 or 10 ribbons right there by themselves. He could have been a member of another branch and switched over to the Army. There's a number of things that could have happened but I can tell you if his highest is an ARCOM then the rest have to be service ribbons of some sort. Which just mean the guy has done a lot of down range time...makes sense doesn't it? The more time you spent in the box down range the more crap you accrue to put on your chest...

The ARCOM being the highest award was kind of my point (I had 8 of them) and I spent more than half my 25 years overseas (including warzones) and I don't have 19 medals!
BTW he was a she.
 
I looked her up and she had 17 ribbons. Only 9 of them were active duty ribbons, the rest were all National Guard which does seem to either give out awards like candy or give overlapping awards for something they would have gotten on active duty. If she were active duty she would only have 9 ribbons and those ribbons would be fairly typical of someone of her experience and rank.
 
Medals don't mean much to me. John Kerry shot at a rock on the bank from his boat, a tiny bit of rock or bullet came back and scratched his arm. The doctor refused to put him in for a purple heart, so he gave himself one. Hell, I've got an ARCOM. I didn't throw it over the White House fence, either.
 
Medals are not like Patches, Badges, and Tabs. The things that show others what you can do in the Military.
Medals are a pat on the back from the Military, but, Medals do not denote a special skill in the Military.
People do not look at Medals on the Battlefield to see what it is a person is qualified to do, what experience a person has.

Badges in the Marine Corps, Navy, and Air Force; Badges, Tabs, and Patches in the Army do however help tell the story ahead of time and give a more complete picture of the Marine, Sailor, Airman, and Troop.

Army Battle Uniforms read like a book:

Unit of Assignment Patches.

Combat Patches.

Tabs over top of Patches.

Badges.

The person who has such does not need them to remember what Unit they are in, or what Unit they were in Combat in, or to remember what it is they are qualified to do, as that person has already done such things, that person already earned such things.
Those things, the Patches, the Tabs, the Badges, those things are for my benefit while looking at the person. So, never before seeing the person, I know at first glance what the person should be capable of.

Badges are funny though, as I know people who do not wear their CIB, because they have an EIB, which is harder to get now days than the CIB.
Army Troops know the difference between an EIB & CIB. Many in the Army would not understand why a person who rated a CIB would still wear an EIB.
Myself, I would look for either on the Battlefield to help give me a clearer picture of just who is more capable in a firefight. But, seeing an EIB with an Infantry Combat Patch would allow me to know that the person earned his Expert Infantry Badge, before going to combat, and choose to tell me by way of his uniform that he did rate the Combat Infantry Badge if he wanted to wear that one instead.
 
I knew a AF postal clerk who was at Bin Hoa in the mid 60’s. He said he was stumbling back to his quarters from a club, drunk, when an Air Police jeep came roaring down the road and he fell into a ditch.
He had abrasions and a sprained ankle but because an Army unit, miles away on the perimeter, was under fire - the AF gave him a purple heart!

ARCOMs are kind of give aways for doing a half assed job and not getting into trouble, I had 8 when I retired.
 
Unless they have a combat "V" these days. I've seen numerous guys that rated no less than a BSM (V) and got the ARCOM (V) instead. I also knew grunts who had gunshot wounds, fairly severe lacerations from shrapnel, or had blood coming from their ears, nose, and mouth after enduring a very close or large explosion that refused evacuation and therefore never got a PHM. The awards system is largely biased and b******te. I also know soldiers who displayed incredible acts of bravery under fire and were denied their CAB/CIB on top of a valor award because they were flagged for one reason or another. I've found there seems to be a direct correlation between medals and combat effectiveness. i.e. The less a grunt cares about medals, they better they seem to be in a firefight. These medals and a buck fifty will get you cup of coffee...
 
I knew men that had been injured during combat that did not even get the GSM as they had not served in the area long enough to be awarded it, even though they had been shipped out due to wounds.
 
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