No more participation trophy (Nat Def Service medal)

I came home on leave to be a pallbearer for my great grandmother & naturally, wore my best suit, aka my Class A uniform. My grandpa, a WW2 & Korea vet asked me what all that fruit salad was for. He just chuckled when I explained that this one's getting through Basic & this one's for going to Germany, that's for not getting caught for 3 years straight, this is 'cos there was a war going on & I didn't get sent.....

I hated wearing the Armed Forces Expeditionary medal & Humanitarian Service medal. The former awarded for a tour in Bosnia & the latter for pulling weeds out of the cracked sidewalks in family housing after a hurricane, while Dependapotomi smoked skinny cigarettes, drank Mt Dew & watched us from their porches. Peacekeeping is in no way "expeditionary" & awarding for that takes away from the bubbas who had to get shot at to receive it. Don't think that HSM requires any further elaboration.

All that friggin' gingerbread made my A's a pain in the ass to put together. Had to start offsetting my ribbons to the left after the 3rd row & barely had enough room for my wings & flash above 'em, yet not covered by my lapel. Couldn't couldn't put my wings on the pocket flap, 'cos there wasn't room with the marksmanship badge & stupid driver's badge I had to wear. Right side wasn't much better either with unit citations, regimental affiliation crest & German jump wings.

First world problems, lol.
 
Crazy Carl said:
I came home on leave to be a pallbearer for my great grandmother & naturally, wore my best suit, aka my Class A uniform. My grandpa, a WW2 & Korea vet asked me what all that fruit salad was for. He just chuckled when I explained that this one's getting through Basic & this one's for going to Germany, that's for not getting caught for 3 years straight, this is 'cos there was a war going on & I didn't get sent.....

I hated wearing the Armed Forces Expeditionary medal & Humanitarian Service medal. The former awarded for a tour in Bosnia & the latter for pulling weeds out of the cracked sidewalks in family housing after a hurricane, while Dependapotomi smoked skinny cigarettes, drank Mt Dew & watched us from their porches. Peacekeeping is in no way "expeditionary" & awarding for that takes away from the bubbas who had to get shot at to receive it. Don't think that HSM requires any further elaboration.

All that friggin' gingerbread made my A's a pain in the ass to put together. Had to start offsetting my ribbons to the left after the 3rd row & barely had enough room for my wings & flash above 'em, yet not covered by my lapel. Couldn't couldn't put my wings on the pocket flap, 'cos there wasn't room with the marksmanship badge & stupid driver's badge I had to wear. Right side wasn't much better either with unit citations, regimental affiliation crest & German jump wings.

First world problems, lol.
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I got the humanitarian service x 2, Katrina and the Haiti 2010 earthquake.

Bling was never a big deal to me. I often just wore the 'top 3', the only ones the Navy required for daily uniform wear. I often never wore any of the other garbage either in my day-to-day. Just stuff to keep up with.

But the NDS was the participation trophy, thanks for joining the military.
 
Chuckman said:
I got the humanitarian service x 2, Katrina and the Haiti 2010 earthquake.

Bling was never a big deal to me. I often just wore the 'top 3', the only ones the Navy required for daily uniform wear. I often never wore any of the other garbage either in my day-to-day. Just stuff to keep up with.

But the NDS was the participation trophy, thanks for joining the military.
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Same. Bling chasers tended to be cheese eaters & blue falcons & that was never my style, especially with the political BS involved.

Army made us wear all our crap on our As. Didn’t have to wear the ribbons on our Bs, but if we did, it had to be all of ‘em.

The awards system is broke & has been forever. I’ve got an ARCOM that’s meaningless to me, ‘cos it would’ve been an MSM had I one more stripe. Got an MSM at retirement that means nothing, ‘cos I was told to write it up myself by a 1SG that couldn’t be bothered. Missed out on an MSM ‘cos my old BN was late submitting it & BDE refused to sign any late awards, no exceptions. Wrote a Joint Service Commendation up for an E3 who went light years above & beyond that was downgraded because of her rank.

Same reason that anytime there’s the possibility of a “combat jump”, troopers get bumped by staff officers & the CDR’s little butthole buddies chasing their mustard stain. First hand accounts said it happened in Panama & again in Afghanistan. Speaking of useless/unearned bling, I worked with the SF CPT who set up & ran the DZ for the Afghan jump. Tactical jump my ass, but damned if they didn’t all walk around, leading with their left, to show off that little gold star on their wings. I doubt the Iraq jump was any more tactical than the Afghan one (excluding any LRRS/Recon/SMU stuff).
 
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Crazy Carl said:
Same. Bling chasers tended to be cheese eaters & blue falcons & that was never my style, especially with the political BS involved.

Army made us wear all our crap on our As. Didn’t have to wear the ribbons on our Bs, but if we did, it had to be all of ‘em.

The awards system is broke & has been forever. I’ve got an ARCOM that’s meaningless to me, ‘cos it would’ve been an MSM had I one more stripe. Got an MSM at retirement that means nothing, ‘cos I was told to write it up myself by a 1SG that couldn’t be bothered. Missed out on an MSM ‘cos my old BN was late submitting it & BDE refused to sign any late awards, no exceptions. Wrote a Joint Service Commendation up for an E3 who went light years above & beyond that was downgraded because of her rank.

Same reason that anytime there’s the possibility of a “combat jump”, troopers get bumped by staff officers & the CDR’s little butthole buddies chasing their mustard stain. First hand accounts said it happened in Panama & again in Afghanistan. Speaking of useless/unearned bling, I worked with the SF CPT who set up & ran the DZ for the Afghan jump. Tactical jump my ass, but damned if they didn’t all walk around, leading with their left, to show off that little gold star on their wings. I doubt the Iraq jump was any more tactical than the Afghan one (excluding any LRRS/Recon/SMU stuff).
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Agree that the awards system is broke. The Marines are downright miserly with awarding anything. If you received fire, that isn't 'combat', so no CAR. BSs downgraded to Navy Comms or NAMs. They lowered the approval authority of NAMs (Navy Achievement Medals) to the local level in the early-2000s so people, especially enlisted, were getting them left and right for the promotion points. Joint ops with the army; soldiers getting ARCOMs with a "V"; same op, we get a NAM. Officers of that op who never left the wire? Bronze Stars.

RE: the Iraqi jump, I believe John "Shrek" McPhee has something on YT about it. He was injured pretty badly. He was a Ranger then, before going to the SMU.
 
Yeah, the awards process is a cluster....

My son-in-law was army, 4 tours to Iraq. During one of them there was an incident with a vehicle rushing their convoy. He (e4 iirc) and the Ssg in his truck charged the vehicle and subdued the occupants, stopping the vbied attack. Ssg got a Bronze star w/V; s-in-l got an arcom. To his credit, Ssg tried to refuse his unless s-in-l got BS/V as well. That didn't go well but at least he tried.

I was AF; saw a lot of the same crap. I was on hurricane shelter staff for hurricane Elena; we took a direct hit from cat 3 storm. Shelter team got af achievement medals. The clueless 0-3 who was "in charge" (read spoon-fed by 3 of us ncos) got put in for MSM.

1st Gulf war medals were handed out based on rank. An e-8 I worked with got a BS for being in Saudi and being in charge of the personnel detachment. He had 2 e-7's and an e-6 ; 2 MSMs and a Commendation medal... guess who got the CM?

There's more but I've rambled on enough. Every vet I know has similar stories.
 
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As a PFC, I was a member of our BN rifle team the year we swept the Ft Sill “Commander’s Cup”. NCOIC/OIC got ARCOMS, the other shooters got AAMs & those chintzy MFers gave me a frigging certificate of appreciation & a BN CDR’s coin. They were both in the trash before I left the building.
 
Crazy Carl said:
As a PFC, I was a member of our BN rifle team the year we swept the Ft Sill “Commander’s Cup”. NCOIC/OIC got ARCOMS, the other shooters got AAMs & those chintzy MFers gave me a frigging certificate of appreciation & a BN CDR’s coin. They were both in the trash before I left the building.
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God the challange coins. Officers loved those things. Every warrant officers office had a stand full of the things. I would throw them in fountains off post lol
 
Crazy Carl said:
Couldn't couldn't put my wings on the pocket flap, 'cos there wasn't room with the marksmanship badge & stupid driver's badge I had to wear. Right side wasn't much better either with unit citations, regimental affiliation crest & German jump wings.
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Paw, tell us more about that German you jumped and gave you wings.
She musta been right purty!
 
I have never been in the military. I was taught from an early age to respect those that were. Anonymously buying meals when I can and other "pay back" deeds. As to the medals, the only one I Look for is the one that goes Above everything on your chest. Combat Rifleman???
 
First (and last) challenge coin I saw on active duty was as a First Sergeant; at the academy we got one when we graduated. That was it; everyone bought one in self-defense so we didn't get stuck buying drinks.

When I worked as a contractor at cherry point we helped some Joint outfit set up and run a big east coast exercise. My comms guys solved a couple of data transfer/connectivity issues and pulled their fat out of the fire; the colonel in charge locally gave me and a couple others his organization's coin. I tossed it in my desk as a memento of us once more knowing our stuff better than the "experts" who were going to show us how it's done. The guys who were more recently on active duty and the reservists were impressed; me, not so much. Value my assistance? Nice bottle of bourbon would say so more than a little metal and enamel paperweight . . . .
 
BatteryOaksBilly said:
I have never been in the military. I was taught from an early age to respect those that were. Anonymously buying meals when I can and other "pay back" deeds. As to the medals, the only one I Look for is the one that goes Above everything on your chest. Combat Rifleman???
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That's an army thing. The Marines and Navy have ribbons (combat action ribbon).
 
BatteryOaksBilly said:
Do they also go above all others????? I want to know what I'm looking for.
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Here is the Marine Corps ribbon precedence chart. The Navy is very similar. The CAR is actually buried after individual awards.


The army is into badges, the Navy is also, a bit. The Marines, not so much. It much harder to identify a Marine or Sailor who has been in combat than it is a soldier.
 
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Car0linab0y said:
First (and last) challenge coin I saw on active duty was as a First Sergeant; at the academy we got one when we graduated. That was it; everyone bought one in self-defense so we didn't get stuck buying drinks.

When I worked as a contractor at cherry point we helped some Joint outfit set up and run a big east coast exercise. My comms guys solved a couple of data transfer/connectivity issues and pulled their fat out of the fire; the colonel in charge locally gave me and a couple others his organization's coin. I tossed it in my desk as a memento of us once more knowing our stuff better than the "experts" who were going to show us how it's done. The guys who were more recently on active duty and the reservists were impressed; me, not so much. Value my assistance? Nice bottle of bourbon would say so more than a little metal and enamel paperweight . . . .
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i got the impression that drinking was frowned upon, or at least the keg killing kind was (why buy a keg if you're going to waste it?)
 
Diablos said:
i got the impression that drinking was frowned upon, or at least the keg killing kind was (why buy a keg if you're going to waste it?)
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Challenge coin... whoever calls Challenge, everyone shows their coin. Whoever doesn't have one buys the round. If everyone has theirs challenger buys the round.

Dining in dinners have a "grog bowl" of some concoction containing lots of alcohol. Infractions of the rules of the mess get you sent to the grog. There is a detailed procedure to follow; get it wrong and drink again. Getting hammered is a frequent thing.
 
Car0linab0y said:
Challenge coin... whoever calls Challenge, everyone shows their coin. Whoever doesn't have one buys the round. If everyone has theirs challenger buys the round.

Dining in dinners have a "grog bowl" of some concoction containing lots of alcohol. Infractions of the rules of the mess get you sent to the grog. There is a detailed procedure to follow; get it wrong and drink again. Getting hammered is a frequent thing.
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Man, I miss those...

"Mr. Vice, parade the beef!"
 
BatteryOaksBilly said:
I have never been in the military. I was taught from an early age to respect those that were. Anonymously buying meals when I can and other "pay back" deeds. As to the medals, the only one I Look for is the one that goes Above everything on your chest. Combat Rifleman???
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When my dad was dying, we were able to get all his medals replaced before the funeral except his Combat Infantryman's Badge. One of my younger brother's friends gave us his

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