Article

2013-07-31 -Short Attention Span Theater-

Army fights poor morale with more flair, medals, unit awards.

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Posted by Besoeker 2013-07-31 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11131 views ] Top

#1 To be fair, Besoeker, American soldiers have generally been in a lot more medal-worthy combat than the typical NATO soldier

Posted by Glenmore 2013-07-31 00:46|| 2013-07-31 00:46|| Front Page Top

#2 Ah, the Duffle Blog. Gotta give 'em credit. It is hard to do satire in a world where you wake up every day asking "WTF is the matter with you people?".

Posted by SteveS 2013-07-31 00:53|| 2013-07-31 00:53|| Front Page Top

#3 Sadly, you are right Glen, but that is a entirely separate discussion. Unfortunately, we've been going overboard for years with awards and decorations.....unless of course, you were a shooting victim of MAJ Nadal Hasan at Fort Hood. Then there is possibly one of the worst examples of all.

Posted by Besoeker 2013-07-31 04:14|| 2013-07-31 04:14|| Front Page Top

#4 To paraphrase a statement accredited to Napoleon - with these ribbons I rule the world.

Posted by Procopius2k 2013-07-31 07:18|| 2013-07-31 07:18|| Front Page Top

#5 They are also a walking billboard of the individual service record. Those who know the code can tell the tale. That's because too many of them became just a tour completion and time in service ribbon rather than an impact, particular event, award.

Posted by Procopius2k 2013-07-31 07:22|| 2013-07-31 07:22|| Front Page Top

#6 In short.... everyone gets a trophy and they are all the same!

Posted by CrazyFool 2013-07-31 10:27|| 2013-07-31 10:27|| Front Page Top

#7 Example: The lettuce on PFC Mannings uniform.

Off Topic. Why is he a PFC rather than E!?

Posted by tipover 2013-07-31 10:59|| 2013-07-31 10:59|| Front Page Top

#8 Now that he has been found guilty of official charges, the sentencing phase should strip him of all rank, awards, decorations, etc. Reduction to E-nothing. Emphasis on should.

However, failure to follow orders [get a shave and a haircut] didn't produce the desired results on MAJ Nadal Hasan's personal appearance. So who knows what will happen.

Posted by Besoeker 2013-07-31 11:05|| 2013-07-31 11:05|| Front Page Top

#9 Tip over, manning was busted back to E3 prior to his getting busted for spying, allegedly for being a shirt bird (aka insubordination, failure to repair, and conduct ... )

Posted by OldSpook 2013-07-31 14:06|| 2013-07-31 14:06|| Front Page Top

#10 Also the army did this when morale was crap during the civil war I think. History ...

Posted by OldSpook 2013-07-31 14:08|| 2013-07-31 14:08|| Front Page Top

#11 I got a Medal for "Enlisting in a time of Crisis", we called it "The Geedunk Medal" (Geedunk was the mess line) Worth nothing.

Posted by Redneck Jim 2013-07-31 14:11|| 2013-07-31 14:11|| Front Page Top

#12 Weren't they also handing out metals left and right during the Vietnam war? How about we ask ole 'silver star' Jawn 'I was in Vietnam you know!' Kerry.

Posted by CrazyFool 2013-07-31 14:23|| 2013-07-31 14:23|| Front Page Top

#13 In short.... everyone gets a trophy and they are all the same!

Au contraire CF. The tour and time awards are de facto divided by enlisted, company grade and field grade(+) for officers. Sore spot for me because one of my enlisted was fully deserving of an impact award for his work, but some ahole in the upper chain shot it down because 'we don't do that'. Then WTF have them on the books?

Posted by Procopius2k 2013-07-31 15:20|| 2013-07-31 15:20|| Front Page Top

#14 So called Enlisted Awards boards and lower enlisted promotion boards have, in many cases, become the domain of Battalion and ~~Union Stewards~~ Brigade Sergeants Majors. It is what it is.

Save the Regimental structure, there is little to admire about British military systems. Their awards scheme however, makes infinitely more sense and holds vastly greater meaning than our own.

Posted by Besoeker 2013-07-31 15:39|| 2013-07-31 15:39|| Front Page Top

#15 Thanks for the clarification Proc. In a way that sounds much worse....

Posted by CrazyFool 2013-07-31 15:40|| 2013-07-31 15:40|| Front Page Top

#16 I agree that there are a lot of awards being given out. But there is a lot of meritorious work being done.

All I can offer is that -- in my humble opinion -- any award received by an enlisted solder is likely genuinely deserved, and most received by field grade officers (Major and above) are bogus.

Posted by rammer 2013-07-31 20:21|| 2013-07-31 20:21|| Front Page Top

#17 (Geedunk was the mess line)

'Geedunk' was the junk food you bought in the ship's store.

What the National Defense Medal was/is called.

Posted by Pappy 2013-07-31 22:15|| 2013-07-31 22:15|| Front Page Top

#18 We had a HAC crash one of our H-60's 1/4 mile from the USS Boat ( wearing NVGs), he and the H2P got out, the 2 AWs didn't and are still in the deep. Pilot error was the finding of the Safety Board. Seems LT HAC's daddy was a flag officer and Junior demanded to know why he didn't get a Navy Commendation Medal at the end of his tour. CO said not a word, but pointed to the pictures of the dead AWs he had in his office. (CO was very shaken by this accident, never saw a CO so visibly moved)
LT still didn't understand...... ( H2P was so shook up he turned in his wings)

Posted by USN,Ret. 2013-07-31 23:32|| 2013-07-31 23:32|| Front Page Top

23:58 JosephMendiola
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23:37 SteveS
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