By Here is a letter to the editor of Stars & Stripes which is something I often hear people complain about in regards to military awards:
Maybe it’s way above my pay grade, but I have a lot of trouble understanding the way the Army issues awards overseas nowadays.
For example, end-of-tour awards for a 12-month combat tour are usually submitted within three to six months of being in country. How can you decide what award they deserve when you really haven’t even gotten to the toughest part of the deployment?
I also don’t understand how someone who has never even met the soldier whose award he is reviewing can decide whether to upgrade or downgrade a soldier’s award when he hasn’t worked with the soldier a day in his life. Let the immediate leaders make that decision.
I started this deployment as a team leader, moved to squad leader, and then acting platoon sergeant for two months while our platoon sergeant was being relieved, and yet the other squad leaders and I received the same awards as our privates and privates first class, all because some lieutenant colonel thinks that’s what we deserve.
Also, medals that used to have a meaning behind them lose their meaning and value when you hand them out like candy. I have friends who have been shot or lost appendages and received the Purple Heart with due reason. How can you put a soldier who bumped his head and claims to have headaches, or a soldier who scratches his face while insurgents are attacking his combat outpost, in the same category as the others?
I would be ashamed to receive a Purple Heart without being shot or losing a limb. There should be stricter rules for these types of awards.
Staff Sgt. Nick NegronCombat Outpost Thruster, Afghanistan
6:39 pm on September 7th, 2010 1
Hmm I get what he's talking about though. Currently there is a belief held by many officers / CSM's that awards are based on rank. Juniors get AAM's, middle guys get ACM's and seniors get MSM's when they PCS, often with little to no regard for what that person actually accomplished during their time. The squad leader / section NCO could put together an award recommendation for an ACM because a soldier held a slew of responsibilities but the CSM will recommend a downgrade because the soldier is a SPC. Then you have a SFC in a staff position who actively dodged all additional responsibilities get a MSM upon leaving. Being assigned to a staff command I get to see this happen on a monthly basis.
What really got to me was at the end of exercise they give up awards and what not. Except they've already figured out who got what within the first week of the exercise and it was almost exclusively by rank. Some LT and SGT got an AAM, and then the coins were handed to a few soldiers and KATUSA's, most of which were drivers. Where the guys who were doing insane behind-the-scenes type work, the work that actually makes things happen rarely got recognized. It was a nightmare trying to get soldiers recognized for the hard work they did.
On the purple heart thing, he didn't say shrapnel by a grenade he said scratched on their face. Basically falling down / bumping their head or getting a bruise. The way the wording is done it makes anyone wounded during battle eligible, with "wounded" being very open to interpretation. If you can provide documentation citing some injury, no matter how minor (sprained ankle from tripping) then you could be eligible for the purple heart.
I believe our awards system just needs more fair supervision from the senior ranks. The rules are written well enough, but the higher ups need to enforce fairness and impartiality more.
8:13 pm on September 7th, 2010 2
Well said SOG. Been there and done it.
8:35 pm on September 7th, 2010 3
OK, you hard A..es. So you think a guy should get blow to bits to deserve a purple heart. How about a shell fragment in the eye – painful enough? That's how a guy in Nam earned his. You just don't understand how dangerous shelling boiled eggs can be until a piece of the shell flys into your eye and you have to go to the ER to get it looked at.
8:36 pm on September 7th, 2010 4
We've all seen units where they give awards out like candy while other units are as tight as a virgin with awards. It does happen. As for awards for some deployments, in many units they only go to the butt-kissers. The soldiers working their bee-hinds off are too busy to kiss butt.
8:40 pm on September 7th, 2010 5
Someotherguy, you are 100% correct, especially the part about drivers getting awards while others get nothing. One time at NTC there was a driver who spent his entire time at Ft Irwin selling cigarettes (to guys in the field)that he was able to buy at the PX and he got an award while the rest of us, who worked, and worked, and worked the entire time stood there shocked. Well, maybe we weren't too shocked. That's how awards are usually handed out.
9:03 pm on September 7th, 2010 6
Award system has been BS for decades. No awards should be given for anything other than direct combat action with the enemy. period.
1:02 am on September 8th, 2010 7
I have been able to get low enlisted ARCOM's before that had to pass the CSM. If people write the award up properly and defend the award instead of just simply folding and taking the easy route and giving the person an AAM then lower enlisted would get more ARCOM's.
In regards to the Purple Heart I didn't say he said someone getting shrapnel in the buttocks. I was providing an example which someone getting hit by an IED and having headaches which could be from a TBI is also an example of. Senior leaders are there to do the smell test on these awards and if they aren't doing their jobs properly it isn't the systems fault blame the person.
Plus if you stay in the military long enough you may be the commander, CSM, or 1SG looking at these awards and can fight for awards yourself for troops that deserve it.
1:47 am on September 8th, 2010 8
Ok it may just be me and where i have been but i have to agree that the awards system is very poorly managed. I have seen people argue for soldiers getting awards and seniors not recognizing because some of what they did is better. The army really is bad overall at giving recognition and it is very rare to have someone properly recognized. Cause my last deployment awards were by rank regardless of what you did. There was nothing that could have been done by that thats just the way it was. The army just sucks for the guys that do the work.
3:40 am on September 8th, 2010 9
A silly question in my opinion.
Of course it's broken. It was broken a long time ago. Look how the US has been defeated in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
And then you have all these phony veterans who write books, claiming they got all these medals when they weren't even in any battles.
And what about gays in the US military, protesting outside of White House and refusing take orders.
9:55 am on September 8th, 2010 10
Even back in the day, awards policies varied wildly between units. The only common factor I noted was that more hard core units had higher standards for what was an awardable event/achievement.
2ID in the 1980's seemed to be quite liberal, and during major exercises, the BC walked around with a pocket full of impact AAM's and ACM's he could hand out to whoever struck his fancy.
The thing that griped my bowels was that getting a decent award for a really talented, motivated, and hard-working KATUSA was for all intents and purposes impossible. The thing had to go all the way up the chain and over to the ROK side, where it became a matter of diplomatic wrangling. You see, only Sr ROK officers are supposed to get American awards.
The fact that the KATUSA Admin SR NCO in the BN also ran a "shadow" chain of command did not help when I tried to use the reg's to award time off after major exercises, etc. As I recall (EA reg 600-2?) gave the right to award excess leave of up to 9 days to deserving KATUSA's. Not once did I get a recommendation through the hoops posed by KATUSA NCO's and officers that constituted this parallel chain of command.
Awarding a KATUSA a cheesy worthless coin is an insult. The commander responsible was just too damned lazy to fight the system(s) to get an award for his troop that was commensurate with his mission contribution. But by the same token, it was pretty hard to get a KATUSA punished on the scale applied to US troops. I know several instances where KATUSA's got away with major stupidity with rather light punishment.
11:01 am on September 8th, 2010 11
I have been able to get low enlisted ARCOM’s before that had to pass the CSM. If people write the award up properly and defend the award instead of just simply folding and taking the easy route and giving the person an AAM then lower enlisted would get more ARCOM’s.
In regards to the Purple Heart I didn’t say he said someone getting shrapnel in the buttocks. I was providing an example which someone getting hit by an IED and having headaches which could be from a TBI is also an example of. Senior leaders are there to do the smell test on these awards and if they aren’t doing their jobs properly it isn’t the systems fault blame the person.
Plus if you stay in the military long enough you may be the commander, CSM, or 1SG looking at these awards and can fight for awards yourself for troops that deserve it.
I have gotten juniors higher then AAM awards also, but that is entirely because I had my section LTC and SGM backing me up. Otherwise the unofficial policy was E4 and below got AAM, E5~E6 got ACM and E7+ got MSM. If you submitted an ARCOM recommendation for a SPC it would get reduced to an AAM unless your had your section SGM grease the skids before hand. This isn't a line unit its a staff command, meaning more seniors / officers then juniors.
You deliberately used hyperbole and straw man on the guys purple heart argument. Of course anyone who gets hit by an IED / shot at or taken shrapnel should get a purple heart. There is a pretty big difference between taking shrapnel and spraining your ankle. Wasn't there a comic posted on this site about fobbits running outside to randomly shoot their weapons so they could earn their CAB? Those are the guys I'm referring to. Incoming fire starts happening and they run around and trip, then *poof* they put in for a purple heart. Before you start the ridicule, it happens, more then people would admit. As long as you can prove you've been injured during combat, you can get the purple heart, its not something your leaders can turn down.
For the "their just doing their jobs", funny that is the exact same argument I've heard from the guys doing all the downgrading of the awards. Its a catch all argument because a soldiers job ultimately is to fight and die for his / her country. Therefor anything, including death, can be lumped into the "just doing their job" basket. A SPC file clerk works 12+ hours per day, including weekends for three months straight to fix a units training records resulting in the unit going from unsatisfactory to outstanding ratings. The CSM's response to the AAM recommendation "the soldier was just doing his job". Later the CSM's driver gets an AAM for driving a bunch of officers around during some three day conference. The SPC(P) who spent three years at an assignment, won a few boards, had a crap ton of additional duties (BOSS rep, safety rep, SSQ mayor, ect..) and performed above and beyond on all accounts gets their ARCOM downgraded to an AAM by the local CSM. But the SGT who worked as the motor pull data clerk on ULLS-G (not even a mechanic), didn't have any additional responsibilities gets handed a ACM on his way out the door.
Anyone who spent any time in the service, at least in the last 15 years can say without a doubt that awards are handed out based on rank not actual achievement. And they are NOT based on responsibility, promotions are based on responsibility or the perception of. Awards are supposed to be based on actual achievements and things you did. If you did nothing of any notable significance then you should be getting nothing, no matter your rank.
12:44 pm on September 8th, 2010 12
I was concerned about awards up through the rank of E-5 ~ because they were worth promotion points.
After that – I didn't give a shit. I literally asked not to be given EOT awards so that I wouldn't have to mess with my ribbons.
Some were taken aback by my attitude. I still didn't give a shit.
IMO, not caring one way or the other took a lot of stress off of something that was largely BS to begin with.
And in the end…I got the same job satisfaction while serving – and I'm getting the same retirement check that I would have gotten even if I'd received twice as many awards as I did.
1:27 pm on September 8th, 2010 13
@11 – Your argument about someone receiving a Purple Heart for a sprained ankle sounds like an urban legend. Please provide an example of who these people are that are getting Purple Hearts they don't deserve? There are many a milblog that would love to expose them. I have never met anyone that didn't get a Purple Heart they didn't deserve. CAB's that is a different story because those are handed out like candy.
2:15 pm on September 8th, 2010 14
During the 1991 Gulf war I was stationed at the Army hospital in Landstuhl Germany. There was a SFC(E-7) who had been to SWA and then came back who was awarded(along with the other members of his unit) a bronze star. He openly said that all his unit did was sit in the desert. This is a disgrace.
3:30 pm on September 8th, 2010 15
Well later on in most careers PCS awards start to mean squat. But to a junior soldier they mean the world and are a very good way to demonstrate positive reinforcement and serve as a demonstration that hard work gets recognized. The opposite, giving awards based on politics and crap like CSM drivers just piss's other juniors off and reinforces the opposite feeling which impairs unit morale. And contrary to some peoples belief, you can't order high morale. "The beatings will continue until morale improves" just creates the appearance of morale which is just as bad as low morale, the both have the same effect on the production / mission of the unit.
I'll ask some friends of mine who were in the sand box, I'm positive they have a few stories they could share. I know I've heard about a few undeserving people but never first hand, and thus I don't trust it. But remember the exact same situation that results in CAB's also results in purple hearts. You merely need to be injured in combat with an enemy force, the extend of that injury is not specified.
3:42 pm on September 8th, 2010 16
"Please provide an example of who these people are that are getting Purple Hearts they don’t deserve?"
Look up Maurice "Maury" Forsyth's Purple Heart.
http://www.google.com/search?q=forsyth+tim+collin…
Soldiers For the Truth (sftt.org) used to have more info but it seems to be gone.
10:01 pm on September 8th, 2010 17
In my short 5 years of service I developed the same attitude that the award system is mostly BS. I even got one myself. It's been too long ago, Id' have to go look it up to be sure, but I think it was and ARCOM – just for fixxing a broken air line on a truck. I figured I got it because it was not my normal duty ( Iw as a driver) and also it helped get the convoy moving so the BAT commander got home that night….anyway, I wash shocked when the paperwork showed up the next day.
I also saw a guy pushing for Purple Heart from Somalia when the soldier got injured through his own stupidity (screwing around with the kids that stole from the camp at night). I don't think it wne through, but he wasted a lot of poeples time on it……
2:20 am on September 9th, 2010 18
Awards mean very little if anything at all to me. I have no respect for any award even the Medal of Honor. I'll only respect the person after I read the citation. I personally experienced a SSG who had a negligent discharge in Afghanistan and nearly killed someone. That guy got a Bronze Star for his deployment, ND included.
I use to think they meant something, but that when I didn't know different.
6:56 am on March 16th, 2011 19
Good to see the responses and attention that the Army awards system has gained, it is no secret that the added personal ideas of what each individual commander thinks or sees as being worthy of an award has caused some sour grapes, there is no comparative system and the only way is to train leaders to be able to identify what is or is not heroism or meritorious service. I myself had over 10 years enlisted time prior to becoming an officer, so I know what it feels like to work your tail off just to stand in formation and see some guy get a medal for what you did that you never really even saw and I must say the disparity of awards between the ranks seems to have relevance here. I have noticed this disparity and bad blood over the years and because of that it has been my goal to see all soldiers are properly reviewed and treated according to their position, deed and conduct when recommending awards, it is not easy because many times I hit a snag at the top but most of the time it has worked out and been fair, but it takes some serious work and fighting and it has been my opinion that not every leader feels that way and is way to concerned with their own awards or an OER to go to fight with the Battalion Commander for your soldiers, try it sometime you may find you gain a level of respect from your BC that the others commander will not have, or you may have a sycophant or someone who hates anyone questioning their authority that will fight you even harder if you do ask why? But that’s why they call it courage folks it takes courage to go to the Man or Woman and point out something you feel is unfair to your soldiers and it is exactly what I see is lacking most among leaders who are terrified of loosing status or position and changing honor and courage for acceptance and submissive following at all costs, now don’t choke on this most know what I am saying is 100% facts here and it’s high time someone said it anyway.
As for Valor awards they are different, I do see a major issue with these type of awards that is at the Department of the Army HRC level and it is very difficult to see soldiers decorated for combat heroism at times due to the lack of visibility and availability of military awards boards who can deny an award at HRC for anything and yet do not have to give the command a reason as to why, yet they do offer you a chance to come back and have the award they denied reviewed, however you can only address why they were disapproved which is impossible without a reason for the initial disapproval and some notes from the board stating exactly what part of the packet did not pass muster. Very frustrating and most commanders will not fight for more than a couple of weeks for their soldiers awards, let alone the five years I have been engaged for 7 of my soldiers who were recommended for awards and even approved all the way up to the ARCENT commander yet still denied and beat down. Some leaders like in my case do fight and stick to it, nothing like seeing four Major Generals fight for their soldiers in grades E-7 and below to receive awards they all know they earned yet some administrative board denies, now that is leadership we can all look up to and say I want to be like these leaders! Bottom line is we need a more fair system to be in place for ALL soldiers and for sure need to respect the recommendations of the wartime commanders who did not get the chance to review awards or the awards got lost or in some cases stuck in a place because of incompetence of those handling them. You see to me and many others including some very high level folks that have commanded Divisions and even theaters the rank does not matter when it comes to individual acts of bravery, a PFC distinguishes them self under fire and does the same thing a Captain does pretty much but also acts on his own initiative then if the Captain gets a Silver Star the PFC should get the same, same action, same level of gallantry and same level of risk equals same level of award. Officer's getting a BSM just for doing their job in theater is no good, in fact it stinks real bad and should have many of them peeling off that BSM when in dress blues, I see this way too much which is why I see a BSM with no V on it just like an ARCOM to me and in some cases less because I realize how the system works. In my case I was recommended for a BSM for service but asked the Battalion commander to downgrade to the MSM because I really was just doing my job and while I did have good ratings and records it was not fair for me to get a BSM while my soldiers got an ARCOM, heck who did the work anyway right? My soldiers. These medals have become a sticking point for many folks, I have seen people want to and perhaps in some cases this may have added to the reason why they either tried to commit suicide or did commit suicide, so we got to take this serious to the highest levels people, it’s no joke anymore and the place they seem to all get stuck at is at the Battalion or Brigade level so there is where we start making changes and training the commanders and staff on how awards work and what constitutes an act of meritorious service or heroism, too much personal dram is going into awards now that has got to get out of this system or it will never be fair for anyone and we may as well just throw the whole system out the door. When people ask me about awards I take it serious as should every commander and if you’re not then shame on you and if you are hey thumbs up your a brother or sister in arms and you realize the military awards and decorations system if allowed to work and used right without the politics of rank or people’s personal opinions will creates an atmosphere of high morale and esprit de corps in the ranks and let me tell you if you get a soldier a medal they earned and make sure they get it timely and not downgraded you may be building up a future CSM or perhaps a OCS candidate future officer. Awards are just that Awards for doing better than your just your job, if an E-6 is pushed into a position as an E-7 and does it above board for a day or year it is up to that commander to do the right thing and take all things into considerations, keep in mind if he was put into this position without training and he went above and beyond that’s a plus, if he made improvements to the platoon and it showed that’s a plus, if he also displayed remarkable enthusiasm that a plus and he should get something relevant to that position and his performance. You look around the Army nearly every E-7 and above that goes to theater and just does their job is decorated and in some cases some of these E-7’s and above just skid by and that is the part that chokes these enlisted soldiers and old mustangs like me up as well. I saw one commander who was denied his BSM because he had some major issues get so mad he denied every award reocmendation he received and this was allowed to fly, man that is just wrong as wrong can be, but he was the commander and he did what he did and no one questioned him over it so it stuck and all those soldiers who deserved something got nothing. Bottom line leaders Treat these soldiers fair and right, let go of personal anxieties and feelings, be a leader and they will do wonderful things. I suggest the Army investigate the current system of awards and decorations at all levels for the obvious flaws and fix them quick and make them retroactive to the start of time so our heroes from Vietnam, Korea and W.W. II get recognized and remember it’s not personal so let no personal feelings or grudges enter into deciding who gets what, Reward and Honor the actions folks, if they do something bad that’s what an article 15 is for do not be petty and small by refusing a deserving soldier an award they earned, just because you can, be big and strong and stand up for those who stand up with you and for you in battle and in peace.
Have a Great Day
10:35 am on March 16th, 2011 20
How did this one get past me? Oh yea, I was in the PI in september.
Anywho, most people know the awards system is broken and has been for many years.
I wrote up an ACM for a soldier in 2002, it was returned to me twice for a rewrite.
The CSM just would not OK an ACM for an E4. UNTILL—his driver (her boyfriend) spoke to him and he came to me and asked if I would rewrite it one more time. I said yes.
I did not change one word, but re-submitted it as an ACM. Would you believe it? It was excepted and she got her (well earned) ACM.
It wasn't the way it was written. It wasn't the work she did. It was who she knew! Now she deserved it, but not because of who she knew. FAIL CSM.
On a personal note, I'm still waiting for my Retirement Award. Twenty years of service. Honduras when it sucked 1986. Korea. Two tours in Bosnia. One in Iraq 2004/5.
Nothing. Not even a coin. Oh wait, I got a coin in formation, with everyone else in the Company.
I didn't get anything for Iraq either. The reason was given that they were going to use it as a bullitt for my Retirement award. A "BULLITT"? A year in Iraq is worth a BULLITT statement on my Retirement award.
Oh, did I mention that I DID NOT GET a Retirement Award.
At least one of my soldier didn't get an ETS award after Iraq. I was already gone. I learned that on facebook five years later.
Based on my treatment at The CAV and two units in Korea, I can not possibly believe the statement of "no one left behind". Maybe in the Marines. Not the Army.
I was left behind and forgotten. I was not the only one.
I had to demand an NCOER. I means more to me than any award. Awards are only a cheap but pleasent why to say "thank you". Don't cost much and under most awards carries little meaning outside the military.
But I'll tell you this right now: A man gives twenty years of service to the military, SOMEONE in Charge had better be thankful. It is only the Professional thing to do. No one did, so no one was.
I will never advise anyone to join the Army. Marines? Hell yea! AirForce and Navy if they will have you. But the Army? Don't you do it. They will use you and forget you.
Glad I served! But I should have gotten out after eight years. The other twelve were a waste of a good man. No one cared.
11:08 am on March 16th, 2011 21
Someone ALWAYS gets butthurt when awards go out and some committee shoots them down. One of our NCO's chain had to go through paperwork hell to get an overseas award right, everything spelled correctly and formatted correctly a thousand times – and the citation on the award got changed in the end to "deplotted". Yeah, lots of petty BS on paper work for awards. It sucks.