Military Awards; Two Complaints

I am struck by the fact that, at least locally, I have not seen hardly any military awards ceremonies covered in either the papers or on national/local TV. I see two potential issues here…I feel obliged to comment on both.

First, I am fearful that the military has not moved far from its practices of the 80’s and 90’s in the way awards were meted out.

There were a few hanging chads from the Vietnam War that impacted our awards policies for the two decades hence. First, there are many Vietnam vets that are unable to recount the specifics for which they received their combat awards. In essence, they were uncertain of the value of their awards, because they were given awards as a matter of policy, vice being given awards for specific actions that were captured by a third party and independently submitted through the chain. This is not meant to besmirch the awards of Vietnam Vets, but to relate the feelings of vets that I have heard many times... that without the connective tissue of a specific act that even the recipient views as modestly heroic, the award, while higly valued in the culture, may not be highly valued by the recipient. In other words, a bad awards program diminishes the value of the awards. This had the effect of downplaying the value of awards in the years following Vietnam, de-emphasizing them almost into extinction. I recall very few awards ceremonies from 1978-1984.

The second post-Vietnam effect is one of direct comparison. By all accounts, the combat tours of duty in Vietnam were extremely dangerous and challengingly arduous. The follow-on combat operations, such a Grenada and Panama, were of such short duration, that the thought of giving out combat awards for operations that lasted less than a week, seemed a bit too much for most commanders, all of whom were Vietnam era vets. Hence, in the Marine Corps anyway, combat awards for those actions are viewed as rare, and highly won.

In combination, these factors created a bit of a backlash. A kind of diametric attitude that viewed awards as both minimally worthwhile, but conversely required some Vietnam comparison litmus test to merit awarding. By my observation this lasted until about 1985, as all types of awards were begrudgingly given out, at an impressively stingy rate. Increasingly, more and more non-combat, peacetime medals were given out, until a credible equilibrium seemed to be achieved…balancing the need for a viable awards program while ensuring that awards retained their value.

Quietly, however there evolved a tiering within the awards system that appeared to schedule out awards according to rank. In a lot of cases this makes sense. Legions of Merit are not designed to be given Lance Corporals just out of “A” School, but I observed many cases where Navy Commendation Medals were downgraded to Navy Achievement Medals simply because the intended recipients were Sergeants instead of Staff NCO’s. There were stratifications within the officer ranks as well. The rank-based approach to medal awarding slowly began to become accepted practice that saw very few exceptions.

Where all this concerns me today, is in the issuance of combat awards during the extent of OIF and OIF II. I don’t worry about issuing too many combat awards, I worry that the appropriate combat awards are not being awarded to the troops who are the preponderance of the forces engaged with the enemy. Since I am not seeing any in the paper, nor on the news, I worry we may be continuing to be too stingy with awards and/or passing them through some artificial litmus tests before they are awarded, having the overall effect of awarding fewer deserved awards.

I hope this is not the case…which brings me to the second point about the MSM…start treating our combat troops with the respect they deserve.

The MSM focus on prison scandals, keeping a running body count on our front pages, deriding the fighting of the insurgency, has the effect of diminishing the exhausting efforts of our troops in the field. Additionally, the MSM is all too eager to show our veterans who are now in re-hab as amputees, and to publish the funeral processions of our veterans killed in action. Don’t be fooled, these stories are being published as attacks on the President, SOD and their policies, not in an effort to honor our troops. If there were such an effort to honor our individual soldiers they would also be carrying stories on the heroic actions of our soldiers and the awards ceremonies that are certainly taking place. How many of those have been aired/published…none that I have seen locally.

So, my call,…to the military…make sure you’re giving out combat awards as they are earned. Skip the rank tests. Skip the quotas. Lighten up on the Bronze Stars and Silver Stars to staff officers. And, get the awards ceremonies honoring our troops into the papers, onto the web, and onto the nightly news.

To veterans…don’t let the MSM use you and your families as you go through your difficult re-habs. They are not doing it to honor you, they are doing it to sell newspapers and air time. Don’t let them drag you and your honor down to their level…insist on a trade…your story for additional, positive coverage of our troops and their heroic efforts in the field.

To the MSM…wise up…good news does sell. Compelling stories of troops in combat sells print. Get the clue. Quit using our vets and their horrific injuries to sell your tripe. Balance your coverage or get out of the business.

To those who suspect I am writing this over bitterness about my own personal decorations, or lack thereof…fear not, I am very colorful in my dress uniforms, including a nice smattering of individual meritorious awards, individual combat awards, and a few left over ribbons for above the right pocket on my dress blues…DD214 available upon request.

Let’s do the young troops justice…give them the medals they earn, give them the coverage the deserve…simple message.