Military Ribbon Question

Discussion in 'Warfare / Military' started by Grey Matter, Mar 27, 2020.

  1. Grey Matter

    Grey Matter Well-Known Member Donor

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    No Sir, mostly I suppose because as a kid that war scared the hell out of me and it seems to me that our Vietnam Vets were treated pretty poorly for their service.
     
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  2. Seth Bullock

    Seth Bullock Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I grew up with it too. And yeah, they were treated poorly. But with the passage of time, that changed. Hopefully, that never happens again.
     
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  3. Grey Matter

    Grey Matter Well-Known Member Donor

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    Thanks for the clarification. You are correct in that I had assumed it was associated with transport to the theater.
     
    Last edited: Mar 30, 2020
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  4. Grey Matter

    Grey Matter Well-Known Member Donor

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    That was where I started with the OP. It didn't occur to me that the Purple Heart was of course awarded posthumously for a combat related death. I'm good with that, but I think it'd be an improvement to put a badge on it in case of a combat related death, gold star perhaps.
     
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  5. perotista

    perotista Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I don't know. I've been military all my life. I'm satisfied, happy with the way and the meaning of the purple heart. Of course it's been a tradition going back to General Washington who awarded the first one. So being more of a traditionalist, I think most military folks are in some sense or way. The purple heart is fine with me for all wounds and deaths related to combat.

    Your idea of placing a gold star on the purple heart has merit. The Bronze Star can be awarded for valor, heroic achievement, heroic service, meritorious achievement, or meritorious service in a combat zone. Those awarded for valor has a V clasp attached much like your suggestion of a gold star.

    I'd have no objections to that.
     
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  6. Lil Mike

    Lil Mike Well-Known Member

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    [​IMG]

    Starting at the bottom, the NCO Professional Development Ribbon, the Rainbow Ribbon, which shows my commitment to LGBTQWERTY rights, The overseas ribbon.

    2nd row the National defense ribbon of course, the go-fight-terrorists medal, the Army Reserve ribbon, with a mobilization device,

    3rd: Army Achievement Medal, Good Conduct, and Army Reserve "Achievement" medal, and at the top, Army Commendation Medal.

    Basically they were all just for showing up.
     
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  7. Seth Bullock

    Seth Bullock Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Hahaha! You forced me to look up the "Rainbow Ribbon". That's an Army Service Ribbon. From my reading up on it, it is awarded for successfully completing Basic and AIT. No such award was given for that when I was in the Army in the 70s, so I wasn't familiar with it.
     
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  8. Lil Mike

    Lil Mike Well-Known Member

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    Well it's ridiculous. Why would you need a ribbon for completing AIT? To compete with the Air Force? I had hoped that are seemingly unending wartime conditions would lead to cutting back on some of this extra stuff but no such luck.
     
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  9. Seth Bullock

    Seth Bullock Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Well I have to agree with that. A medal for completing AIT? Sheesh! A ribbon for not flunking ....:roll:

    When I graduated from AIT I got a certificate and the right to wear the corresponding collar brass. That should be enough.

    MP3 (2).png
     
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  10. Nightmare515

    Nightmare515 Ragin' Cajun Staff Member Past Donor

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    We give out all sorts of useless ribbons. It's a strategy to instill pride in Soldiers and make them feel like they are accomplishing something as they go through their career. We all know Soldiers use any and every opportunity to measure their manhood against one another and nobody like beings the one at the ball with no ribbons on their dress blues so they give everyone something so they feel better about themselves. I'm in the camp of most awards being nothing more than a recognition of you doing your actual job properly but not everyone feels that way. Out of the dozens of awards I have sitting in a pile there isn't a single write up that clearly states I did anything "above and beyond". I simply did my job like I'm supposed to do but they give me an award for it for some reason.

    I'm not really an award guy lol. Not because I don't believe in them but mainly because I just don't like having to keep adding more stuff to my dress blues. I've pretty much had the same ribbon rack going back to my enlisted days and the only time I ever update anything is when I have to take a new DA Photo for something that actually matters like a promotion board. And even with that if my ribbon rack doesn't match my records I just tell the S1 clerk to remove crap from the records instead of me having to dig through boxes to go find a bunch of ARCOMs that I got for existing somewhere for long enough.
     
  11. Grey Matter

    Grey Matter Well-Known Member Donor

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    Lifer problems. Respect. That’s funny af. “Hey, I’m not jacking with ‘em, ok!? Just take the freaking oak leaf off the record!” Oh man that is good stuff.

    I got a buddy of mine that stayed in. I have no idea how he did it, but he went from E1 to CW4 with 35y of service as of this year. It’s impressive as hell to me for putting up with Army logic for so long as well as pulling off a sham that’s only exceeded by college profs.
     
  12. Nightmare515

    Nightmare515 Ragin' Cajun Staff Member Past Donor

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    LOL yeah my younger coworkers were pretty dumbfounded a few weeks ago when I started fussing in the office about my records. I had to update my records and I did what I always do like I said, tell the clerk to just add what I tell them. I even gave them a record brief full of red ink changes that I wanted them to make and specifically said do not do anything other than this ok? Well turns out the clerk wanted to do me a favor and actually dug through my entire career and added EVERYTHING she could ever find on there. When I realized that I was irritated as hell because I already had a DA photo taken so I had to go back to the personnel clerk and tell them to remove the damn record THEY made and upload the one I specifically told them to lol. She was completely confused as to why somebody wouldn't want more ribbons. I'm like listen I already have like 5 rows of the damn things because the Army gives out ribbons for breathing properly, that's enough on there to make it look like I do stuff around here...

    My enlisted friends always give me crap about it. "Weren't you an NCO at one point?" Yes I WAS an NCO at one point, I'm not any more, I know enlisted folks and Officers like walking around in their blues with the entire back shelf of Clothing and Sales stuck all over themselves but I personally don't care. I don't even sew stuff on my regular duty uniform like most people do. My Commander always gives me crap about that asking why I don't sew my wings or my badges or patches on my uniform and I'm like because then I'll have to go sew my wings and badges and patches on my uniform....lol

    I'm in the same camp of guys as your buddy. We aren't Enlisted and we aren't Officers, we care about a lot of stuff but vanity isn't one of them. I'm sure your buddy can tell of hours of stories about how well "liked" we are by the rest of the Army lol.
     
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  13. Grey Matter

    Grey Matter Well-Known Member Donor

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    Ah, stop it already ffs. Ya almost got me laughing so hard as to blow my beer out of my nose!

    And this one from Lil Mike,

     
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  14. Nightmare515

    Nightmare515 Ragin' Cajun Staff Member Past Donor

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    LOL, well if you've ever served in the Army or know someone who has then I'm sure you're aware of our ridiculous awards. Here's an excerpt from one I randomly found in a box in my closet while looking for duct tape the other day.

    "For exceptional service while serving (in my job) Nightmare515's dedication to duty, selfless service, and outstanding professionalism contributed greatly to mission accomplishment. His outstanding performance is in keeping with the finest traditions of military service and reflects distinct credit upon (the unit I was in at the time) and the United States Army"

    What the hell does that even mean? That doesn't say I DID anything they just copy and pasted that. How do I know? Because that's the same thing the other 10 of those damn things says in my closet lol...I honestly don't even remember when I got that because it's so vague and it's not like it was something special seeing how I just found the thing the other day.

    You get awards for graduating basic training
    You get awards for PCSing from a duty station
    You get awards for going to war
    You get awards for not getting in trouble for long enough (enlisted)
    You get awards for graduating from schools that you HAVE to go to
    You get awards if a local in Afghanistan spits on you and you DON'T beat the **** out of him (my buddy) (Seriously "He displayed great professionalism and discipline by not...") What the ****?
    You get awards to make you feel better because the 50 of us on the outpost are all ****ing starving because you're the only cook and you've been sitting in your tent crying for a week because one of our guys dumped you. (Can't make this up)
    You get combat patches for being SOMEWHERE in the Middle East even if it's on an airbase the size of Las Vegas with a full blown TGI Fridays and rental car service on it (literally)
    You get combat badges for a bomb going off somewhere within a 450 square mile radius of somebody in your unit

    All this bling and shiny stuff loses it's value when it's just randomly handed out to everybody. My enlisted stripes were forged in blood, my combat patches were forged in blood, my Afghan and Iraq campaign medals were forged in blood, and some of the other stuff they stuck on me I actually did earn as well. But my decorations lose their value when most of the pretty stuff on my uniform is the same **** we gave to a damn cook as a "please go back to ****ing work you sorry ****" gesture because my buddy stopped sneaking into her tent at night and that hurt her feelings and we needed somebody to cook the damn food lol...

    That's why I toss these things in the closet and don't care. Most of this crap doesn't have any value to the Army so it has no value to me either.

    Don't get me wrong, I write awards myself and when my young co-workers get awards I make a show of it to be extremely proud of them and make them feel special and all that jazz. I know they mean a lot to some folks and I want people to feel special so I don't trash talk awards in front of young impressionable Soldiers who may hear this old grumpy guy saying that award they just got doesn't mean anything.

    But yeah most of these awards are **** LOL. Only reason I can even name the ones on my chest is because I had to Google the decorations section on my records brief to see if the Korean lady I paid 50 bucks years ago to put my dress uniform together actually did it right and I wasn't walking around rocking a Medal of Honor or something LOL.
     
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  15. Facts-602

    Facts-602 Banned

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    If I remember right the bronze start was awarded as well, along with if it was lower enlisted they got bumped up to E-4.
     
  16. Facts-602

    Facts-602 Banned

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    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Apr 2, 2020
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  17. Seth Bullock

    Seth Bullock Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    If I'm reading that right, it looks like you did one deployment to Iraq, and you were wounded 3 times during that deployment. Is that right?
     
  18. Facts-602

    Facts-602 Banned

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    Two deployments the ribbon counts as one, star for the second.
    Second deployment was a rough one.
     
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  19. Seth Bullock

    Seth Bullock Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    When were you in Iraq? My son was there in 07 out of Camp Fallujah.
     
  20. Facts-602

    Facts-602 Banned

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    I went in 04-05, started out in Diyala Province, but our battalion ended up getting moved around allot. Second time we were in the Al adhamiyah district in Baghdad in 06-08. Right after we got extended to 15 months, I got popped for the third time by a ied, and spent the rest of that deployment in Walter Reed.
     
    Last edited: Apr 2, 2020
  21. Seth Bullock

    Seth Bullock Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I have checked two different sources, and I think you may be entitled to up to 4 stars on your Iraq Campaign ribbon. This is because the service member receives a star for each phase of the campaign that the service member participated in, rather than each deployment. According to these sources, you earned a ribbon and a campaign star on your first deployment. You may have earned a second star on that first deployment depending on when you got to Iraq and when you left Iraq because 04-05 crosses over two phases of the campaign. The years 06-08 also cross over two phases of the campaign, and so that deployment would qualify you for two stars.

    I realize that it seems odd to award the ribbon and the star on the first deployment and to base the other stars upon these phases of the campaign, but that's what these sources both say. Here are the sources I checked.

    https://www.usamilitarymedals.com/products/iraq-campaign-medal-ribbon

    Second source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_Campaign_Medal

    My son was also hit by an IED. I hope you are doing well.

    :salute:

    Seth
     
    Last edited: Apr 2, 2020
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  22. Facts-602

    Facts-602 Banned

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    I’ll be dammed, I didn’t know that. Has that campaign ribbon always been like that, or did they make changes recently?
    I got out in 09, and that’s all they put on my dd214.
     
    Last edited: Apr 2, 2020
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  23. Seth Bullock

    Seth Bullock Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    None of the reading I've done indicate any recent changes. From Wikipedia ...

    Screenshot_2020-04-02 Iraq Campaign Medal - Wikipedia(1).png

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_Campaign_Medal
     
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  24. Seth Bullock

    Seth Bullock Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    My son was in Iraq in 07, and he also got out in 09, and he received the Iraq Campaign ribbon/medal for the deployment plus the star for being there during one of the phases. So his situation is the same as yours. He was in the Marines, but I don't see anything in my reading that makes it any different for the Army or Marines.
     
    Last edited: Apr 2, 2020
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  25. Grey Matter

    Grey Matter Well-Known Member Donor

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    Ok, I'm just jacking around here old school like you were one of my boys back in the day, ok? But I can't help but ask why you or someone else didn't step up for the team to give her some lovin', and even worse, how hard is it to cook army chow? Hahahaha - will have a beer and you can punch me, ok?
     

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