Do combat arms soldiers look down on fellow combat arms brethren if they have deployed and not been awarded a combat badge/medal/ribbon?

Hero badges for real hero stuff not just doing your job. Mostly things most soldiers would not do. For merit decorations doing job a little better than most or with extra hard conditions

If you served, you have my respect, as CIB recipient, its the service that counts.

It takes less than a minute to size up a fellow trooper. Badges don't mean shit. Be the trooper that knows his shit does his job, and aways takes care of his people. Blue falcons with a Silver Star are just blue falcons.

Being prior infantry, we do have that notion to size-up each other based on what we have iif haven't done in our career. When we're younger, we expect our fellow grunts to find the enemy and take the fight to them. It's what we are trained to do. Personally, I never looked down on one of my fellow grunts if he wasn't around for firefights or other engagements. It's simple luck on whether or not we find ourselves in a TIC. However, there is a learning curve and respect combat one earns and learns once they are directly engaged, and in doing so having to fight your way through it, killing the enemy. There should be a standard that holds people to higher standard and expectation. Havjng proved your metal shows a lot more about your character than any training can provide. Your 'quiet man' stateside can be an animal in fight, while your gung-ho leader can be a useless bag of sand when rounds start flying.

I believe earning your stripes is a necessary step and a well-deserved aim. It doesn't prove that others who haven't earn it aren't capable, but it shows the potential of that soldier and his/her units capabilities and leadership.

Let's take it one step further. I have civilian friends who work for Raytheon and GE. I tell them that they are part of what we used to call "Defense Plants," who provide combat service support to those who are engaged in combat operations. They should be proud of providing logistical support. The same is true of those in uniform who help those who were chosen to deploy...and keep in mind, it's usually not a matter of choice. Plenty of troops who didn't "get to go" wanted to. Let's not make them feel inferior for something out of their hands.

Although I am proud of my CAR, I don't think it really means much. When my unit came under fire (several times) while in Beirut, there were very few of us that actually engaged the enemy. Most of the unit was sent to 'security' bunkers, while I was routinely in a machine gun position manning an M-60. We were all awarded the CAR, but most of those guys didn't even have to police brass for an after action report, so not really a big deal.

I was in the wrong place at the wrong time on two different occasions. Iraq 2003-2004 I have been fighting tooth and nail ever since with the DOD to get the Combat Action Badge, to no gain as of yet. It seems when I left the military they said "too bad, so sad" and sent me on my merry way.

Our Sgt Major believed that unless you were actually hit by enemy rounds, the actual round itself if your humvee was hit and you lost a leg but had no shrapnel from it there was no award for it. Had soldiers blown off there feet blood coming out of there ear and they got nothing out of it. So not all soldiers walking around with nothing on there uniform rodent mean they have not seen any combat first hand. Alot of the time it's there chain of command came from a cobat arms mos and look down on there own soldiers.

I'm a Cold War veteran. As such, I was fortunate never to have been deployed in combat. If I had been asked, I would not have hesitated but that wasn't my lot in life. I did serve 27 years as a police officer in a violent inner city community where a number of my brothers were killed in the line of duty. A number of my brothers and sisters who deployed for the first Gulf War and later have said they appreciate the willingness to go to war and understand that the geo-politics of the day didn't warrant such happening. I've never felt "looked down upon" but I admit I am a bit envious of those who did serve in combat. It's what I trained to do.

It used to for me but after this last deployment (my first) and being exposed to the politics, I'm willing to bet that more than half of the people walking around with them didn't earn them.