Do Your Awards Still Mean Something To You After Leaving The Service?

Unless you are dealing with a Veteran employer, those award don't mean crap to any civilian employer. You will go to the bottom of the list unless you have a Master degree and even with that, good luck.

My medals mean almost as much to me now as they did then including my Combat Action Badge and my Bronze Star. I served 33 years to include being in a combat zone on a FOB. The sad part is that when I retired I received nothing from my unit, my Bn, or my BGE not even a hand shake or a thank you for my service. I still look at them as a reminder of my service.

No they don't even when you apply for a federal position nobody even asks I have many also. It does however show you have dedication and are proud of your service time.

Since I retired I still am proud of all my Awards I earned over the time of my military career.

During my time, 1975 - 1995, awards were given for PCS. other than that maybe an aam or arcom for a leader after a big exercise or inspection. I never went into actual combat zones. So to me awards were not much value other than promotion poin5s and a short burst of ego. I am proud of my parachutists badge and air assault badge ,and have always been. Those are not giveaways. You have to earn them and with the units I served we used the skill. The biggest disappointment about any of my badges/awards was in Alaska the Commander awarded impact award for a vehicle recovery on the highway mountainside. He wanted to award me the E-7, not the E-4 wrecker operator that done the job. I rebelled. The E-4 received his aam. I was talked bad about by the other senior NCO's.

I do not believe in females serving in Combat Arms positions. I am not chauvinist, just why I believe. There are things men can do, that women can not. There are things women can do that men can not. We compliment eachother.

I never really cared about awards for me while I was in. Always seemed like a pain in the ass that cost me money (I liked those ultrathins). I guess they actually mean more to me now that I am retired because they act as a reminder of a great career. The awards that really meant something to me were the ones the Sailors I led earned!

I'm proud of what I've gone through and done not the medals. After serving in units where you got the same award as the person who didn't leave the fob and never put their life on the line or encountered possible life ending situations i have lost the pride for them. I'm sure if I hadn't had that level of laziness or incompetence in my leadership things might be different.

The other day I was putting medals away when my daughter asked me about them. We had a nice daddy daughter story telling. The medals remind me of stories, great leaders, and tough deployments. I don't feel the need to display them in a case. To me that phase is gone. I always look forward to when the kids ask me to explain what a certain badge or medal means. I let it be their curiosity.

I probably couldn't name all the medals and ribbons I received (I'm sure there's a good conduct and a national defense in there and probably some unit awards and some supposed individual medals that we all received), but it's been 24 years since I got out. I can remember my 6th award rifle expert though and that one of those was a company high 248. The rest were just awards for being in the right place at the right time and had very little to do with anything special on my part. I'm sure if I had earned anything bronze star and up it would be significant to remember.