PCS, Impact, Deployment, and other awards: Should they be determined by rank?
Now that the history lesson is over. It is unfair to blanket the Navy as a whole in terms of "passing out awards." You fail to understand that there are tens of thousands of Sailors that fall under Marine Corps purview; Hospital Corpsman, Religious Program Specialist, Personnel Specialist, Doctors, Dentist, Psychologist. All of those Navy personnel fall under a Marine Corps command and their awards are authorized through the governing command.
I spent 15 years in the Navy, 1 year combined Boot Camp, Corpsman School, and Fleet Marine Force School for Corpsman. The next 14 years I spent with either the Marine Corps or Army Special Operations Command. So you'll have to pardon my subtle discomfort when I am lumped into your assessment of "The Navy." You probably didn't intend it to come out that way, but you were probably uninformed. Don't worry, a good number of years back the Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy didn't really know how many Sailors he had at Camp Pendleton, he thought there were a few hundred, but realistically there is more like a few thousand.
I hear you MAJ Scantlin, I would have no problem with there being no awards for doing your job. But, what about those that volunteer to deploy with another unit to do a job above their paygrade and outside of their MOS? I'm not trying to argue the what ifs but, would that warrant an award?
I agree on the retirement awards too. In all honesty, what good are they? I understand the concept but, can a service member's career be summed up in one award?
I almost wasn't allowed to PCS from Korea because I didn't have a PCS award. Granted, I had to leave under abnormal circumstances and later received my award.
Thanks Sir! I've just been trying to get as much insight on this subject as I can. I appreciate your honest answers!
SGT Ben Keen,
In regards to your question "Would that be one reason for the downgraded award? Or can you use those actions again in your write up for a PCS/ETS award?"
It could very well be the reason they thought an AAM and not an ARCOM was appropriate. I was not there but would take those previous awards into consideration. If you take out the deployment and the achievements received for the ARCOM and AAMs he received then they may have felt the reaming service achievements warranted an AAM. Again I was not there although he was a great Soldier.
**AR 600-8-22 "Recommendation for award of a decoration for meritorious service will not refer to acts of heroism or meritorious achievements which have been previously recognized by award of decoration". Some do think PCS awards should be for the whole period but even though it is for the whole period minus any previous award achievements or service.
Hope that answers your question.
We did a "board" system if you will in my BN our last OEF deployment, and I think it was pretty fair. We took every BSM submission in the BN to a panel consisting of either the CO/1SG of each company, the BN CSM, OPS SGM, and BN XO. Everyone was given all the write ups of all the awards that were not in their own company, then one by one voted yay or nay based on the merits of the write up. There were several SGTs who received BSMs and several SFC and LTs who did not. I felt the process was fair and effective. Then the awards went up to BDE/DIV, and some LTs put in for ARCOMs ended up getting BSMs, but the point was that at the lowest level, the awards were based on strength of write up. It is unfortunate that there is such disparity in the awards system, as it did appear some other units in the RC at the same time did blanket "all SSG and above get BSM" type policies, and then you feel like you hosed your own guys for trying to accurately award 1. duty performance and 2. level of responsibility.
I'm currently deployed and we are actually in the process of writing our end of tour awards now. One thing to realize is that the BSM and the MSM are the save level of award. The only difference is that the BSM is awarded during a time of conflict. But if I put in a soldier for a BSM it doesn't get downgraded to an MSM, it gets downgraded to an ARCOM.
As far as it being "rank based", I disagree with making awards rank based. I am putting some of my NCOs in for BSMs and will be upset if they don't get them. It should be based on their performance/achievements.
I am also opposed to this "awards board" that the Army has gone to. Originally we wrote up a 638 and sent it to the approvers and they either approved it or recommended downgrade or downgraded. An awards board is an extra step where a group of people sit and deliberate on whether MY soldier deserves the award that I'm putting them in for?? That's the approvers job and shouldn't be allowed to be delegated to a committee. I could see the utility IF the board's purpose was just to catch and correct clerical errors, but even then, in the old days, a high speed 71L specialist could do that in 5 minutes. We are adding beauracracy under the pretense of efficiency IMHO.
Agree. When I deployed to Iraq our Command Chief told us, on arrival, there would be no Bronze Stars for any of us because that is what he would be receiving and none of us would get the same award as him. Boiled my blood at the time.
I can't stand these "Award Boards", the Air Force has been doing it for years. They sit and decide who gets what, and don't even think of putting an E-2 for the same award as an E8, they will deny it. I'm sorry the Air Force Instructions says that a supervisor recommends it and the Commander approves it. End of story!
The only thing an awards board should be doing is checking for accuracy and ensuring that the citiation/supporting documentation supports the award. They should only downgrade when the member did not meet the award criteria according to DoD regulation. If an E-2 meets the criteria for a BS with V, then he gets it, if the E-8 sitting "in the rear with the gear" doesn't meet it then he gets the appropriate level of award based on his circumstances.
Could you convince one of your SPC or below who does not work in a headquarters unit that was awarded a BSM.
I fully agree with you regarding the uselessness of award boards.
This is a continues problem everywhere. The Regulations does
not limit awards to rank but some commands makes a policy about it that never appears
when questioned. Most of the times awards are not about accomplishments but
what rank you have or who do you work for. Almost everyone can mention an
example of this.
This topic has had numerous good service member leave the
services disgruntle.