Posted on Nov 7, 2014
CPT Engineer Plans Officer
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Posted in these groups: Images PCSUs medals Awards
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SFC Intelligence Analyst   Atl
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Should it be automatic. No.

However, I do think that we as a service should do a better job of awarding service when members ETS or PCS. Failure to do so is a failure of leadership.
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MSG Mechanic 2nd
MSG (Join to see)
>1 y
if served over 20
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CSM Thomas McGarry
CSM Thomas McGarry
>1 y
I mostly agree with you SFC Kendrick-however it goes without saying that if the soldiers performance has been subpar during their assignment they should not get an award.
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SGT Dave Tracy
SGT Dave Tracy
>1 y
My old chain-of-command lost my ets award paperwork when I left active duty, but to be honest, it wasn't a big deal for me. I did what was expected; right place, right time, right uniform, etc. I didn't need an AAM or ARCOM for doing what was expected.

I was a little surprised that my old 1SG DID call me out of the blue about a year and a half later wanting my mailing address to forward my Good Conduct Medal which had been in my records (and probably sitting buried in his office) since before I ETSed. But the ETS award? Nope. Okay.

I'm not a big fan of dispensing awards like so much Halloween candy when one does nothing special to earn it. I recently heard I was put in for an AAM for what I did over this year's Annual Training. My response: "why?".
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SPC(P) Jay Heenan
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I also agree with most...PCS awards should not be automatic. Here is my question back though, what constitutes 'over and above'? As an example, if I go to work everyday, do my job as expected, stay out of trouble, do all of those pesky 'other duties as assigned', what would I need to do to consider 'over and above'? Technically, everything that I do for the Army is considered 'doing my job'. How do you quantify 'over and above'? I would wager a bet that if you have a Soldier under your command and after three or four years, he/she has done nothing to 'earn' a PCS award, then you as his/her leader has failed him/her. I think the bigger issue is that senior leadership acts like the awards they give are coming off of their own racks. I am not saying pass them out every morning, but reward your Soldiers...you might be surprised at how much more they put out for you.
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MSG Mechanic 2nd
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over and above could be service beyond 20 yrs, and yes i agree that sm's should be recognized for outstanding performance, if they are only doing what it takes to get done, no
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LTC Operations Officer (Opso)
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CPT (Join to see) no. You know better than most that there are some who do not deserve to wear the rank that they do and some do not even deserve to wear the uniform. They are sucking up taxpayer dollars though just like you and others who work their butt off to improve their units from when they joined the unit. Do they deserve to have an automatic award? No. Unfortunately the FLL who fail to do their job right might put them in for an award instead of a discharge and others might not put those who deserve an award in for one.
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