Should the military award system be standardized at the Department of Defense level rather that at the individual service branch level?

Yeah. We know half of y'alls BSs were for participation.

Leave well enough alone.

Keep it branch specific. Any member serving in the armed forces, worth their salt will know the Medal(s)/Ribbon(s) Chart... and those specifically awarded for each branch of the service. IMHO, when in uniform, wearing the military Ribbon(s) is a military equivalent to a walking resume, therefore, when the $h!t hits the fan.... and I'm going to hang with the E-4/5/6 that has several Campaign, Combat and Combat Arms related ribbons..... vice am I gonna hang with that E-7/8 or 9 whose ribbons indicate they've done their share of REMF/buitt-lickin duty ribbons..... Well, the answer is pretty obvious since my desire is to survive the action/duty/campaign. Just sayin.... Consequently, ones also going to have a clue if an individual is in the process and/or act of "Stolen Valor," (as most ribbons/medals have a time stamp parameter associated with them) or they're wearing an incorrect or wrong ribbon. Good example, I was on Recruiting duty at 2 different N&MCRCs in Western NY from 1980-85. Way too many Selective Reservist would come in on drill weekends wearing the incorrect ribbons... the big one being the Naval Reserve Medal/ribbon <USN/USNR terminated issuing of award in late 50s when the Armed Forces Reserve Medal was introduced> when they should have been wearing the Naval Reserve Meritorious Service Medal <which is basically the Reserves component 4 year good conduct award>.

I've had relatives in other branches of the service, so I'm pretty good at deciphering military ribbon racks, and picking up on inconsistencies or just stolen valor Bull$h!t. That being said..... if All the branches just practiced from one generic medal/ribbon pool.... each individual would potentially lose that part of his "walking resume," an individual/unit award and recognition. My two + cents

Considering each branch has a unique fighting capability, and mission, I would not recommend that course of action.

It was a long time back (‘71) and I was a new A1C at my 1st base, MCGuire AFB, NJ.
I showed up with my Training and personal jacket (201file) and what I knew About the Culinary field. It wasn’t extensive as I’d been a cert. Chef via the Voc-educ. System in the Mich. school systems.
Somewhere along the line our base hosted some topGenerals at the big cement Block building. Actually it wasn’t supposed to be at our base.. it was because of the weather we became the Defacto Hosts . Onto the Dinner, Reception. We also had excellent help from our Army and Navy Services Food Services. All of us pulled together and produced the dinner and reception.
The Army snd Navy and our cooks did the
Planning, prep and production.. I bring the junior new guy set up the platters with assistance from the various text books I had access to and the Airmen I worked with everyday . We were all awarded nice certificates from the AF and DOD and the other services. A lot of repetition in Certificates. I found a big picture frame at Special services building wasn’t being used. I asked permission to borrow it. “Take it, and enjoy getting it in shape” they were right about that.. I took it to base hobby shop and had great assistance from instructors there . To look at it when I obtained it and see it when done. One wouldn’t know it was the same frame. So I made a collage of the certificates that were mine and my fellow AF Cooks that worked on the project. We found a spot on the back wall in the Dining room at our new Dining facility . at that time. Our maintenance guy rigged a nice lamp to cast a light on the frame. I got orders to new assignment as did others and my original certificates were forwarded. Later.. when returning from o’seas in Germany, our flight got sent north to McGuire because they were.not fogged in.
They had a new Dining facility at a new location on the main road to the terminal.
We went there for lunch before going to Philly to get our commercial to Norfolk...
on one of the walls was our collage from that DOD dinner. “Yo SSGT Herrst we found your certificates and your photo..
really cool Sarge !” It was so neat they kept that collage.. The Airmen and NCOs I was with wanted a New photo by the collage and pointing to my certificates in the center. I didn’t expect them to make that big a fuss over it. Maybe I misunderstood what I was to them. Gave me a real warm feeing in the soul.. One of the Airmen kept asking how it all came to be.. and I gave him a recap of what we did that night.. Ghem guys went through the trouble to get base graphics to reproduce the pic they took pointing to my certificates. Base graphics did a excellent
Job of it. And there is always s’body that likes to throw a wrench in the works.. One of the guy’s wife worked for a portrait studio that has a concession on base..
why didn’t these guys go to them? Why?
The studio didn’t have capability to reproduce that part of the collage without pixelling the center of the collage.. the wife was still upset they didn’t try .. she said it was a misappropriation of funds.. well JAG sat on it.. and sat on it and finally the guy recurved retirement orders and retired to central Pennsylvania. The letter of misappropriation was forgotten and the photo was released ...that stupid letter seemed to take all the fun out of the reproduction efforts .. and the crew was spread across the map somewhere..

No, my reason is individual services have individual goals. I remember the controversy over the Green Beret. I never earned one and I learned to respect their goals from what I learned from Nam. I was in a National Guard S.F. unit for about a year. I received one and trained some for it. My time and training was not what I felt gave me the right to claim the honor of wearing it. I earned my jump wings at Fort Benning and would wear them. I had only app. 35 jumps. I would have had as much pride as an S.F. member as I am of being a Marine. The differences instill pride, duty, and desire to be the best. Allowing individuality of services is what makes men go the extra mile. Most services in countries as Russia have total control and dedication to doing as told. Take out the officers and confusion follows. We need men who think and can act alone.

Let each service run their program the way they want.
I suppose it could be standardized .. I think prob’ly
That some awards might go on down the pike and fade away because a particular service may NOT have that award and some SJW civilian (that had no business sticking their nose in the mix)would say if they all don’t have it then NO one does !