Posted on Sep 14, 2014
Should the wear of service stripes be linked to whether or not a Soldier has received a Good Conduct Medal for that term of service?
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Currently it is not. What are your thoughts. Should they be done away with all together? Should Officers wear service stripes (tracking that it is not in 670-1)? Should Officers wear service stripes to signify prior service?
Posted 10 y ago
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I think if you were to link the two, then one or the other would be redundant. At least this way, a quick comparison of GCM's to service stripes gives you a good idea of who your blatant troublemakers are..
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No. I believe service stripes serve a purpose of showing how long a Soldier has been in. Rank is not an indicator, the number of GCMs is not an indicator (that SPC who received an Art 15 during his first term and did not get one).
What I think we have to do is look at the GCM and determine if it is really as necessary as when it was introduced in 1941. Does it still provide the incentive for keeping ones nose clean as it did back then?
Here is the original intent (from wikipedia):
"The Good Conduct Medal is awarded for exemplary behavior, efficiency, and fidelity in active Federal Military service. It is awarded on a selective basis to each soldier who distinguishes himself/herself from among his/her fellow soldiers by their exemplary conduct, efficiency, and fidelity throughout a specified period of continuous enlisted active Federal military service."
Being a little snarky, but in today's Army the GCM is nothing more than a demonstration of three years undetected criminal activity. Make it through without an Art 15 and you get one, not what I call "exemplary behavior, efficiency and fidelity".
What I think we have to do is look at the GCM and determine if it is really as necessary as when it was introduced in 1941. Does it still provide the incentive for keeping ones nose clean as it did back then?
Here is the original intent (from wikipedia):
"The Good Conduct Medal is awarded for exemplary behavior, efficiency, and fidelity in active Federal Military service. It is awarded on a selective basis to each soldier who distinguishes himself/herself from among his/her fellow soldiers by their exemplary conduct, efficiency, and fidelity throughout a specified period of continuous enlisted active Federal military service."
Being a little snarky, but in today's Army the GCM is nothing more than a demonstration of three years undetected criminal activity. Make it through without an Art 15 and you get one, not what I call "exemplary behavior, efficiency and fidelity".
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SSG Bill Mizell
Exactly. A lot of awards are pretty much gimmes. I saw a soldier get an ARCOM for being Sgt of the guard in Bosnia. It's things like this that makes the award seem trivial..
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SGT (Join to see)
We had a SPC get an Article 15 in Iraq for being drunk and disorderly and throwing a punch at a Major he was taken by the MPs and he was demoted to PFC and still got a GCM for deployment.
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LTC Paul Heinlein
1SG Mark Colomb, I concur Top! Receiving a GCM should be the exception not the rule.
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TSgt Joshua Copeland
1SG Mark Colomb / LTC Paul Heinlein, the AF actually did away with the AF Good Cookie in Feb of 2006. By Feb of 2009 it was re-instated and made retroactive to Feb of 2006.
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I have honestly never seen a point to them.
They tell you about how long someone has been in. In general, you can surmise the same info from knowing their rank, and having been in more than a day yourself. There are notable exceptions, especially among the "professional" [docs/lawyers] branches, as well as those who went E to W/O. However, in just about all cases, I think what you care about is the person's rank/rate and position.
If I saw a PFC or SPC with 7 stripes, I would raise an eyebrow, but that's about it.
Just another flair of bling for the uniform. And I already have my 15 minimum. No, I don't want to be like Brian.
They tell you about how long someone has been in. In general, you can surmise the same info from knowing their rank, and having been in more than a day yourself. There are notable exceptions, especially among the "professional" [docs/lawyers] branches, as well as those who went E to W/O. However, in just about all cases, I think what you care about is the person's rank/rate and position.
If I saw a PFC or SPC with 7 stripes, I would raise an eyebrow, but that's about it.
Just another flair of bling for the uniform. And I already have my 15 minimum. No, I don't want to be like Brian.
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