Posted on Mar 27, 2015
Which badges or medals are more rare than the Medal of Honor?
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There are 325 triple CIB Infantrymen, and 3,471 Medal of Honor Recipients.
Are there any other medals or badges that have been awarded fewer times than the Medal of Honor?
Are there any other medals or badges that have been awarded fewer times than the Medal of Honor?
Medal of Honor
Medals
Badges
Awards
Edited 9 y ago
Posted 9 y ago
Responses: 52
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I bet this badge hasn't been awarded nearly as much as the medal of Honor. It's pretty rare.
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Military horseman badge less then 100 awarded as of right now. Granted it’s a newer badge
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Not perhaps more rare than the MoH (I don't know the numbers), but the Enlisted SEAL Trident was used from 1970-1978.
Also, the UDT Officer and Enlisted badge was only used for some 25 years.
Also, the UDT Officer and Enlisted badge was only used for some 25 years.
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Suspended Profile
How about rare combinations of awards or awards and skill sets? How many soldiers have an EIB and CIB? I met a CW4 UH-60 Pilot who had been a Drill Sergeant, it was all but impossible to picture him as a Drill Sergeant. I once saw, but did not get to talk to, a Chaplin with a Master EOD badge. I would have liked to have heard his story.
SPC Elijah J. Henry, MBA
Lots of Soldiers have an EIB and CIB. I've seen a couple of Chaplains with an SF Tab.
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SPC Elijah J. Henry, MBA
I saw a man with an EFMB and a Sapper Tab, once. That's an interesting career shift.
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LCDR Robert S.
The most rare combinations will be those awards that are already rare, coupled with something else that isn't something extremely common. So the aforementioned Army Astronaut Badge and any award that isn't one that almost everybody would expect to get on the way to getting the Army Astronaut Badge (so not the AAM, ARCOM, or NDSM). It would probably be pretty easy to find at least a few unique combinations among the small number of Army astronauts. For the other services, you could probably find a few unique or rare combinations (for the Navy, there have so far only been two SEAL astronauts), especially from the Coast Guard, who have only had two astronauts - so any award that only one of the two has received produces a unique combination.
Some of the UN Missions (each mission has its own medal) have had very small US contingents, so other uncommon awards coupled with the small UN missions are likely to produce some unique combinations.
Another possibility would be awards that had periods of eligibility far enough apart such that only people who served long enough at just the right time could be eligible for both. The one that springs to mind for this is the Army of Occupation Service Medal (or its Navy equivalent) and a recent medal (like the GWOT-related medals). The Occupation Service Medals were only awarded to people who served in Berlin from 1945 to 1990, so in order to get one of those and a GWOT one, one would have to have been serving for at least 23 years and served in Berlin 1990 or earlier.
Some of the UN Missions (each mission has its own medal) have had very small US contingents, so other uncommon awards coupled with the small UN missions are likely to produce some unique combinations.
Another possibility would be awards that had periods of eligibility far enough apart such that only people who served long enough at just the right time could be eligible for both. The one that springs to mind for this is the Army of Occupation Service Medal (or its Navy equivalent) and a recent medal (like the GWOT-related medals). The Occupation Service Medals were only awarded to people who served in Berlin from 1945 to 1990, so in order to get one of those and a GWOT one, one would have to have been serving for at least 23 years and served in Berlin 1990 or earlier.
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The Iraq Commitment Medal. It was created by the Iraqi government for US forces that served in Iraq, but the DoD is requiring the Iraqi government to provide them to US troops (as opposed to us buying them at AAFES), so only 1 has been awarded... to Joe Biden.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_Commitment_Medal
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_Commitment_Medal
Iraq Commitment Medal - Wikipedia
The Iraq Commitment Medal is a military campaign award that was created on June 11, 2011 by the Government of Iraq. The Iraq Minister of Defense, Dr. Saadoun Al-Dlaimi offered the medal to Veterans of the Iraq War in a letter to the United States Secretary of Defense.[2] To this day, the award has still not been approved for wear for United States Iraq War Veterans. In 2013, the Department of Defense made a statement that it is still waiting...
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I remember that my Accounting teacher in my junior college was one of the 325. He had a belt buckle with the CIB and 2 stars. Sadly, I cannot remember his name.
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SPC Elijah J. Henry, MBA
LTC Jason Carter The list is available online. Perhaps you would recognize the name if you saw it?
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LTC Jason Carter
Let me go look for that list. This was in the Huntsville, Alabama (Roll Tide) area.
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