Why are officers recognized with awards more than enlisted?

Man, there are a LOT of officers responding with their thoughts on why the enlisted ranks don't get the amount or level of awards that officers get.

And most of these answers are hilarious. But only because I'm a RETIRED MSG and it doesn't matter to me anymore.

There is an unwritten law in the Army that the higher the rank you are, the higher the award you get for doing a thing. and I am not whining, it really doesn't matter to this retired Soldier so I am speaking objectively.

I have been on the receiving end of not getting the award that an officer who did the same thing DID get, I have put in Soldiers for Awards and seen officers that I put in get upgraded while enlisted (especially lower enlisted) get downgraded for THE SAME ACTIONS.

And when I have mentioned these discrepancies, I have been told "that must just be your unit," "that's probably not what happened," or my favorite, "you don't understand the dynamics of what happens at higher levels."

I WAS the higher damned level. I ran a Batalion and a Brigade S2 Section. And I repeatedly watched as enlisted Soldiers got awarded lesser awards than officers, often for events in which the enlisted Soldier did something well beyond the officer's actions.

This is an Army-wide issue, and one that has been going on for decades. In 1993 as a Private I got an Certificate of Achievement for beating the best time on the "Green Hell" obstacle course in Fort Sherman Panama. My partner, a junior NCO, got an AAM. Later I found out that two officers, a 1st Lieutenant and a Captain, recieved ARCOMs for getting the "best time," which wasn't actually the best time but what translated to the "best time for a pair of officers," which they happened to leave off of the award citation.

In Iraq in 2009 I put a couple of Soldiers in for ARCOMs for their actions in the Intel field. I put our OIC in for an ARCOM as well, because I knew that putting him in for anything less would be a ska in the face that would cause all of my Soldiers' Awards to get slapped down. Our OIC had only been with us for bout a third of the deployment, prior to that we were without an OIC, having myself and one other NCO to run things. Our OIC was awarded a Bronze Star, and most of my Soldiers received AAMs.

I and most NCOs have long understood that the system is INCREDIBLY flawed, and that one just needs to Lee their teeth together and grind it out because the people who would CHANGE the flawed system are the same people who currently BENEFIT from the flawed system - namely, officers. and it's not ONLY officers; Senior NCOs are often given awards that are WILDLY out of proportion for the actions they have taken. Not too long ago a 1SG got an ARCOM for reporting Soldiers who were complaining ONLINE about their leadership. This, to me, says that her "trolling" of these Soldiers is equal in merit to the Army as my actions in COMBAT that merited an ARCOM. Which is, obviously, fucking RIDICULOUS.

I am not trying to offer any type of fix for this, I am simply stating the facts: officers (and to an extent senior NCOs) receive preferential treatment when it comes to awards. Anyone who tells you different is either delusional, bullshitting, or an officer who is trying to defend a flawed system.

And that's okay. My DD-214 is two pages long with all of the damned awards and decorations I received by being in the wrong place at the wrong time for the Army over three different decades, and I've found that once you're out not a single one of them matters.

So drive on, Airborne. Huaa?

A very reasonable question with a very simple answer. Junior officers, the ones in closet contact with enlisted personnel aren't very adept leaders. They are lucky to know how to do the simplest tasks of leadership let alone something sophisticated like recommending personnel for awards and decorations. Their immediate superiors aren't much better. However senior officers who are well aware of the significance that decorations can have on a military career rarely witness the accomplishments of the troops as individuals. What's the solution? If you witness an act of valor or a significant accomplishment that you feel is worthy of recognition, bring it to the attention of your immediate superior. Suggest a that they submit a recommendation for recognition if they're too dense to take the hint. Write it up yourself if you have to. Then hope that someone does the same for you when you deserve it. If anyone gives you trouble for following my advice, refer them to me.

Don't get wrapped around the axle on awards, sometimes there is not much rhyme or reason. Do you best always, I never worried about any awards. End of tour before PCS orders is a give away award in my book and does not occur that much in the Marine Corps. We also don't give promotion point for them either. Yes, looks nice on your uniform but you evals and performance are what count in my book. Semper fi and keep charging.

SSG(P) (Join to see) First you need to understand responsibility before awards will make sense... I served from E-1 to O-6. From E-1 to E-5, I got an AAM (Impact), a JSAM, and an ARCOM when I went to OCS... I could not rate a MSM until I was Captain, or an LOM until I was a Colonel and Brigade Commander.
It is all about level of responsibility for both officers and NCOs.
What do you think you should be getting?
Awards are not what you want or expect, they are what you earn. And, yes, rank does play a role.

Everyone I have ever met in the military, who is worth a damn, cares more about what's between your ears than what's on your chest......

I would be interested to see statistics on this subject. As I have personally seen Sergeant Major's and First Sergeant's who never, "left the wire" receive Bronze Star's with Valor devices within months of returning CONUS while Lance Corporals, who obviously deserve, and who were submitted for the same award, by astute and professional leaders, never receive one.

For obvious reasons this can create a caustic command in which the lower ranks assume that their superiors are only out for themselves, and may have "trashed" (i.e. not submitted beyond the initial chain of command) the write-ups.

I think that rank SHOULD NOT influence the receipt of awards, but would argue that it does. Furthermore any O-6's+, E-8's, and/or E-9's who have received unearned awards would, in all likelihood, argue against or downplay this belief, by saying, "it doesn't or shouldn't matter". When in reality, it does matter and heavily influences whether or not people stay in.

Whether people want to acknowledge it or not, we are still a war time military force, and should be trying to retain all of the savages we can, not the careerists.

My input comes with the "results will vary" disclaimer. First, I'm in the camp that there's way too many decorations awarded, way to many patches/badges, etc. My NAM had to be signed off by the Fleet Vice Admiral. That's how I grew up. BTW my NAM showed up in my in-box. So being somewhat jaded, I progressed from E-1 to O-6 to Command and had these percentage awards authorized. My policy was if I could do up to 5% of the body count or whatever, it would apply equally to ENL and OFF. It was more of a struggle to get ENL stuff done right primarily due to the crappy writing skills of the NCO and JO community. To make it work took some babysitting. So if you're evenly spreading, sometimes you have to make a determination that a pro rata split isn't right.
When you have Dets spread all over the world, including the badlands, you'll see more award focus there. Stuff I couldn't sign off on had to be staffed up and that meant XO and I were heavy into the write up. It's a poor reflection on the Skipper to have stuff tossed back. I batted 100% through MSMs. LOMs were prepared after I had a heart to heart with the Flag and received the go ahead to push it up. The amount of work, responsibility, impact, or whatever it is now called, had been diluted greatly during my time in and continued unabated afterward. When I was doing promotion boards (including O-5/6), the notion of EOTs was just starting to be mainstream to the point of reviewing officers wondering why one wasn't awarded given a must promote recommendation on the Fitrep. I knew the awards system was seriously broke then.

Oh saw a piece of COL Charles Williams sage input. Never fall into the "quantity" trap. An analogy is flipping burgers. If flipping 200 and hour is the standard, what reward for doing 300? Same skill, same span of control, same output, same risk. Your reward will be employee of the month and maybe a 50 cent raise. Consider awards are more for the lasting difference you make after you're gone. My NAM was an O-1/2 award for building new stuff in Antarctica that hadn't been done before. That and running the surface SAR operation and having to fetch boondoggler politicians when their Huey went down in a whiteout. Add a dash of freeing a brand new stuck ice breaker (Polar Star) using explosives techniques I devised. That I was told was solidly in the range of a NAM. Times change.

Most Enlisted I know pretty much agree that the awards system is broken. Officers know it's broken as well, but they are more likely to benefit from it than enlisted. However, the biggest thing that stops soldiers from getting awards is laziness from their leadership, and that includes senior NCO's.

I would like to add, however, that enlisted are less likely to have a plan for their future, to plot out their means of advancement. Officers tend to know how much their career depends on OER's and awards, and they actually work to ensure a successful career. If you focus on your career path and work hard to achieve long term goals, you are more likely to end up with awards.

Here is my two cents (maybe a little more than two cents):

You have been in almost 9 yrs and your only award is an AAM. Which you got for getting 9 Soldiers back into the Reserves. The written standard (as you stated) is x3 and you get an AAM. Was it written that if you got x9 that you would get an ARCOM? If not, then oh well. Instead of focusing on what you DIDN'T get, focus on what you did get. Perhaps, in the minds of the powers that be, AAM is simply the standard...no more no less. Or it could be they didn't feel that x9 justified an ARCOM. Or it could be that they weren't sure how to quantify the bullets to warrant an ARCOM. There are a number of reasons why.

As for your statement of being in almost 8 yrs and your only real award is an AAM......well, sometimes that's how it goes. I was in initially for 10 yrs and when I ETSd, I walked out with 4 ribbons on my chest.....which were an AAM, NDSM, ASR, and an OSR. Also, at no time did I ever receive a PCS nor ETS award (there is nothing stating those HAVE to be given). Was it bad leadership, or leadership that didn't think I did enough, or was it that I just didn't do enough? Who knows. Did I feel I was owed more? Sure, I thought that. But knowing what I know now looking back, I didn't deserve more than I got. It's just how the game is played. Besides the fact that rank is not supposed to be a factor in awards (with the exception of certain awards), rank is taken into account based on the level of responsibility. I didn't get my first ARCOM until after I finished my deployment to Iraq as a SPC. My next ARCOM was after a WAREX where I was but a SGT and I was dual hatting as Team Leader and Detachment Sergeant (SFC position).

Now, looking at your DORs, I see that you made SPC in April of 2012. Here it is April of 2017 and you are still a SPC. You should have been promoted to SGT and working on SSG by now. You can be certain that your Leaders are looking at this. This tells them.....and me....that your drive is not all there. Plus, it would appear that you are only doing things to get medals. If this is your only goal....things are going to be a little rough for you down the road. Besides doing Military Funeral Rites, and getting x9 Soldiers back into the Reserves, what else have you done to better your unit and the Army? Are you going outside your comfort zone within your unit to learn things that no one else wants? For example, taking charge of new Soldiers to the unit and being their Sponsor? Or, taking charge of the unit's APFT program, or HT/WT program, or being an assistant to the Training and/or OPS NCO? Serve as a Squad Leader? Anything other than being a Squad Member and Funeral details?

I'm not saying all this to chastise you, I'm saying all this to give you food for thought.

Sometimes it is perception. An Officer or Senior NCO may be doing a lot more than you see. There is a lot of things going on behind closed doors, or in conferences with senior leadership. There is more planning and organizing than the average Joe can see. I'm sure this is not always the case, but many times it is happening that way, and the folks at the bottom of the chain do not want to believe it.