Why are officers recognized with awards more than enlisted?

Im my 20 yrs of service I have noticed this. How ever today military not like the military of yesterday don't demand the SR enlisted or a officer to help lower ranks in doing whats needed for promotions. The Officers seem to be more supported of each other and into padding there future and helping each other. It seems the enlisted not schooled on this any longer and not good at wording the paper work and don't know what to fill out.....

In fact funny thing is when I retired I was finally awarded what I would of needed for a promotion. Go Figure

Ask yourself the following. Who is the approving authority on awards? Are they enlisted? Officers? The answer's in there for ya if you look hard enough ;)

Some of the arrogant ones write their commendation and the higher up signs it. I was in a unit that all majors and above got Bronze Stars for almost doing their job and complaining daily how they shouldn't be there. They all retired at a higher rank. Not a Leader in the bunch.

Awards take time and effort to push through the system, as well as experience in what makes a strong write up to get your guys what they deserve.
That said I always ask troops who complain about not getting awards "what are you doing to stand out". Just showing up and doing your job may rate an end of tour award but it isn't going to get you the admiration and praise of your peers or leaders heaped upon you.
If you are looking for recognition here's some attention getters for you:
- compete and win at the Soldier and NCO of the month, quarter, year competitions.
- compete and be selected at SGT Audie Murphy or Morales boards.
- submit solutions to equipment or material deficiencies found in your MOS's gear to the regimental proponancy office, professional journal or PM magazine.
-volunteer on your free time in support of, or initiate an activity that helps the community.
-volunteer for and seek out the opportunities for deployments; both operational and combat.
-volunteer for special teams, NAIRA, NBC recon, ADVON.........
- mentor a sub standard Soldier to accomplish any of the above.
-be the subject matter expert on something, become so frick'n proficient that when the topic is mentioned folks say go find "Voye".
- give everyone near or around you that remotely touches any endeavor you undertake the credit for any success you have, it breeds teamwork and makes outside folks want to be part of your team, and displays selflessness which for some reason makes folks want to help you.
- never say anything bad about anyone to anyone, and if you do be sure that you've looked them in the eye and told them they suck, why they suck and have tried to help them. Then if they need help...give it.
Hope this helps, good luck and good hunting.

If you truly believe that and awards are that important to you look into becoming an officer so you can see for yourself whether that's true or not!!! Another thing you can do is find out what can get you an award and go after it. My recommendation? Focus on performance and do the things others don't or won't and awards and promotions will come!

Sadly the author is correct. I was enlisted for six years and officer for a little over 20. Three of those enlisted years were in the Marines. I remember being in formation as a Corporal on Okinawa in September 1982 and a Second Lieutenant got a Navy achievement medal for doing a great job running the motor pool for six months. Simultaneously, a Navy Corpsman was recognized by the same general at the same formation. While out bicycling on the back roads of Okinawa he watched as a public bus literally went over a cliff. The corpsman descended the cliff freehand and rescued people from the bus. He pulled them out, got them to safety, performed First Aid etc. Eventually the bus caught on fire but because of the Corpsman's actions no one was hurt. He got a letter of commendation.

My last CO (a LtCol) downgraded the impact MSM recommendation written by my OIC to a NCM because "E7 = NCM". I'm not sure where that regulation is written. He then proceeded to award a MSM to the assistant supply officer (Captain) as an end of tour award. Guess the background of the CO?
Do officers get preferential treatment for awards? Unfortunately I think in most cases the answer is YES.
Keep doing your best. Commanders, and their "unwritten rules", come and go. The next one may have different opinions.

In full disclosure these are my opinions and observations please take them as such. Awards are given based off your commander's leadership. I joined the Guard after being out for 11 years. I had 3 awards in the Navy for 4 years of service. I had a great leadership team with my Guard unit. They recommend enlisted on a regular basis for awards. They had an expatiation that awards would be submitted if deserved. I spent 13 months in combat with that unit. I had the start 5 rows when I came off my combat tour and a service record full of down graded awards to letters of commendation.

The unit I transferred to I was not in the important crowd and they could care less that I was on orders or what I was doing. Should they have? Absolutely, but they were more worried about company picnics and what the Full Bird thought about them. That's how it goes.

You are a 8 year SPC. I think your priorities might be a bit skewed. You should be worried about stripes not ribbons. You should be out or an NCO by now. Not sure which one of those you fit into, but when I was a SPC I was beating down my platoon daddy's door wanting to know what I needed to do to get ready for promotion. You are the only person responsible for your promotion. You should have already attended WLC, PLDC or whatever they are calling it this week and since you haven't you should be the fucking squeaky wheel. You need to find an NCO that is willing to mentor you and get you ready for promotion. Not preaching at you, but you need to get a fire lit if you want to keep playing Army.

Now as far as officers go with awards. I have noticed plenty of officers have chimed in on this. They are correct in what they are saying. When things go "blame game wrong" they are the ones that have to bear burden of decisions made. Besides officers love things that say, "Look at me!" Once they make CPT promotions become more political. As enlisted you can have a chest full of medals and after 125/165 promotion points they mean nothing. For officers it may make the difference in being passed up for promotion. Don't worry about them, you need to focus on getting a stripe on your trousers.

Most of the time, when you're enlisted, you get a set of orders and a nice plaque and going away party when you leave, regardless of how well you did your job. It's what you do. Each time an officer leaves for a new assignment, they seem to always get some beautiful parting gifts or 'recognized' for not shooting themselves in the foot, embarrassing the old man or generally being there. The expectation is that the enlisted will get some award at the end of his obligation and be gone in an enlistement or two...while an officer just might stick around, and it'd be embarrassing to have a Colonel in his blues with just a Natl Def Medal with stars and an Expert badge hanging there. A chest full of medals help denote his 'been there, done that...don't argue with me' posture. Seriously, though, the officer community does indeed take care of themselves better in this regard (see Aid or Asst XO). Enlisteds rely on senior enlisted and Jr officers for recognition and quite frankly, most of them are less concerned about writing up recommendations than just getting the job done.

I was serving in a position of S6 as a 36B brand new private. My PCS award was a AAM due to my grade. Then I had an ARCOM submitted by an 0-6 thru my COC that got down graded to a AAM due again due to my grade.