Why are officers recognized with awards more than enlisted?

Maybe that's another class to add to boot camp.

It's kinda difficult to give a straight answer unless we directly worked with you. It could be the culture of your unit/branch, OR maybe a difference in perspective. What you might think is worthy of an award, someone else may feel it's a part of the job and they may feel that awards should be for going above and beyond, not for just doing your job. But if you did your job and you did the most of what ever you do, or what you did saved lives or $$$ then, it might be a culture of leadership that could use some polite reminders to award people and promote positive motivation. You could always go Air Force! We give out awards like we're Oprah!

I can say as serving in the BN and BDE S-1’s, that officers and senior NCO’s may not necessarily receive more awards, but often higher awards. I’ve seen offices and senior NCO’s receive EOT awards in Iraq of BSM for literally doing nothing. My S-1 and S-4 NCOIC’s both E-7 received BSM’s and did nothing more than sit in the truck the entire deployment. EVERYTHING was delegated down to jr. NCO’s and enlisted. Staff Officers, clearly overweight, again BSM and had no duties to speak of. It’s just flat ridiculous!! Now a lot of that is leadership. As others have stated, E-5’s doing the job of an E-7 awards downgraded due to rank. Nobody can tell me that wasn’t the case. Bullets all state how said NCO was in an E-7 position, instrumental to the success of the battalion etc. BDE CDR recommended downgrade as it was an E-5 (stated on the recommendation). Didn’t help that the BN CDR, XO, CSM and BDE CSM, XO also said downgrade as he’s only an E-5.

Well, the Vietnam Veterans, overall, are the most awarded Veterans ever considering the "Middle Finger Award"...

Maybe things have changed. My dad was a junior officer - a 2nd Lt - on Iwo Jima. He had command of 1st Platoon, E Company, 2/9, with then Lt Col Robert Cushman in battalion command. Dad was one of 9 survivors out of 2 rifle companies, E & F of 2/9, to come out of Cushman’s Pocket. His best friend in the service was 1st Lt George Todd, who had 2nd Platoon E/2/9. !st and 2nd Platoons of E/2/9 were part of the combined assault on Hill 362C under cover of darkness at about 4am, which was believed to be the location of Japanese General Kurabayashi’s command post. Lt Todd was killed in the first few minutes of action right after daybreak, and my dad was wounded, shot in the chest. Almost all of the men of the four assault platoons from E and F were killed in short order under a combined mortar barrage and machine gun crossfire. Lt Todd’s platoon sergeant, Thomas E. Barrow, took charge of the surviving men and retreated them into a defensible position until night fell. By then, my dad had begun to recover some function after the shock had worn off, and he and Sergeant Barrow led the men out of the pocket to the safety of the marine lines. All but 1 of the 9 had been wounded, including Barrow himself. One of the first things my dad did as he was being worked on in the aid station before evacuation to Guam was to put in Sergeant Barrow for the Navy Cross, which he did receive. Hell, he probably deserved the MoH, but on Iwo, “uncommon valor was a common virtue”, and the Navy Cross is nothing to be ashamed of.

That is at least ONE case of a junior officer recommending an award, which was actually made to happen. Once recovered from his wound on Guam, my dad was promoted to 1st Lt and placed in command of a rifle company, training them for Operation Downfall, when the two atom bombs were dropped, and his war was over. Having served long enough, beeen in combat, and wounded, he had earned enough points to not get shipped to China, and he was sent home. After leaving active duty, he went into the Marine Reserves, where he was promoted to Captain, and that’s what is on his old military ID card which my mother still has. He went on to have a long and successful career as a professor of Engelish Literature at Caltech. We lost him to pancreatic cancer in 1990, but he was a man whose boots were big and hard to fill. Like many of the men of his generation and experience, he did not talk much about the combat itself. My 2 younger brothers and I pieced it together from brief snatches he told us over the years, and from letters he had written to SOCS classmates, and so on. In the intervening years since his death, I’ve actually spoken with 3 of the 9 men who came out of Cushman’s Pocket alive with my dad, and they all three confirm in detail the things he said, including one who sent me a hand drawn map of the Pocket which exactly matches my dad’s description of the battlefield. But two of the people my dad spoke of a lot were 2nd Lt Todd and Platoon Sergeant Barrows. Todd, he loved like a brother. They were from the same home town of Glendale California, and they were thick as thieves. But when he spoke of Thomas Barrows, it was with an awe and respect I have never heard him use to describe any other man on the planet. He must have been one of those salty old-school Marine NCOs that scared the hell out of everybody. I had nothing to do with any of this other than being the first born son of a man who survived much horror, but one of the things I am MOST proud of about my dad’s service is that his recommendation of Thomas E. Barrows for the Navy Cross was made official, and Barrows got a measure of recognition for being the real life hero that he was; and at least 8 other men owe their lives to Barrows - my own father among them. If not for Barrows, I might likely not be here to type this.

Here is the link to Sergeant Barrow’s award: http://valor.militarytimes.com/recipient.php?recipientid=7678

Thinking more about this and I am more proud of my Master Parachutist badge and my CIB. That is enough for me.

Probably depends on what unit you are in. My BN CSM made it a point for is Team Sergeants to put deserving people in for awards.

I would have to say, don't stress about that stuff. Just do your best. I see that you're in the Army Reserves, which I'm not down-playing because I was, at one time, in all three components; RA, AR, NG over the 20+ years of service. If you happen to be in a unit that hasn't or doesn't deploy too often, either look for a unit that does, or attend a credible college and get a degree under your belt. That college degree will help in promotions in the Reserves, but also help you obtain a better civilian job in the long run.

Some of it may be MOS-related. I spent my RA time as an ER/ambulance medic, in the 70s. It was something of a sore point with us that if an MP did CPR, they got an ARCOM, at least at Ft. Lewis. We did CPR and other life-saving tasks regularly, but we were medics, so no cigar. We used to joke about taking the ambulances out and stopping speeders.

IN THE WARS IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN THE BRONZE STARS WERE ABUSED BY UPPER RANKS BASED ON RANK AND RESPONSIBLITY !!
AS A INFANTRYMAN RANK IS UNDERSTOOD-- IN AN ENEMY ENGAGEMENT RESPONSIBILITY IS THE { SAME FOR ALL RANKS } TO KEEP YOURSELF YOUR LEADER AND YOUR FELLOW SOLDIERS ALIVE TO COMPLETE YOUR MISSION IN ANY ENGAGEMENT !! THE BRONZE STAR WAS AN OPEN AWARD AT ANY LEVEL TO {{{ ALL }}} RANKS !!! E-! TO GENERAL !! IN WWII, KOREA, AND VIETNAM, WHY ?? BECAUSE ITS A COMBAT AWARD AND A ARCOM IS {{ NOT }} !! ONLY IF ITS GIVEN FOR VALOR !! THE ARCOM ONLY SAYS MERIT ON THE BACK !! THEIR IS SUCH A THING AS MERITOURIOUS ACHIEVMENT OR SERVICE IN A COMBAT ACTION !!!!!!