Why are officers recognized with awards more than enlisted?

This issue exists in the Navy as well. In many instances during Vietnam ship commanding officers received awards for valor even though every member of the crew were there as well in the midst of things.
I submitted an award for an E5 who left the skin of the ship while were were under heavy fire off the coast of North Vietnam to reload the defensive chaff projector on his own accord after all rounds had been fired due to the enemy being locked on to us for an extended time. We were receiving close aboard air burst and water impacts.
He ended up with a Navy Achievement. Our CO was a great guy and a good leader but he got a lot higher award than anyone. But I know that is better than what many of you Marine and Army guys have seen when those who lead from the rear get recognized for the guts of others.

Are you talking about a valor award or an achievement award? Be specific.

It is just the way things are. Officers in charge are normally going to get the credit for the things that get done with great success by the people who work under them. Even if it has nothing to do with his or her leadership. During one deployment Our team was 15 of the most successful teams because we had tons of experience and knew how to do our jobs with the utmost success. The OIC often took credit for our success which we cared little about. However she did make sure that individuals were awarded for their efforts and often times as a group. Most of my team were doing what we did and were successful because we enjoyed being successful not because we wanted any recognition for it. So if you are in the Military for the idea that you will be lavished with awards and recognition for your efforts, blood and sweat you are in the wrong line of work. It is just the way things are, always has been and always will be.

Is that an honest question?????

You are so right

There were a few "wide-eyes" when I, as an E-7 got my MSM.

Not going to debate the current state of affairs reference awards, yes its inflated and shifted toward the higher ranking SM. What I would like to add is something I read in Band of Brothers, the only way that a member of the 101 (and Easy Co) could receive a BSM is to have made all the combat jumps and if any were missed it was due to being in the hospital from wounds. Trust me, when I read that, I wanted to use my BSM as a fishing lure

If an enlisted gets an award great if not so be it just know that you did your very best, and that what matters, officers probably have to get a higher award possibly to save their careers or to advance them up the ladder, who knows for sure, maybe the guy who approves the awrf

Lol
This is for one of many reasons
Here’s a few.
1. Your NCOIC is not or has not done his job.
2. Maybe you have not done anything worth in the eyes of your command to merit a award.
3. Anyone can put you in for a award
But in the end the NCOIC failed
To do his/her got
To be fair in the recommendation for punishment and award
Right from the NCO creed .

There are a lot of reasons for it, some of them valid, some of them crap. My Senior Chief taught me a lot when I was a JO. A couple of the things he taught me have some significance regarding rewards.

The first, which came up when I had to write my fitness report input after being at the command for about 4 months and mentioned to him that I couldn't think of anything to put on it, was that he told me, "LT, you need to remember that *anything* we do [meaning himself and the rest of the guys who worked for me], you get to take credit for. If Ed does an an awesome job because you told him to do it, you get to take credit for it, because you told him to do it. If Ken does something awesome without you telling him to do it, you get to take credit for it, because you 'facilitated an environment which allowed PO Riley to take the initiative to do it." So when an officer gets an end of tour award, he's not only getting recognized for what he's done, he's getting recognized for everything his people did too. Which, of course, means that he has to be sure to recognize his people for the things they do, and put them in for awards.

The second is something he told me a couple weeks after I reported, after I had started to get a handle on everything we were supposed to be doing. He came in after a meeting one morning and I was helping one of my petty officers do an inventory of something. He told the petty officer to keep working, and asked me to come into the back office - which I thought was to tell me about the results of the meeting. He very respectfully and politely pointed out that it wasn't really my job to be doing the grunt work of counting up the number of X, Y, or Z (that wasn't controlled equipage, for which there needs to be an officer's signature on the bottom line) in order to figure out what we needed to order. He told me, "Sir, you're not enlisted any more. Your job is to be our outward face - look for and take on the jobs that are in our wheelhouse, stave off the bullshit that someone else should be doing, and make sure we're giving people what they need. Our petty officers can handle the grunt work, and if it's a slow day for you and you want to help out, that's fine from time to time. But you need to be out there, representing us to the rest of the command." And of course, as the outward face, whose work gets noticed by the CO and other senior leadership? That would be me. Which means that I need to be sure that I'm aware of the things that my people are doing that are award-worthy. For the first year of that tour, I had it easy, because my Senior Chief would draft awards and all I needed to do was check them for accuracy and typos, sign them, and pass them up the chain. After he transferred (early, because he got picked up for warrant officer), and the billet was gapped for more than a year, I had to be paying attention and looking for the work that my people were doing that merited awards. But if that outward facing officer falls down on that part of the job, he's going to get awards that his people don't, for the work they did.

As for the crap reasons, the biggest one is the idea that "The officers need it for promotion, and the enlisted don't."