Why are officers recognized with awards more than enlisted?

The amount of awards given for Unit performance is a serious problem. One of the respondents said Senior officers are better at writing and recommending awards to other officers. That answer sucks. So they know how to pad their own resume and don’t bother to pad the resumes of the soldiers who get them the awards. Leadership awards are won through the ability of enlisted, NCO,s and to carry out orders that the Officers are taught to give in their training. It’s the enlisted that earn those awards. I have found in most cases giving the order is the easy part. Carrying it out involves the most skill and bravery and Talent. Those who can, do the job! Those who can’t, manage or teach!

They are allowed to put themselves in for awards. If they are liked by their supers; the award will be given. Not fair, but life is not fair.

Statement of the obvious. Awards are inconsistently given. The US Army - in particular - has effectively undermined the value of its awards program. I think the ultimate reason is people are inconsistent. What you might think of as 'exemplary' performance for someone else might be simply what is expected. No matter how hard you attempt to 'define' criteria, someone will find a work around. When I was on active duty - as an Officer - in the 80/90s, I thought the reverse was true - Jr Enlisted/Enlisted couldn't even LEAVE a unit without their receiving something - AAM/ARCOM and unless they had royally messed up - for the most part they did. For officers, it seemed to me the opposite to be true. I use Desert Shield/Storm as an example. My Spec 4 driver received a Bronze Star for - driving. While I, who served as ADVON Provost Marshal, brigade LNO to ARCENT and who had the Commanders of two units I worked with, submit me for Bronze stars for my efforts - the result being: one was cancelled and the other down graded to an MSM. I suppose, not unlike a lot of things, the fairness or whatever you want to call it of the Army's award system or process effectiveness, efficiency or accuracy is all in the 'eyes of the beholder'.

I find this interesting because my experiences in the USAF were totally the opposite of this. Enlisted would receive awards right and left for things that officers are just expected to do without reward. Also when it came to punishments I often saw enlisted get article 15’s when an officer with the same transgression would be stripped of their rank and sent to Fort Leavenworth, ending in a dishonorable or general discharge which poorly effected the rest of their lives.

When I was in my first permanent duty station, and we had come back from a deployment, we were guarding and moving Persing missiles in Germany. Not a single officer in my unit had objects thrown at them, not a single one was assaulted by. Civilians, and two of them never left our compound, yet they were given MSM's and ARCOMs, our section SGT got an AAM and the rest of us got Certificates of Achievements, funny thing was non of us truck drivers or trained to do anything with Nuclear weapons, we were just extra people that they needed to do duty after the bombing of the PX in Frankfurt. We were a mix of people from our Units Motor Pool. After our awards ceremony where people who did nothing were praised, our Section Sergeant was pissed, he told us that he had put everyone in for ARCOMs and that because of our ranks it was the highest award he could put any one of us in for, and in the process it would only take two people to down grade the packet and that is why we got certificates, he because of his rank was put in for an MSM buy our section OIC and his was down graded twice also, he was not pissed as much for himself, he was pissexcause he knew we needed those awards for our future promotion prosess, as we would need the points. That is when I learned of the flawes system. Awards were not based on what you did they started out being based on your rank. So when they are submitted they are put in for a higher level award, because people k ow that they could be downgraded going through the approval process, and god forbid that in that process that someone reviewing it does not particularly care for your personality,or that they really are buddy buddy with someone else getting put in for the the same award. The funny thing was the writing in the awards was all the same, our section SFC and our OIC had the same exact writing on their awards, word for word, one of the squad leaders in another platoon that went with us, had the same exact words in his AAM as all of our certificates, but because he was in a different platoon his went up a little different chain and was only downgraded once. When I left the military It really did not matter, I did my time and enjoyed my service for the most part. I learned that there were things that were not so much different there as the real world. Not everything is fair, and you really see the fault when you stand in formation and hear the wording on those awards, and it is all the same and everyone gets a different award. I just wonder if when an officer gets his/her award and then they hear the wording on all those certificates, and it is the same as theirs, if they think man this is a flawed system, or are they saying , yeah I deserved a higher award for doing less than tgem?

As an enlisted, experienced and reliable J2 I realized I was being deployed with inexperienced LTs And Captains. On one occasion intelligence reports suggested theater opposing force troop movements could be preparation for an offensive. When the LT came on shift I briefed him on current intelligence. He became very nervous and asked what he should do. I advised him that given the time difference our Lt Col, Wing J2, was just arriving at work at home station. I was about to call to him when the Lt came on shift. I advised the Lt that as ranking J2 for our unit in theater he should be the one to call the Lt Col and explained what he should relay and why. I stood by while he called and prompted him as needed. Months later he received an award for his actions that day and the days that followed. I received no award or even any recognition. The only thing that rankled was that during his award ceremony he could have acknowledged my support but didn't.

That’s because most NCOs are lazy or they don’t know how to write an award. Anyone can write an award for someone. Also, if both you and an officer are doing the same job, there is something very wrong with that picture!!!

Part of the issue is blanket awards too. Conduct a long tour mission - everybody gets an ARCOM. Seems the easy answer but it’s silly. Manned the mailroom ad a clerk with no particular responsibility but did your job effectively austere conditions, sounds like a decent AAM or at least a COA. Supervise that mailroom and interpret/implement regulatory guidance resulting in successful OIP review, that’s a solid AAM, maybe an ARCOM. Problem is everyone thinks they accomplished some heroics. Two years as a DS I did my job well. Spent most of my time as a senior drill in charge of a platoon. Ran more than one cycle solo or with minimal assistance. Also developed and ran the stats on an ACFT pilot. Also revamped the operations process as the senior DS for the company. Also mentored an entire company of incoming SDSs. The list goes on. Solid ARCOM. Not really a problem. Frustration comes along when you realize that the shmuck who barely showed up got the same award. My answer. Focus on the 638 and move on. Also make sure your Eval reflects the nature of what you did.

There is policy or SOP and there is reality. Reality is this falls squarely on the Chain of Command and how they view what is worthy of an award AND the Commander's personal bias. Just for an example, If a Medic saves a life of another Soldier...What do believe they should recieve for that? One Commander says "He was just doing his job"...another Commander says " He is the best Medic I have ever worked with and he saved my Soldiers, thats being "Army Strong" I am going to write him up for a Soldier's Medal. I have seen it both ways...Remember for the Officer's too, when a PLT LDRs platoon does a miraculous feat like Destroying a PLT of Tanks...it is a direct reflection of his leadership, he/she may or may not have deserved the recognition but b/c his PLT accomplished the mission he/she hopefully is awarded appropriately...when your Soldiers' do well, the Leader does well...same as to when they do bad...when I was in Command I spent more time at JAG for 2% of those that were screwing up, then writting awards for the 98% of those that deserved them, I like many Commander's rely on their PLTs and Senior NCOs perspective...If they feel they are worthy of recognition I almost always approved them. I had over 432 personnel in my Company, that worked different shifts, weekends, holidays it was almost impossible to see everyone and directly observe performance. IMHO

Was always pretty well established during my time that you take any awards officers have with a heavvvyyyyy grain of salt. But you damn well know any and all awards, if any, achieved be enlisted were well and/or hard earned.