Why are officers recognized with awards more than enlisted?

In my experience enlisted soldiers receive a lot more awards than officers. Officers do tend to get higher awards which I don't think is unfair.

Probably has to do with that they are in command, and they take into consideration any and every choice made to make the mission/ objective complete.

So, that's a good question, I'll try to explain. Let's say your unit/squad is out on patrol, and you help some people in need. Because of this you get a unit service award, great. Because of that most of the time, everyone in your platoon/company get to ware that ribbon, but only while they are in that company. When they get transferred they can't ware it any more, only those that actually received the award can ware it always.

Now as for others like company commanders, battalion commanders, and all commanders up the food chain (chain of command) get to ware it also as long as nobody calls them out on it. For instance, a commanding general cam ware awards that anyone under his command receives except personal awards. That's why you will see officers that have a chest full of medals, most of which someone else earned. That's just one reason.

Another one is, as an example during Vietnam they would rotate officers in and out of country just so they could get service ribbons for being country. They were using different time in country requirements for officers than enlisted. All an officer had to do many times was have be "in" country for 3 day and they earned the ribbons while enlisted personal had to pull the full 6 months for a tour of duty. As an example, they would have a col. escorting a mail bag full of orders to command and be there for the return trip 5 days later, and he earned the ribbons. He gets to go back to his safe office and tell people he was "in" Vietnam. I hope this explains some things.

Edit

To prep them for civilian life, I suppose. You can grind all you want, but somebody else will take some credit for your labor. This is the way.

All I know is that MANY officers get their awards upgraded while enlisted get downgraded. They upgrade officers awards so their OER look good for promotion while they don’t give two shots about enlisted

From 1980 to 1989 I received no personal awards. Just doing your job and earning a good performance evaluation was GOOD ENOUGH.

Imagine my surprise in SEP 1989, at my final active duty assignment for the COLD WAR, I received the Navy-Marine Corps Achievement Medal (NAM) for doing what I had always done: an exceptional job in every assignment.

I liked the minimalism of the Cold War Era. Later in the 1990s I saw the award-creep taking place.

In 1997 I had the NAM, National Defense, SWA Service Medal, and Kuwait Liberation Medal. I had a SSDR with one star, and a MUC.

Within 11 years when I retired I looked like a Turkish Admiral...with the above enumerated Awards & Citations...total of 17 awards.

The only recognition I am proud to have earned (since the NAM, and being promoted to O-5) is the Defense Meritorious Service Medal (DMSM) that was a peer recommendation for my tour of duty at GUANTANAMO BAY from 2006-2007. That’s the best recognition...a peer generated award for performance that was a capstone experience given the unusual levels of Congressional, DoD, and international media attention given our work in OARDEC.

I was a victim as were my Marines on occasion of this leadership deficiency that goes unacknowledged. In one instance my Marines and I fought a wild land fire for 16 hours and beat it, saving the Marine Corps 100s of thousands of dollars. I recommended each Marine for the Navy/Marine Corps Achievement medal. What I got from the unit that we had been attached to: a Letter of Commendation for myself and a Letter if Appreciation for my Marines! I called and told the Captain that I would happily wipe my ass with it.
Another occasion I was off duty and responded to a car accident. Witnesses said that I saved the lives of two sailors. The Adjutant didn’t like my ex-wife (can’t blame her there) because she worked for a General officer and had access to our CO that she didn’t like so my award recommendation for the Navy Lifesaving medal died on her desk.
Marines don’t expect awards but damn if they don’t get the shit end of the stick once the paperwork is in the hands of the officers appointed over them.

Let me tell you ahoy that shit! XO, never once donned hit vest except to come into country and exit country... mother fucker got a bronze star. CO, same thing. 1SG,OPS NCO, 3 E6,E7 from 1pltn.. all never once left the wire, but all thehighest decorated in the battery for the deployment

My experience from 69 to 89, when I retired as a US Army Master Sergeant, was that officers routinely got awards when enlisted didn’t. If an enlisted soldier got an AAM, any officer involved in the same action/event got an ARCOM, if an enlisted got Certificate of Achievement, any officer involved in the same action/event got an AAM. Officers (unless they were total fuckups) got an award on PCS or REFRAD, enlisted didn’t always fare so well. Early in my service I saw that most enlisted soldiers seldom got awards on PCS or ETS, but over time that changed. But the disparity has always been there. I also noted that (in non-combat environments anyway) enlisted grunts very often didn’t get any recognition at all, but their officers almost always did. If the question was ever raised as to why this disparity, the stock reply was always “levels of responsibility.” I received a MSM as an E7 on leaving my third tour in Korea, but it was almost downgraded to an ARCOM because “only battalion commanders and above get MSMs.” The only reason I got it was I was assigned to the AG Company and my commander fought like hell for me to get it. When I retired I got a second MSM, but I was recommended for a LOM. Had I been an officer (field grade or above) I surely would have gotten the LOM. Officer or enlisted mattered a great deal when I was serving, but if your command got behind you, it definitely helped.

I am on the bottom end of all this, having left as an E-5 and not receiving any medals for merit or things I had done. Before I left my first command, my division seniors dangled a NAM (Navy Achievement Medal - pretty much the lowest of the Navy's merit-based medals) in front of me and told me they were considering putting me in for one, but really that was only so I didn't develop a "short timer" attitude and shirk off my responsibilities when I was close to leaving the command.

That's just as a point of reference.

This is the part that I actually understand why officers get better awards for doing the same thing. If a task gets done that might be award-worthy, the officer would be the one to get it, because not only did he help get the task done, but (s)he was responsible for everyone under him/her getting it done as well. For an officer, the price of success is (obviously) higher, but the price of failure is also much higher. If I failed at something as a low ranked enlisted, then I just got a small reprimand. If I caused the team to fail at something by failing at something minor, again I might get a small reprimand, because I was too low to know better (so to speak). But if I caused the team to fail, then the officer in charge might have his whole career ruined. Not by something he did, but by someone on his team failed to do. So the reason they get better rewards is because they have a much higher risk.

TLDR: Officers get better rewards for "the same thing" because failure for doing that "same thing" wrong has a much bigger penalty for the officer than the enlisted person.