Why is it so hard to get an award?

No one can judge what we do not know. Awards of all sorts have foundational requirements. Recognition generally comes of selfless acts. It is doing the right thing even when no one is looking. Do your job, do it in earnest, seek guidance ensuring to perform your actions with the good graces of the unit. At some point your hard work will result in the type of recognition you seek. In the meantime, working hard while meeting organizational requirements will result in you becoming an SME in areas that others choose not to, this will result in better opportunities all around. Thank you for your service.

PS: as a 91B you can trade car repairs to admin peeps for an award.

Volunteer for everything that ever comes up. You're bound to get an AAM for one of them.

The only thing I was ever given was a plaque by my unit CO for helping get a good unit rating on an IG inspection, which, of course, I still have and treasure...other than that, and a cpl of the purely routine ribbons, one for mil training, the other for 4-yr longevity, that was honestly all I ever got...it does still obv bug me yrs later, many days, as I'd seen others many times get commendation medals quite frequently where I was, so I do kick myself quite often about that aspect of it, certainly....