Is There a Silver Star Award Bias Against Junior Enlisted? - Mountain Tactical Institute

Oh man. This reminds me of the piece CPT (Join to see) wrote about the BSM. It's so difficult for junior enlisted to get some of the higher awards.
https://www.rallypoint.com/command-post/the-bronze-star-medal-military-misconceptions

Something the article doesn't account for is that a disproportionate number of Silver Stars have been awarded to members of SOF units. SOF units are very NCO heavy and tend to have older guys. As to the casualty rates, the percentages of casualties line up pretty close with the actual number of service members within each cited rank bracket. For example, 59.9% of all KIAs were E-1 to E-4. E-1s to E-4s make up roughly 50% to 55% of the total number of service members in our military.

It's not just the Silver Star that has a bias against junior members but almost all medals are like that. The medal should be based on merit/accomplishment not the members rank.

I had to fight to get a SrA a Joint Service Commendation Medal over the objections of "old school" senior leadership on the awards board. If you stripped the rank off the justification or citation, the medal was warranted based on the accomplishments. In the end, the medal was awarded to the SrA.

In another instance, I was a supervisor for an incoming SSgt who received a Defense Meritorious Service Medal (DMSM) at her previous unit for the work she accomplished. The leadership at the new unit accused her of fraud/stolen valor/etc. since there was no way (in their minds) a SSgt could receive such an award. I read the citation and her accomplishments more than justified the award.

At this unit, all awards were based on rank, not merit (per Wing level guidance). When I challenged this notion at a Wing CC call, I was basically told to shut up and color since that's how they've always done and will continue to do it. So a E-3 doing the work of a MSgt could only get an Achievement medal, a ROAD MSgt would get a MSM for simply showing and wasting air (while taking credit for subordinate's work). And this unit couldn't figure out why the morale was so low....

Occasionally though, you do run across units and leadership that actually value merit above rank. Those units are ones you enjoy working for and will give 110% effort since you know they will respond in kind. But they are rare.