Awards and Decs

I spent a good long time on the phone with SN1 last evening and am pleased to report he's back on US soil, safe and sound.  He'll be doin' those things one usually does at the end of a deployment today and tomorrow and then he flies into P-Ville (well, Lubbock, actually) Wednesday afternoon for a brief two-day leave.  Rest assured there will be celebratory beer-drinkin' and cigar smokin' in the near future.

So... part and parcel of our discussions last evening revolved around the award of decorations and medals for war-zone tours these days.  I won't go into detail in this space as far as Buck is concerned, except to say his commander is on a personal sort of mission to reverse the medal-creep trend which is polluting the Air Force.  This is a Great Good Thing in the macro sense yet has obvious impact on the troops in the Good Colonel's charge.  Which is to say that ALL commanders need to sign on to the effort, not just some... if stopping the medal-creep is worthwhile.  And it is.

Which brings up a war story, of sorts, that I related to Buck last evening.  It was usual and customary back in the day...we're talking over 25 years ago... to receive an award upon completing a tour of duty and moving on to one's next assignment... assuming, of course, that you'd actually done something to merit an award.  And that's still the practice in Today's Modern Air Force, which is why the subject of awards and decs came up last evening.  

So... there I was... winding down my penultimate USAF assignment at lovely RAF Uxbridge, with orders in hand for Tinker AFB, OK.  My commander told me he was putting me in for a Meritorious Service Medal (MSM) and needed the usual, customary, and reasonable write-up concerning my glorious achievements... such as they were... while serving as his Chief of Programs.  I told him I would get right on it and had a one page list of about 12 bullet points on his desk in about an hour's time.

"Not good enough" sez the Good Major.

"What do you want?" sez I, in reply.

"I want the citation write-up... the whole nine yards" sez he.

"Ummm... isn't that YOUR job?" sez I.

"Not if you want the medal" sez he.

Well.  To cut to the chase:  I didn't want it that bad and I never provided the citation.  I also didn't get the medal.  As a matter of fact I didn't get any-goddamned-thing out of that assignment, which pissed me off no small amount.  My point was this:  I was still naïve enough to think gentlemen did NOT toot their own horn, ever.  And I stood by my principles.

Fast forward about six or eight months... I'm at my new assignment at Tinker AFB and was called into the Chief's office for a little chat.  "So tell me, Buck... why didn't you get a medal out of Uxbridge?"  I related the whole ugly story to the Chief who sat there and listened politely.  When I was finished he looked at me and said "You dumb-ass.  You might as well put your papers in, you're done."  This coming just after I had been passed over for SMSgt (E-8) for the first time... and which the Chief believed was, in part, because of no dec out of my last assignment.  I mulled that lil conversation over for a while and submitted my retirement papers a few months later.  The Chief was right:  I was done.

So.  Buck got a good laugh out of the story and noted that things hadn't changed one bit in the intervening 25 years or so.  As for me... I learned that lesson and NEVER missed an opportunity to toot my own horn during my civilian career.  When asked and when required, of course.  There ARE limits.

Oh.  I did get my MSM eventually... when I retired.

I didn't write the citation, either.

Not Your Father's Air Force XXXVI

Yet another brick in the wall we call "Not Your Father's Air Force:"

That's a screen shot of a blurb in AFA's Daily Report.  The subject of the article... changes to the promotion system on the E-side of the house... obviously doesn't concern me anymore.  I noted with some interest the current system has a maximum rating of five in the various evaluation categories; in my day we used a 1 - 9 scale, nine being best, but that's neither here nor there.  I clicked on the photo accompanying the article to get a better view of CMSAF Cody and then went off to AF.mil to read his bio, among other things.  Here's Chief Cody's official mug shot:

And here's a detail from that mug shot:

There's this, for those of you who aren't familiar with what all those pretty pieces o' cloth mean:

MAJOR AWARDS AND DECORATIONS
Legion of Merit
Meritorious Service Medal with seven oak leaf clusters
Air Force Commendation Medal with two oak leaf clusters
Air Force Achievement Medal with five oak leaf clusters
Outstanding Airman of the Year Ribbon

Those are the MAJOR decorations, you'll note Chief Cody actually sports 25... count 'em... 25 ribbons.  Contrast the above with the Air Force's first-ever Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force (the CMSAF position was created in 1967), Paul Airey:

Chief Airey's decs:

MAJOR AWARDS AND DECORATIONS
Legion of Merit with oak leaf cluster
Meritorious Service Medal
Air Medal with oak leaf cluster
Air Force Commendation Medal
POW Medal

(a total of 16 awards and decs)

You'll note both Chiefs were awarded the Legion of Merit.  There's this about CMSAF Airey's LoM:

During the Korean conflict, he was awarded the Legion of Merit while assigned at Naha Air Base, Okinawa. The award, an uncommon decoration for an enlisted man, was earned for creating a means of constructing equipment from salvaged parts that improved corrosion control of sensitive radio and radar components.

Key words: "uncommon decoration for an enlisted man."  Apparently the LoM ain't exactly uncommon any longer.

We've gone on (and on) about "medal creep" a lot here at EIP and this just adds more fuel to my fire.  It's bad enough when our generals walk around with more medals than yer average South American dictator (or Rooshian marshals, see link) but when our senior NCOs sport 25 medals and ribbons, well... I guess my point's made.  And don't get me started about the current CMSAF's ridiculous chevrons.

(No, it's NOT sour grapes.  I know what yer thinkin'.)

Late Start and a Mini-Rant

Late start again, today. I did something incredibly dumb (what’s new?) last evening: I laid down after dinner to aid the digestive process, fell asleep for a lot longer than is good for me, and was only awakened when SN2 called to give me a “heads-up” about the comment he posted last evening. Well, to make a long story short, I was up until the wee, wee hours this morning. I “lost” my net connection around 2200 last evening, so I spent the quiet hours catching up on my paper-based reading, rather than my usual net-surfing reading. The upshot: rolled out of bed about an hour ago. Thus, light blogging to begin the day. It may or may not get better…

Yesterday I was over at Laurie’s place and shot my mouth off in the comments of her post about a Fort Drum captain who was recently awarded a Bronze Star. Here are a couple of paragraphs from the 27^th Public Affairs Detachment press release:

Capt. Jeremiah O’Connor, 57th Transportation Company commander, was awarded the Bronze Star for his efforts and contributions to Operation Enduring Freedom during a ceremony June 9 at the unit motor pool.

[…]

As deputy joint transportation officer during the deployment, O’Connor coordinated 48 airdrop missions, 364 separate intra-theater missions and 145 rotary missions, and helped move more than 10 million pounds of equipment and supplies. He also received more than 8,000 Soldiers and moved them to their appropriate forward operating bases.

Before I go any further, you should understand I’m not casting aspersions on CPT O’Connor or his accomplishments. My beef is with the military establishment…in this case the Army, but also (and maybe even especially) the Air Force. It’s all about medal creep, or the awarding of medals for everyday accomplishments that, in the past, might have won you an “attaboy” from your commander or supervisor. These days you get a Bronze Star. If you read between the lines of the press release you see CPT O’Connor received his Bronze Star for simply doing his job. To put it another way, the Bronze Star is eighth in the official US Army awards and decorations order of precedence, exceeded by only seven medals. Pretty hot stuff for just “being there.”

This isn’t a new hot-button with me; I’ve written about the proliferation of medals and ribbons before, in this post. The illustration I used to prove my point was of one General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower, pictured with a grand total of three ribbons on his service dress. These days you can “earn” three ribbons in the USAF simply by graduating from basic training and shooting expert on the firing range; you get four if you’re really good and are named an “honor graduate” out of basic training (to wit: National Defense Service Medal, Air Force Training Ribbon, Small Arms Expert Marksmanship Ribbon, USAF Basic Military Training Honor Graduate Ribbon). And that’s just the beginning…

The Navy and the Marine Corps seem to have kept their collective heads when it comes to awards creep. Want proof? Check out The Boys, with special attention to the fruit salad on their respective chests.

/rant

Bits and Pieces

Our humidor was restocked today, given as how we received our monthly resupply shipment... or somewhat more frequent, depending on circumstance and the availability of one-time-good-deals and the like... from cigar.com.  This time we went for what is our cigar of choice more often than not, the Acid Deep Dish.  We've put up pictures of this beauty in the past, and this one will do for today's purpose:

We're drinkin' Fransziskaner this afternoon, not that that matters. And we're not smokin' a Deep Dish, either.  Nope.  One of the many things I like about cigar.com is they'll throw in a freebie or two when you buy your stogies by the box.  This time my cigar-bud Tim Blythe threw in a three-pack sampler consisting of an Acid Kuba Kuba and a couple o' Acid 3 Opulences, one each of the robusto and toro sizes.  We lit off the toro for today's Happy Hour and were MOST pleased.  I can't find a review of this cigar anywhere on the innertubes, so we'll go with some marketing fluff from cigar.com:

Opulence 3 sports a jet-black, oily maduro wrapper from San Andres, Mexico that provides a rich and creamy character with a pronounced sweet nuance noticeable in the finish. This wrapper is perfectly balanced with a hearty blend of Nicaraguan tobaccos grown in Esteli, where some of the strongest Nicaraguan tobacco is grown. These tobaccos were harvested in three separate crop years including 2005, 2006, and 2007, making Opulence a rare, incredibly limited treat.

Well, yeah, what they said.  The cigar is impeccably constructed as well, with a light easy draw that produces hearty volumes of sweet-tasting smoke.  This stick arrived in excellent shape... well humidified, soft and pliable, and above all: tasty.  We may have to buy a box of these the next time we go to the well.  It's that good!

―:☺:―

I was talkin' to SN1 the other night and casually inquired as to whether he would be in uniform for SN2's change of command.  He replied in the affirmative and laughingly mentioned that SN2 would prolly get a case of the vapors, seeing as how Buck is up to 22 medals and ribbons now.  "Some of which I actually earned," he added, knowing full well that medal creep is one of my hot buttons.  To be completely fair, that's one of SN1's hot buttons too.  We have a tendency to go on about that whenever the subject comes up in conversation over a beer or three.  Which I'm sure it will next month.  It's hard to tell from this photo... which cannot be embiggened... but it looks like SN2 is sporting about a dozen awards and decs, at the most.  Still and even, both of my offspring have me beat seeing as how I only wear nine ribbons on my Class A uniform (see the sidebar).

Which brings up another subject.  We're letting a cat out o' the bag here but I've been entertaining the ideer of buying a new Class A uniform for the change of command, as opposed to wearing a simple bid'niz suit.  It would only be right to wear the uniform in honor of the commander as he assumes command... and it would also be a great thing just for the grins and giggles it would provoke.  We would take pictures of course, there being a demonstrated need to update this ol' chestnut:

That pic is OLD, Gentle Reader.  The NROTC cadet is now a commander, the senior airman is now a major, but I remain a retread master sergeant.  Some things change... and for the better... others don't.